Both cruise ship crew members and passengers may be eligible for damages in the event of an accident or injury on a vessel. However, the laws governing compensation for crewmembers are different from those for passengers. Passengers on a cruise vessel could suffer fall accidents, or accidents in the swimming pool or other amusement facilities o...

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A scientific panel is recommending that U.S. offshore drilling companies take a more systematic approach to offshore safety in order to prevent a disaster like the BP oil rig explosion in the Gulf of Mexico last year.  The recommendations were made by the National Academy of Engineering and National Research Council. In a new report, the two ag...

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At least 4 crewmembers on a cruise ship, that sustained damage during a journey to Antarctica, have been reported injured. The cruise vessel, the Silver Explorer operated by Silver Sea Cruises was returning to Argentina at the end of an 18-night trip to Antarctica when it ran into rough seas. There was damage to the ship, but none of the passen...

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A fire on a Norwegian cruise ship led to the deaths of two crewmembers, and evacuation of passengers on board.   The incident occurred last week, on the MS Nordly. The ship was sailing with 260 people on board, including crewmembers.  The fire broke out in the engine room and quickly spread.  Once it became clear that the fire was out of contro...

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Maritime accidents are a special type of case. A person’s right to a maritime claim for an injury that occurred at sea can vary by the status of the person, whether the injured person is a passenger or a crewmember of the vessel on which the injury occurred.The legal issues involving accidents covered by maritime law can be totally different fro...

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Maritime attorneys and environmental groups will not quickly forget last year's Gulf of Mexico oil rig explosion and the resulting spill. In New Zealand, the government is struggling to contain that country’s biggest oil spill, resulting after a maritime accident earlier this month. The Liberia-flagged Rena ran aground on October 5 about 22 km ...

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Maritime piracy has been a serious issue facing the global community and international industries for hundreds of years. No longer are the pirates seeking gold or treasure, though. Piracy in this decade target ships carrying oil or goods, and also crewmembers have been taken hostage. Global efforts to stem the tide of piracy have been met with ...

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The Air Accident Investigations Branch has completed its investigation into an offshore helicopter crash in the North Sea in March 2009 that killed 16 people, including 14 offshore workers and 2 pilots. The report blames the accident on the failure to identify a potential problem in the gearbox just one week before the crash. According to the r...

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Before the Merchant Marine Act of 1920, seamen were subject to ill treatment, including abuse and atrocious working conditions. They had no legal protection against their employers, and injuries, illness or death at sea were just considered occupational hazards. Part of that 1920 law, the Jones Act, changed those circumstances, giving seamen sp...

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Divers searching the Costa Concordia discovered another body Tuesday, bringing the death toll to 16 in the Italian cruise ship disaster. At least six of the recovered bodies have yet to be identified, but are presumed to include some of the 17 people still unaccounted for. The luxury liner ran aground and capsized Jan. 13 just off the tiny isla...

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On May 8, 2010, the passenger ferry Andrew J. Barberi crashed into the St. George Terminal at Staten Island in New York. The accident resulted in serious injuries to dozens of passengers on board. The National Transportation Safety Board blames loss of propulsion control on the ferry for the accident.  The board also blames the accident on the ...

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Seven crew members have been reported dead in a tugboat explosion tragedy off the coast of Qatar. The accident occurred one week ago, when an offshore LNG buoy terminal exploded. The crewmembers were conducting maintenance work on the buoy at the time of the explosion.  According to some sources, only one of the crew members on the tugboat esca...

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Three seamen have filed an $11.5 million lawsuit against their employer, Dredge Operators Inc., claiming they suffered brain and lung injuries after being exposed to epoxy and acid. The lawsuit was filed Aug. 3 in federal court in New Orleans. The men said they suffered brain injuries and permanent disabling injuries to their lungs and other bo...

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Barely a few weeks after the deadly Costa Concordia cruise ship disaster, passengers on another cruise vessel have been traumatized by a cruise ship accident.  According to Costa Cruises, a fire recently broke out in the engine room of the Costa Allegra. Cruise officials insist that the fire was contained and extinguished quickly. The fire did ...

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If you have been injured in a maritime accident or perhaps been the victim of a crime while on a cruise, the matter of which court has jurisdiction will be particularly important to you.Jurisdiction concerns which court or courts have authority to hear a criminal or civil case, and this can be quite complex when it comes to maritime claims. A ma...

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The questions of liability for workers injured in a maritime environment and the jurisdictions of the courts that may properly hear such maritime claims is complicated by issues such as state versus federal jurisdiction and liability for injuries that arise in areas where state versus national versus international territorial waterways may not b...

