Man Overboard! Atlantis Gay Cruise Loses a Passenger Over the Rails

Posted by Kevin Farrell on Feb 3, 2012 in Bad News | 25 comments

2012 has been a cruel year of press for the cruise ship industry. The latest disaster at sea involves a man aboard an all-gay Atlantis cruise charter no longer being aboard the cruise charter.

Man overboard!

An ABC7 photographer aboard the Royal Caribbean cruise charter Allure of the Seas said passengers were awakened Friday morning by an emergency announcement, saying a man was believed to be overboard.

The ship’s captain confirmed the incident to passengers and said all rescue attempts were being made.

An emergency assembly was called so passengers could be counted.

In a statement released Friday, Royal Caribbean said a passenger witnessed another passenger going overboard at about 7 a.m. According to the statement, footage from the ship’s closed-circuit camera showed the passenger, a 30-year-old British man, going over the balcony railing in his stateroom.

Finding no body after searching for several hours, the ship continued on its way to Cozumel, Mexico.

Wait, what?

Several hours? A man falls off the side of your ship and you give him several hours before moving on? They searched for survivors for three days when that ship sank in the Mediterranean last month.

Atlantis and Royal Caribbean: Sail at your own risk, y’all. Yikes.

(via ABC)

http://www.facebook.com/logan.vega Logan Vega

Dumb-asses! Why don’t companies understand we are not just fags they can toss aside or beat up. We are law makers, politicians, husbands, fathers, friends, police men barristas! When a company does this we have the choice of not choosing them any more and with the power of social media – I.E this website we can do some major damage by calling them out on their morals and values!. Screw Them!

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1365172585 James Rodgers Jr

Wow, bitter much? There’s not a whole lot they can do in a situation like that. Your chances of surviving a fall from that height into water is actually pretty slim. Water doesn’t part like cotton, you hit it fast enough and it’s kinda like falling onto concrete. Not to mention the water probably was rough that close to the ship: could’ve dragged him under. Also, if the water was cold, his chances of surviving longer than a few hours are slim to none. This isn’t the coastguard, they are not equipped to handle a search of that magnitude. There are other passengers to think of, and an itinerary to follow, as another commenter posted.
Anonymous

To suggest that the passenger’s sexual orientation had anything to do with the protocol of the search is ridiculous and irresponsible. People commit suicide from cruise ships all the time. They also get drunk and fall overboard. The cruise company and maritime law undoubtedly both dictate the protocol for a search, and then they have to move on. Should they just sit still forever searching THE OCEAN for something as small as a body? Get real (and get over yourself a little, while you’re at it). Atlantis makes a fortune of its gay cruises, and they’re not about to treat gay passengers any differently than they would treat anyone else.
Anonymous

Logan, first, you’re assuming that they didn’t do for him what they would have done for anyone. If they spent “several hours” trying to locate the man, then they spent several hours trying to find the man. First they have to turn the ship around, while it sounds easy, it can take approximately 15-20 minutes when underway at cruising speed to actually do a 180 course change. Then they have to locate back to the general area of the incident, then launch lifeboats to search the area, and that’s assuming that his body would float. If the guys was fit, he probably sank like a stone.

As Michael Artemis Harris said above, the man was dead when he hit the water–while water may sound forgiving in a swimming pool, try diong a belly flop from the high dive and you’ll get the idea–jumping from even a 11th or 12th deck balcony can be deadly. When you hit terminal velocity, it really doesn’t matter what you land on–it’s going to kill you–that’s why they call it “terminal” velocity.

I feel sorry for the guy, but a lot of good it’ll do him, there just aren’t any reasons to go jumping.

http://www.facebook.com/Dani.Soleil Daniel Chapman

Actually, it’s called “terminal” velocity because you can’t fall any faster once you hit that point. Otherwise, I agree with what you’re saying. And yes, I do feel like a pompous jerk for commenting on this just to correct your terminology.

