When a Cruise Becomes a Rescue

For some Caribbean cruise passengers, the traditional diversions of a day at sea--betting on snowball bingo and swilling umbrella drinks by the pool--are being supplemented by a new activity: rescuing Cuban rafters.

Under maritime law, ships must provide humanitarian assistance to other vessels in distress. Though neither the U.S. Coast Guard nor the cruise lines have exact numbers, officials in Miami estimate that more than 200 Cuban refugees have been picked up by cruise liners over the past few months.

Most of the rescues have taken place in the Florida Straits between Key West and Cuba.

One of the biggest rescues took place Aug. 15 on Royal Caribbean’s Majesty of the Seas, when crew members plucked 51 Cubans from three boats in the Straits. The ship provided food, water and medical care and kept the refugees in a crew area until a Coast Guard cutter arrived, said Royal Caribbean spokesman Rich Steck.

Royal Caribbean and Coast Guard officials say the number of Cuban vessels intercepted by cruise ships has decreased recently, largely because more than 70 Coast Guard and Navy vessels are now patrolling the Florida Straits.

But a spokeswoman for Carnival Cruise Lines, whose ships Holiday, Ecstasy and Sensation travel through the Florida Straits en route to Mexico, said the number of cruise ship rescues has “definitely escalated” over the past several weeks. And Norwegian Cruise Line, whose Seaward sails weekly from Miami to Key West andCozumel, reports the ship has picked up Cuban rafters over the past two weeks.

Cruise line officials say that in most cases, the delays caused by picking up refugees at sea have not affected passenger itineraries. Refugees are generally confined to crew areas until they are transferred to a Coast Guard vessel.

Meanwhile, the Florida Keys tourism industry is battling a perception among would-be visitors that the state’s southern tip is inundated with Cuban refugees. The Monroe County Tourist Development Council took out newspaper ads and sent a computer message to 75,000 travel agents nationwide, letting them know it’s business as usual in Key West and the rest of the keys.