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From commercial fishing vessel crew members to offshore oil rig workers, all kinds of maritime workers may be at risk of head and brain injuries.  These are some of the most serious injuries, and can leave a person with long lifelong consequences.  A new study confirms yet another one of those long-term effects of a brain injury.  The study sugg...

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A boiler explosion in a bulk carrier in the Chinese city of Nanjing killed four maritime workers, and injured at least a dozen other workers last week. According to Xinhua, the explosion occurred last Friday on a bulk carrier at the Zijinshan shipyard of Nanjing Tanker Corp. The workers were working on the cargo ship when the explosion occurred...

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A leak in a fuel oil return line was the cause of an engine-room fire that disabled a Carnival cruise ship last weekend, a U.S. Coast Guard official said Monday. The fire left the Triumph disabled in the Gulf of Mexico for five days and the 4,200 passengers and crew without power or working toilets. A spokesman from Carnival Cruise Lines said M...

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Australian unions have raised an outcry over the treatment of a large group of crewmembers on board two vessels, who are reportedly severely ill, and are being forced by their employers to continue working. The Australian Manufacturers Workers Union is calling attention towards the poor working conditions and ill-treatment of workers on the 2 v...

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The Coast Guard published plans to implement a new inspection process for towing vessels last week.  In the 76th volume of the Federal Register released on August 11, the Coast Guard posted their proposed rules.  They plan to finalize the regulations in four public meetings this fall.  The new system will have two options for obtaining safety ce...

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The man killed in an offshore crane accident on Tuesday has been identified as  20-year-old Brandon Noland.  The Katy resident died at the platform where he was working that morning after a crane collapsed and hit him.  The autopsy released by the medical examiner's office stated that he died of blunt-force trauma from a crushing injury. By fol...

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Conditions aboard the crippled Carnival Triumph are continuing to deteriorate as the vessel is towed toward port in Mobile, Ala., today. The cruise ship, which was stranded in the Gulf of Mexico after an engine room fire knocked out its four engines, is expected to arrive late tonight. The 900-foot-long vessel was expected to arrive in port earl...

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Two chemical tankers collided in the Gulf of Mexico early Wednesday about 70 miles south of Galveston, according to U.S. Coast Guard officials. Both vessels were en route to Houston at the time of the crash. The Chem Sea, a 385-foot tanker, and Bow Kiso, a 557-foot tanker, collided about 4:30 a.m. Wednesday. The double-hulled Bow Kiso, a Panama...

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A pipeline fire was finally extinguished after burning in a Louisiana bayou since Tuesday, the U.S. Coast Guard said Friday. One man was critically burned and three others received minor injuries in the blaze, which began when a tug pushing a barge struck the gas pipeline. While the fire was out, the Coast Guard said minimal flaring was continu...

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A crew member died after falling into the cargo bay of a cargo ship docked in the Houston Ship Channel on Thursday morning. The worker fell from the deck into the cargo hold about 12:30 a.m. According to the U.S. Coast Guard, the ship was docked at Texas Terminal NO. 37 near Patrick’s Bayou. The man was pronounced dead after being rushed to Mem...

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The Death on the High Seas Act is a set of maritime laws that provides compensation for family members of seamen killed in international waters. Under the Death on the High Seas Act (DOHSA), survivors of a seaman, who is killed at least three miles off US waters due to negligence, may be eligible for compensation. However, there are certain res...

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The U.S. Coast Guard had to undertake a medical evacuation of a containership crewmember, who suffered a serious injury on the vessel. The man was a crew member on the 855-foot Antigua and Barbados-flagged vessel Mare Phoenicium. The 62-year-old man had suffered a severed finger on his left hand. There is no information about how the injury occu...

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The families of 39 crewmembers of the Russian oil rig which collapsed and sank off the coast of Russia last week, are coming to terms with the fact that their loved ones will never be found. Mixed with sorrow is also anger that company officials went ahead with what was possibly a suicidal towing mission. The Kolskaya oil and gas drilling platf...

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Investigators are looking into the cause of a Hong Kong ferry boat collision that left 38 people dead, including five children, earlier this week. A high-speed ferry and a boat loaded with more than 120 people crashed during a holiday weekend, and the smaller vessel sank quickly.The maritime accident, which occurred on a clear night, is Hong Kon...