The more you know.

http://www.facebook.com/LordArtemis Michael Artemis Harris

Well… I think the obvious reason the ship moved on after several hours is that

1. It is a cruise ship, and they have an itinerary they must follow.
2. People within the ship most likely have flights and stuff they need to catch as soon as possible and waiting for people to search for this guy would delay them.
3. Falling from a cruise ship of a normal size normally results in death however the allure of the sea is the worlds largest cruise ship, so it is very unlikely he would have survived anyway.
4. Unlike the ship that sunk in the Mediterranean, this ship was still operational and the majority of its passengers where not in harms way. So searching for survivors on a ship that had just recently capsized and sunk for three days makes more sense then searching 3 days for one man who fell probably 15 or more stories from a cruise ship in the middle of the ocean.

I feel bad for the guy, but I can completely understand why they did what they did, and agree with their decision. Having been on a cruise before and knowing what it is like when the ship is delayed for whatever reason.

Anonymous

I just arrived home after being on the Allure. The captian was not only compassionate, but made sure all efforts where put into place.I am sitting here crying as to think anyone whould feel nothing was done properly. And let me assure you, not one of the over 5,000 people on the ship cared about one thing but the well being of that person. No one cared about an itinerary, you could cut the silence with a knife. As we where in Mexican waters at the time, are boat made no movement until the Mexican autheratize took place and full and I mean full contol of the situation. The captain kept us posted so we all where aware of what was going on and the reason why where were able to move forward. I do not speek for all, but I would have no problem sitting in the sea for how ever long it would take and I would imagine that thought would be echoed over and over again.

Mark

Your comparison with search and rescue operations after the Costa Concordia disaster is misplaced. There’s a big difference between searching a partially submerged ship for survivors trapped above the water line (Concordia) and searching for someone potentially treading water without a lifejacket in the cold, open sea (Allure). Assuming that the passenger (i) survived the fall from deck 11, (ii) could tread water and (iii) wasn’t intoxicated, he would have died from hypothermia within a couple hours (max). That’s the simple, sad truth.

It’s not helpful to incite outrage with ill-informed, inflammatory comments.

George Mortimer

Sadly, this is the kind of tabloid style exaggeration and misinformation that I have come to expect lately from UB. I’m seeing shoddy reporting & writing more and more frequently and it’s REALLY putting me off.

Mark

According to someone I chatted with who is aboard Allure, a passenger witnessed the British guy jump, not fall, off his balcony and immediately notified the crew. Allure came to a full stop and launched tenders (life boats) to look for the guy, as did another, nearby RCCL ship, Majesty of the Seas. This is all third-hand information, of course, so the accuracy of what I’m reciting should not be assumed. Based on this limited account, however, it does sound as if the company made a concerted effort to look for this guy.

Again, this all reinforces the point that news outlets need to stick to reporting what they know without rushing to judgment on the unknown story.

Amanda Mitchell

it was the mariner of the seas that also stopped to look for the man overboard not the majesty of the seas.

Jacob Ryan

Hypothermia? The ship was in the Gulf of Mexico. . . Exhaustion would set in long before the hypothermia would.

Mark

Jacob, it all depends on where the ship was in the Gulf. While the shallow water along the coast (say at Key West) might be 70-75 degrees, temperatures in the open, deep sea could easily be 55 degrees in January. No one is gong to survive in the water that cold for that long.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Emily-Phillips/848844856 Emily Phillips

in the middle of the ocean. In February.

http://www.facebook.com/people/Rob-Chilcoat/667430818 Rob Chilcoat

Dont go acting foolish and falling off ships. Thats what I say.
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Anonymous

Your tabloidy tone gets wearing at times. Cruise ships full of people don’t circle doing search missions. Snarky comments in the context of suicide are just bitchy queen shit and I know you don’t want to be “that.” I’m starting to read booty at my own risk. I keep having to give you the benefit of the doubt.
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http://profile.yahoo.com/W6NCGSBNDAWTTQFODWSAVOR7VQ AJ

I was aboard the Allure during this tragic incident. The Allure and two other large cruise ships who were arriving at the same time, all came to an immediate halt within minutes of the man going overboard. All 3 cruise ships launched rescue crafts, several with wet suit clad divers aboard. They searched the area until relieved by Naval vessels and rescue crafts from the nearby towns of Mexico. The Navy and local agencies continued the search until nightfall! The search was set to resume at first light the next morning. Most on the ship believe that all measures were taken to locate this person who we now have learned, intentionally jumped from the ship.

