Corfu: parted mooring lines, a passenger in the water and a captain at the police station

An incident the whole cruise fleet is talking about. On the evening of 30 June, in the Port of Corfu (Greece), strong winds caused the mooring lines of a Bahamas-flagged cruise ship to part. The vessel shifted off the quay just as passengers were returning up the gangway from shore excursions — a 56-year-old tourist from New Zealand lost her balance on the moving gangway and fell into the water.

The crew and port workers pulled her out quickly — she escaped with bruises and was taken to hospital. The Hellenic Coast Guard detained the ship's 56-year-old Italian captain on charges of exposing a person to life-threatening danger. The cruise line, however, insists the captain merely gave a statement "as per standard protocol" and was never under arrest.

Two lessons for seafarers

First — why mooring line tension is monitored continuously in heavy weather, and why the gangway is pulled in the moment the ship starts to move.

Second — the master's personal criminal liability in a foreign port: even when the wind is to blame, it is the person on the bridge who answers to the local court. One more argument for choosing companies that provide legal support to their crews (P&I cover, seafarer defence programmes).