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A Hercules Offshore liftboat that was struck by several waterspouts capsized in the Gulf of Mexico off Louisiana on Friday evening. Five crewmembers aboard the Starfish vessel were evacuated and rescued at sea shortly after the capsizing. They were treated for minor injuries at hospital in Houma, Louisiana, and released. The vessel, a 140-clas...

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There are many laws, statutes and precedents that apply exclusively to maritime law. There are different regulations and compensation rules for sailors, dock workers, shipbuilders and others who work in port environments. Cargo ships and cruise ships are often owned by citizens of other countries or registered in other countries. This means that...

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An oil platform operated by Royal Dutch Shell in the North Sea has been partially evacuated after detection of a gas leak. There were a total of 76 crew members on the Gannett Alpha platform operated by Shell in the North Sea. Out of these, 48 members were evacuated, and returned to shore by helicopter. According to Shell, the problem came to l...

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A U.S. Navy guided-missile destroyer collided with a Japanese-owned bulk oil tanker Sunday near the Strait of Hormuz, at the mouth of the Persian Gulf. The crash occurred about 1 a.m. local time. The cause of the incident is under investigation, but the Navy said it was “not combat related.” No one was injured, and no spills or leakages were re...

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A NATO ship fired at a fishing boat Wednesday off the coast of Somalia in response to attacks from shore and sea by suspected maritime pirates, officials said. The HNMlS Rotterdam, NATO’s flagship for counter-piracy operations, was preparing to inspect the smaller vessel when fighters aboard it launched their attack. The crew of the Rotterdam r...

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A final set of federal safety regulations were issued last week for offshore drilling. The rules are a fine-tuning of the emergency measures enacted after the April 2010 Deepwater Horizon explosion and subsequent oil spill. The rules deal with how wells are designed and the testing of the cement and barriers that are used to secure them. The go...

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A crew member has been reported killed in a deadly fire that raged through a tugboat near Prince Edward Point, Ontario. According to earlier news reports, the man, a chief engineer on the vessel, had sustained serious injuries. He has now succumbed to those injuries. At the time of the accident, there were six people on the vessel, including th...

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The European Council on Monday approved launching a civilian mission to support anti-piracy efforts in the Horn of Africa and Western Indian Ocean. Maritime piracy lawyers know these waters as some of the most dangerous for pirate activity. The two-year mission, EUCAP Nestor, aims to train and equip coast guard services and improve maritime sec...

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A bill introduced in the US House of Representatives would require rescue boats to be stationed within three nautical miles of offshore oil and gas drilling rigs.  The measure has been sponsored by Louisiana Rep. Jeff Landry, R-New Iberia. According to him, the proposal aims to find a common sense approach to the safety problems facing the offs...

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At least three crewmembers on a fishing vessel in the Antarctic are believed dead after a fire raged on board the vessel. At least 37 crewmembers have been rescued from the fire. The South Korean fishing vessel, the Jung Woo 2 ran into trouble in the Ross Sea, which is about 370 miles north of the US McMurdo Station Antarctic Base. The fire ori...

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A crewman on a tugboat on the Intracoastal Waterway had to be airlifted after he suffered an injury on the tugboat. The Coast Guard conducted a medical evaluation of the injured crewmen. The accident occurred about five miles off Rockport. The crewmember suffered undisclosed injuries, and required medical assistance. The Coast Guard launched re...

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The submerged wreckage of the fishing vessel Foxy Lady II, reported missing with two crew members in December, was found by the U.S. Coast Guard off the Massachusetts coast. The two missing crewmembers, Captain Wallace Gray Jr. and Wayne Young, were not found. After receiving multiple reports of fishing vessels becoming entangled by an underwat...

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One sailor died and five others were rescued during a race off Southern California, authorities said Saturday. The crew radioed a mayday call Friday night when the the 32-foot Uncontrollable Urge lost steering capabilities. They also activated a feature on the boat that provided GPS coordinates and other information to authorities, but they dec...

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The British government has finally agreed to allow British-flagged vessels to carry armed guards to protect them from pirate attacks. Prime Minister Mr. David Cameron announced that he was allowing this measure in order to protect vessels from pirate attacks, especially off the coast of Somalia. According to the British government, no vessel th...

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According to the International Maritime Pilots Association, a ship pilot was killed recently during a fall accident on a vessel. The 58-year-old pilot was on a vessel that was sailing on the River Elbe. At the time of the accident, the pilot was attempting to board the boat. He had been standing on a ladder, when he slipped and fell into the wat...

