A study by researchers at Oxford University found that people working on the sea are up to 50 times more likely to die while working compared to other jobs. In fact, 103 in every 100,000 fishermen die while working.
In the following story, three fishermen aboard a broken down boat tried to alert a popular cruise ship that they needed help. Unfortunately, they failed to receive it and wound up suing the company for neglect. Here’s what happened.
Princess Cruise Lines
Three passengers were bird-watching on a Princess Cruise Lines ship, were one of them spotted a stranded fisherman signaling to him and his companions for help from the fishing boat. The fishing boats, Fifty Cents, had been adrift for 15 days when it crossed paths with the Star Princess on March 10, 2012. The passengers immediately notified crew members of what they saw.
Broken Down Boat
At the time, all three fishermen aboard were alive. Later that day, 16-year-old Fernando Osorio died, having lost hope as the Star Princess sailed away. Five days later, another fisherman onboard the broken down boat, Oropeces Beancourt, 24, also died at sea.
Panamanian Fisherman
The only man left, whom the fisherman spotted on the fishing boat, was 18-year-old Adrian Vasquez. The trio’s February 24 fishing trip started out well, according to Vasquez’s mother, Nilsa de la Cruz. The three caught plenty of fish, de la Cruz told CNN. But, the boat’s engine died without warning and with no tools and scant navigational experience, there was little they could do.
Ship Officer
Two days after the passengers spotting the struggling fisherman, the three cruise ship passengers followed up with a ship officer, asking him what happened to the fisherman on the broken down boat. The officer reportedly did not have an answer for them and walked away without an explanation.
Passenger
Jeff Gilligan, one of the cruise ship passengers who said he saw the stranded fisherman and alerted the cruise ship’s crew, told CNN that he took a picture of the fishing boat from about two miles away. He saw the tiny vessel through high-powered scopes and said it appeared not to be moving, but the men on board were moving.
Spotting Scopes
“We were looking through powerful spotting scopes before I took those photographs, and we – the three of us – couldn’t come up with any reasonable explanation why somebody would have been flagging with two different colors of cloth, clothing or whatever it was, to our ship from perhaps two miles away on a little boat that wasn’t moving, over 100 miles from the coast,” Gilligan said.
Crew Members
At the time, Gilligan and his fellow passengers believed the cruise ship crew members would do something. “We fully expected the ship to turn around or to send a tender boat out to investigate our suspicions,” he said. But that never happened.
Fifty Cents
Another one of the three passengers who spotted the small fiberglass boat, was Judy Meredith, 65, from Bend, Oregon. She told the Guardian: “Finding out later that the Fifty Cents continued at sea for over two more weeks was horrific news. And two of the men died and both could have lived, had the cruise ship responded to our urgent request.”
Evidence
Her story is supported by Don Winner, a Panama-based, English-language blogger who covered the story of Vasquez’s trials at sea. The publisher tracked down Vasquez, who confirmed that he and his friends had seen the cruise ship and had signaled frantically with his red t-shirt and orange life vest, believing it would rescue them.
Photographs
Vasquez also confirmed that a picture taken by the cruise passengers was of his boat. Winner then published satellite tracking data appearing to show that the Star Princess was in the area at the time. Following the allegations, a spokesman for the company said, “We’re aware of the allegations that Star Princess supposedly passed by a boat in distress that was carrying three Panamanian fishermen on March 10, 2012.”
Birdwatchers
“At this time we cannot verify the facts as reported, and we are currently conducting an internal investigation on the matter,” the statement said. Another woman, Meredith, a keen birdwatcher, was traveling on the Star Princess with two fellow birders, one being Jeff Gilligan, who also spotted the small boat.
Stranded
Meredith was on the promenade deck for most of the day scanning the ocean with powerful binoculars, when Gilligan saw the small panga, which is another name for a Panamanian fishing boat. Meredith immediately noticed something was wrong, as at least one person was standing up waving a piece of cloth high over his head, up and down.
Signaling For Help
“We could see it was moving – there were nets pulled onto the boat and apparently no nets in the water. So we soon questioned – is this a stranded, disabled boat, signaling for us to help?” Gilligan said to the Guardian. Meredith informed a crew member in an officer’s uniform, who said he would relay their concerns to the captain.
Trying to Alert Authorities
“We were convinced the bridge [captain] knew what was happening, and thought maybe it took a while to turn around. But after a while we realized it wasn’t turning,” Gilligan said. The three of them decided to contact coastguards themselves, but slow Internet access and problems finding a local connection, left them emailing U.S. authorities to alert them. The email appeared not to have been received or logged.
The Rescue
Adrian Vasquez was finally rescued when the Ecuadorian navy spotted him north of the Galapagos Islands in March. Ecuadorian Rear Adm. Freddy Garcia Calle said that at the time when he was found, the 18-year-old showed “severe signs of dehydration and lack of nutrition.”
Negligence Lawsuit
He said Vasquez has to throw his friends’ bodies into the ocean “because they had become badly decomposed.” After being rescued, Vasquez filed a negligence lawsuit in Florida against Princess Cruise Lines. During his 28 days adrift at sea, he says the cruise ship failed to save him.
Lawsuit
The lawsuit sought compensation for physical, emotional, and psychological injuries that it alleges he suffered as a result of the conduct of cruise line employees. Robert Dickman, a lawyer for Vasquez, speculated that one reason the Star Princess didn’t stop was because the cruise ship’s crew didn’t want to get off schedule for their next stop in Puntarenas, Costa Rica, and thus, lose money.
Puntarenas
Princess Cruises spokeswoman Karen Candy said the ship did arrive in Puntarenas on March 11, but she strongly denied that the crew decided not to help the fisherman for financial reasons. Princess Cruises then released a statement saying it was “deeply saddened that two Panamanian men perished at sea” and “very sorry for the tragic loss of life.”
Explaining Themselves
The cruise line explained themselves further saying, “Because of what we suspect was a case of unfortunate miscommunication, regretfully the captain of the Star Princess was never notified of the passengers’ concern. Had he been advised, he would have had the opportunity to respond, as he has done numerous times throughout his career.”
Statement
“This is an upsetting and emotional issue for us all, as no employee onboard a Princess ship would purposefully ignore someone in distress. It is our ethical and maritime responsibility to provide assistance to any vessel in need, and it is not an uncommon occurrence for our ships to be involved in a rescue at sea. In fact, we have done so more than 30 times over the last decade,” the statement said.
