Earlier this week, the Carnival Spirit was carrying passengers on a Caribbean cruise from Miami when it encountered a small boat near the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico. According to Carnival Cruise Line, officers aboard the ship saw a group “in distress,” and crew members brought all 24 people on board. Medical workers then checked them out before the cruise line transferred them to a U.S. Coast Guard ship.
Although rescue missions at sea are not cruise ships’ primary purpose, it’s not uncommon for them to assume that duty.
For Carnival, the rescue Tuesday was its fifth of 2023, and the 14th since June of last year. Several other lines, including Royal Caribbean International, MSC Cruises and Celebrity Cruises, have also come to the aid of vessels this year. Most were carrying migrants, according to news reports.
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Carnival said it does not track specific details on rescues historically, and some other cruise lines did not respond to Washington Post inquiries about the frequency of rescues. The Coast Guard did not provide an answer to questions about the number of rescues on cruise ships.
But the latest examples come as the Coast Guard reports higher numbers of Cuban migrants intercepted at sea. From Oct. 1 to this week, the military branch reported that it had interdicted more than 6,300 Cubans — already more than the 6,182 the entire previous year, according to a Thursday news release.
“The Coast Guard is maintaining a heavy maritime presence to detect and interdict anyone attempting to illegally migrate by sea in the Florida Straits and Caribbean region,” Coast Guard Lt. Peter Hutchison said in the news release about Cuban migrants caught off the Florida coast. “These voyages are not only illegal, but also incredibly dangerous. No one should risk their lives on unsafe rustic vessels in unpredictable seas.”
Cruise lines and legal experts say it’s the duty of larger ships to follow maritime guidelines and help other vessels in distress.
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“The duty to rescue, if you can do this safely, is ancient and is part of maritime law forever,” said Robert Rosen, a University of Miami law professor who teaches about the legal environment of the cruise industry.
Rescues can unfold in different ways, depending on the circumstances. Matt Lupoli, spokesman for Carnival Cruise Line, said officers on a ship determine the best approach in coordination with the company’s fleet operations center on land.
“Sometimes, the ship’s crew does deploy lifeboats in order to complete rescues,” he said in an email. “In other instances, the ship is maneuvered near a vessel in distress so its side hatch can be lowered to allow anyone who needs rescue on board.”
In January, the captain of the Celebrity Beyond documented a rescue of 19 people on her Instagram account, explaining how she turned the ship around after an officer noticed “a glimmer on the horizon.”
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The captain, Kate McCue, said she maneuvered the ship so the boat could come alongside it; workers opened a side door and threw a line to the boat. Once the 19 people came on board, crew gave them blankets, a change of clothes, food, drinks, a medical evaluation and a way to call loved ones, she said.
Five days later, the ship, which sails in the Caribbean, came to the rescue of another vessel. This time, it was a small sailboat with four people on board.
“Safety of life at sea is a simple concept for seafarers,” McCue said in an Instagram post about the second rescue. “Those in need, we assist.”
Carnival also provides food, clothes, blankets and medical assessments, and crew members coordinate with the Coast Guard or other government agencies, Lupoli said. Depending on the decision of authorities, the rescued people may be transferred to authorities at sea or in port.
The rescues often happen in full view of passengers. Guests on Royal Caribbean International’s Liberty of the Seas told South Florida media that passengers cheered when 17 migrants were brought on board in January.
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Alan Regalado, a spokesman for U.S. Customs and Border Protection, said in an email that although some cruise ships or other commercial vessels will transfer rescued migrants or others to the Coast Guard at sea, they will on other occasions keep them on the ship and provide humanitarian care until they reach their next port.
If that port is in the United States, rescued migrants would be transferred to the custody of Customs and Border Protection for processing. Regalado said that however the handover takes place, migrants are provided with food, water, shelter and basic first aid and are processed to determine their identity, nationality, criminal history and whether they have a legal basis to enter or stay in the United States.
“If they do not have a legal basis to enter or remain in the US, they will be processed for removal or repatriation to their country of origin or departure,” he said.
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