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GULF OF MEXICO — Air and sea search teams continued Saturday to hunt for 10 oil workers missing in the Gulf of Mexico after they abandoned a disabled research vessel. Five helicopters, a fixed-wing airplane and two vessels searched for the men in Mexico, said Brenda Taquino, spokesperson for Houston-based Geokinetics. Geokinetics contracted the...

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A crew member on a freighter had to be airlifted by a Coast Guard helicopter after he suffered injuries on the vessel last week. The vessel was located just about 50 miles off the coast of Trinidad, California.  Crew members on the 700-foot MV Caribbean contacted the Coast Guard to report that one of their coworkers had been severely injured af...

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While assisting in running pipeline on a platform off the coast of Mexico in 2010, a 40-year-old welder was injured when his hand was caught in a snatch pulley. The man suffered partial severing to 8 fingers and an injury to his right shoulder. The incident occurred when the worker was securing a cable that ran through a 36-inch pipeline. Witho...

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Five crewmembers were killed and three injured during a safety drill when a lifeboat from a cruise ship fell upside down into the sea earlier this month. The British-operated vessel was in port when the accident occurred, with about 1,400 passengers onboard. When emergency crews arrived on the scene, the small lifeboat could be seen capsized al...

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Investigations into the death of a chief engineer on an Australian cruise vessel during a routine drill, have focused on a lot of flaws in the systems in place on the vessel, the Oceanic Discoverer. According to investigations, the crew member died after he suffered crushing injuries when he was trapped in a watertight door. In March 2009, the ...

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The Jones Act allows a maritime worker to file a claim against a vessel owner, if he has been injured by unsafe work conditions on a vessel. These claims are called unseaworthiness claims, and are filed only against the vessel owner, not the employer. However, in some cases, the vessel owner may be the employer of the worker, in which case, he m...

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A coalition of environmental groups from five states filed a lawsuit Monday in federal court claiming the Environmental Protection Agency rules on chemical dispersants used in oil spill cleanups do not adhere to clean water standards. The lawsuit says the EPA has not published regulations on acceptable use of such dispersants in response to oil...

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A longshore worker who filed a claim under the Longshore and Harbor Workers’ Compensation Act claiming negligence has had his claim rejected due to insufficient evidence. The man, who worked for a stevedoring company, alleged that he suffered injuries when he fell from a rope ladder on a vessel.  According to his claim, as he was going down the...

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If you have sustained a maritime injury, knowing where to turn can be quite difficult. This is especially true for individuals who are not familiar with maritime injuries, as trying to learn more about this type of injury and how it might affect you can be easier said than done.The most important thing after suffering an injury is to have a stro...

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After five days adrift in the Gulf of Mexico, the Carnival cruise ship Triumph finally came into port late Thursday night. It took several hours for the more than 4,200 passengers and crewmembers to disembark the stinking vessel, which was disabled after an engine-room fire Sunday while returning to Galveston on the third day of a four-day cruis...

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If you have been injured in the course of work on a vessel, you may be wondering whether you need to consult a Jones Act lawyer. The answer, in most cases, is yes. The Jones Act is a federal law that provides a different system for workers compensation for those designated as “seamen.” The complexities of this maritime law are such that, even i...

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Maritime piracy lawyers know attacks are on the rise in the Gulf of Guinea off Togo, as evidenced by the seizure of a Greek-run oil tanker, the MT Energy Centurion.  Pirates stole 3,000 tons of fuel from the ship then released it, officials said. They also took jewelry and money from the crew. The pirates escaped Thursday in a lifeboat taken fr...

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Passengers aboard the disabled Carnival cruise ship Triumph are struggling with dismal and deteriorating conditions, according to one passenger. The ship is being towed to a port in Alabama after a fire in the engine room left the Triumph disabled in the Gulf of Mexico. "Elderly and handicap are struggling, the smell is gross," said passenger A...

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Six crewmembers on a fishing vessel had to be rescued after their fishing boat sank off Catalina Island last week.  According to the Coast Guard, the fishing vessel, the Midnight Star, ha 6 members on board, when it sank for unknown reasons near Eagle Rock.     Four fishermen were able to leave the boat in a stiff.  Two of the crewmembers fell ...

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A 15-year-old passenger on a Royal Caribbean cruise ship has alleged that she was sexually assaulted by two fellow passengers on a cruise line this Christmas.  The two male passengers, including a 20-year-old man and a 15-year-old boy, are being accused of luring the young girl to a private room, where they allegedly raped her. The incident occ...