I too would like to express my displeasure with UB’s reporting on this -and of late, have noticed that comments from UB are in some case, insensitive, un-informed and mostly un-called for.

Mark

Agreed. It’s a tragic incident. Based on what I’ve now heard from four guys on that cruise, anyone who claims that RCCL didn’t do enough is just speaking from ignorance.

Anonymous

So, I too was aboard the Allure and I can assure you that they did everything that could have been done. The ship made an immediate halt, all passengers were mustered, not an easy feat, with perfect precision and professionalism just on the word of a single passenger who thought he saw something (before the tapes could be reviewed I’m sure) and the rescue vessels from the Allure, the other cruise ships in the area as well as local navy, police, small vessels and even jet ski’s were deployed and the search was finally taken over by the local authorities. Only then did the ship move on.

From what we could all get, it seems this guys intention was to jump. The contact, and other, information he gave on his paperwork was fake so it seems this was premeditated.

Perhaps you could spend less time congratulating yourselves on the number of your readers and more time cleaning up the shoddy journalism and the National Enquire like tenor of late. You like to slap yourselves on the back about the kind of “influence” you have, then remember that you can also do harm with your catty, attention seeking childish reporting. The crew of the Allure and the Atlantis team did everything they possibly could have and and with the utmost professionalism and were really saddened by what happened. This was this captains first such incident in 22 years of sailing. They don’t need the “worlds largest gay blog” to be spreading rumors like some nasty queen at a gay bar if it will make them seem more interesting.
http://www.facebook.com/suzanrevah Suzan Revah

Completely agree that Atlantis is judged unfairly in this report. I was on the boat and, according to our captain, it was the first time in 20 years he had to call for an emergency drill of this nature in order to account for everyone on board. Thousands of gay men whose vacations were abruptly interrupted by tragedy responded respectfully and in a movingly civilized fashion, especially given how little information we had at the time. Once the full story was revealed, there wasn’t a single person aboard who didn’t observe a moment of silence or invoke the sad specter of suicide in conversation with fellow passengers. There wasn’t a single thing more anyone could do besides wish for peace for the victim’s friends and family and then carry on with our journey, albeit in a much more grounded and circumspect way. We were all the more grateful for being grounded by reality in the midst of a fantasy gaycation.
Anonymous

These kinds of Man overboard events happen a lot more often than you think… What the UB author failed to mention or realize was the fact that if you jump/fall overboard from a big cruise ship like this you will most likely be sucked under the boat… And what’s at the tail end? The massive Propeller(s).. It’s hard to search for someone who’s been chopped up… or smacked by a stabilizer that juts out the side of the boat.. – Very sad.
http://twitter.com/BradLoekle Brad Loekle

The ship was 2.5km from port. Though both the Allure and ANOTHER cruise ship launched rescue boats immediately, the rescue was, as is maritime law, taken over by the coast guard of that port. The ship didn’t just “move on” as if they were in the middle of the atlantic… they simply moved into port. This also allowed the search to be more thorough and for divers to potentially retrieve the body. Sadly, the man was never found. He jumped from the 11th deck… which makes it nearly impossible for him to have survived the fall in the first place. This wasn’t Goldie Hawn in “Overboard”, you poorly written, non-researched, shitty website. Also Atlantis has no control over the legal parameters of an international search and rescue operation involving two international cruise ships, the Mexican government and the coast guard.

Also a man’s life ended… so you might consider writing the piece in a manner that doesn’t sound like you’re recapping last week’s episode of of RuPaul’s Drag Race. You vapid, useless queens…
Anonymous

with the way Royal Caribean crew treats gays, i would also jump over board…
http://www.facebook.com/people/Emily-Phillips/848844856 Emily Phillips

This inflammatory stuff is ridiculous. Please check your facts in the future before trying to make people angry. You guys are the gay Bill O’Reilly.
Rev Fr R.D. White II

Sadly, he probably jumped and didn’t want to be found. If they searched for hours and didn’t find him, I’m sure there was a reason for it. Somehow I get the feeling from what I’m reading that he didn’t ‘fall’ overboard…
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