Cruise ship returns to port

[teacp]

Thought this would be interesting to post.

(Charleston-AP) April 8, 2004 - About 380 cruise ship passengers were stranded on the downtown peninsula in Charleston for several hours after the US Coast Guard forced the Galaxy back to sea for failing to file its manifest paperwork on time.

The incident may have exposed a weakness in port security, since the boat shouldn't have been allowed to dock.

The ship was escorted 12 miles offshore Wednesday to international waters to wait out the remainder of the 24-hour period required between its filing notice and its arrival in Charleston.

Celebrity Cruises spokesman Michael Sheehan said a computer glitch prevented the notice from reaching the Coast Guard on time.

posted 11:56am by Chris Rees

[GottaCruz]

Maria,

A weakness in port security is certainly scary. Those passengers must have been going nuts.mmmm interesting.

[hazelson]

Wjat did everyone blame before "computer glitches" - I guess it used to be called human error lol - TTFN Jennifer

[hazelson]

Oops - I misspelled what in the above post - a computer glitch I'm sure lol!

[Jason]

Kinda scary! Thanks teacp

[Lisa63]

That might have been frightening for those who were temporarily left behind. Could you imagine checking in, boarding, then going ashore for awhile to come back and learn that your ship (and your belongings) were no longer there?

[Dan]

Here's some more info from x's news page.

Coast Guard Forces Celebrity's Galaxy To Depart Charleston

In what appears to be the result of a computer snafu, 382 passengers on last week's 11-night Galaxy cruise from Baltimore to the Caribbean were ... stranded. In Charleston, South Carolina, that is -- a genteel port city where it is fair to say the concept of being stranded is an oxymoron.

The ship was slated to dock in Charleston and duly -- as is required by post-September 11 law -- filed its passenger manifest to the U.S. Coast Guard via email somewhat in advance of its deadline. Alas, due to a boondoggle that, at this point is still not quite unwound, the ship's dispatch wasn't received in time.

The ship arrived, as scheduled, in the relatively early morning hours of April 7 ... and began to disembark passengers for the day's excursions in Charleston. Alas, sometime around mid-day, the Coast Guard figured out that it hadn't received the manifest within the required time frame and so, at about 2 p.m., ordered the ship to head for international waters. Which Galaxy did indeed do -- sailing 12 miles out while some 382 passengers were still meandering around Charleston, completely unaware that the ship had, well, left. Galaxy staffers did remain at the port to alert unsuspecting travelers (and let's be honest, who wouldn't want the luxury of a few extra free hours in Charleston?).

Ultimately, Celebrity Galaxy was permitted to return once the 24-hour mark had passed (about 7 p.m.) and it quickly picked up remaining passengers and headed out for two days at sea before its next port call at St. Maarten. The Coast Guard and Celebrity Cruises are still disputing the issue (Celebrity maintains, and according to a source has the records to prove, that it sent its list a full day and a half in advance of its arrival at Charleston). "We were able to show that our computers were speaking to the Coast Guard computers," says Michael Sheehan, a Celebrity spokesman, "and for reasons no one yet knows the transmission didn't arrive for 21 hours."

This is the second instance in 2004 when the Coast Guard has played "tough guy" to ships not adhering to the 24-hour regulation (whether it was the fault of a computer connection, or manifests simply were ignored). Earlier this year, P&O's Oceana neglected to file its manifest -- at all -- and yet still assumed its scheduled anchor position in St. Thomas. Passengers were being readied for tender transport onto the island before Coast Guard officials ordered the ship to depart.

[Dan]

OK, now for my politically incorrect comments. This is stupid. From what it looks like, the ship left Baltimore, and Charleston was a port of call on the way to the Caribbean. Where is the security risk here? The Coast Guard screws up (granted, at the time, they probably didn't know it was their screw-up), and decides to kick a ship out of port a couple hours before it would have left anyway. All these passengers (most of them Americans anyway) would have already been subjected to security screening in the days before ever boarding the ship in Baltimore. The ship hadn't been outside the US at this point when it reached Charleston.

If, for whatever reason, a security issue comes up from that manifest (that should have been caught in Baltimore anyway), then why force the ship out of port after it's already been there for 6 or 8 hours. Anybody that was a risk would have been long gone, never mind that anybody who's a risk who takes a cruise ship from Marlyand to South Carolina isn't that smart to be a risk anyway.

This is clearly a Coast Guard screw-up. Never mind the computer screw-up. We all know how that happens with email. But, even if Celebrity hadn't filed the manifest until such time as the coast guard received it (7pm the night prior to arrival), then why did they allow the ship into port that morning? Forcing the ship out of port that afternoon was only an attempt by the coast guard to cover it's mistakes, and make it look like they are taking things seriously