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Documents, obtained from a suspected terrorist who was questioned by police in Berlin, reveal plans by the terrorist group Al Qaeda to attack cruise vessels. The documents, which have now been obtained by CNN, have been retrieved from the terrorist, an Austrian man, who was questioned by police. Investigators found digital storage devices and s...

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Oil and gas crews are getting back to work in the Gulf of Mexico after Hurricane Isaac passed. The storm has reportedly caused only minor damage to rigs and platforms. The Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement said Monday that more than 58 percent of daily oil production and 39 percent of daily natural gas production in the Gulf is sti...

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The cruise line company that operated the Costa Concordia, the cruise vessel that partially sank off the Italian coast killing 32 people, has now launched a new cruise ship.  The Costa Fascinosa cost $530 million to build, and weighs more than 140,000 tons. The launch of the ship comes just months after the Costa Concordia disaster. The Costa C...

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Seven crew members, including six Russians and one Estonian, were kidnapped from an offshore support vessel off the coast of Nigeria after it was boarded by gunmen. Bourbon Offshore, the owner of the attacked vessel, confirmed that nine other crewmembers were still aboard the Bourbon Liberty 249 and in good health. The Paris-based company is in...

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Several crew members were reported injured after a vessel ran aground near the Sabine Jetties near Port Arthur, Texas, recently. According to the Coast Guard, its officers from Sector Houston-Galveston were asked to respond to the site of the grounded vessel. The MV Ms. Pearl ran aground on the west side of the Sabine Jetties. There were four c...

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A worker on an offshore platform in the Gulf Of Mexico had to be airlifted after he suffered injuries in an accident.  According to the Coast Guard, the man was injured on a platform located about 55 miles southwest of Marsh Island. Crewmembers contacted the Coast Guard Sector New Orleans to alert them that a man on board had suffered serious f...

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Tug boat pilot, Matthew Devlin, pled guilty to an involuntary manslaughter charge on Monday, August 1, 2011.  Two tourists died from the accident on July 7, 2010, when a barge crashed into a duck boat that was stalled in the Delaware River.  The operator did not receive notice that the duck boat was stopped in his path because he had turned his ...

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A 94-foot ship carrying about 1,650 gallons of diesel fuel ran aground Friday on the North Jetty in Galveston.The incident did not cause damage to the fuel tanks, and crews were working to remove the vessel without causing a spill. One crew member aboard the M/V Ashton T suffered a minor injury and was taken to an area hospital, authorities said...

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Francesco Schettino, former captain of the Costa Concordia, faced survivors of the fatal cruise ship crash as proceedings began in determining whether he would stand trial for allegations of manslaughter and abandoning ship. Six crewmembers, including Schettino, are under investigation, as well as three workers in Costa’s crisis unit.  Schetti...

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A tugboat pilot convicted in the July 2010 crash of a barge and tour boat that left two Hungarian tourists dead said in a deposition that the collision could have been avoided if he had been at his post. Matt Devlin, who is serving a one-year sentence for the maritime equivalent of involuntary manslaughter, was on a cellphone for a family emerg...

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An Indonesian cruise ship crewmember has been confirmed dead after an attack of meningitis on a cruise vessel. The 32-year-old crewman had been hospitalized in a city in Italy, and had been undergoing treatment for his illness. He was a crew member on an MSC cruise vessel, the MSC Orchestra. At least 3 of his colleagues had also taken ill on th...

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Frustrated at the continuing growth of piracy especially in the Indian Ocean region, shipping industry groups have asked the United Nations to step in and create an armed military force.  Four shipping industry associations, including the International Chamber of Shipping, InterCargo, BIMCO and INTERTANKO have written a letter to the United Nat...

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Over the past week, two passengers on two separate cruise vessels had to be medically evacuated after they fell ill. In the first case, a passenger on a Royal Caribbean cruise ship began showing symptoms of appendicitis on the Explorer of the Seas cruise ship. The vessel was about 130 miles southwest of Key West at the time, and was heading back...

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A crane collapsed while loading equipment onto a work boat, according to the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement report.  On Tuesday, August 16, 2011, the boom hoist cable failed, killing one worker on the site in the Gulf of Mexico.  The platform, owned by Energy Resource Technology, is now the site of an investigation...

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Recently, the nation, and in fact the world, watched transfixed as news channels carried hour-by-hour coverage of the ordeal of passengers on the Carnival Triumph, as it floated helplessly on the water. A fire had disabled the engines, and the ship was left with thousands of passengers and crewmembers on board, and no power and no water supply. ...

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The U.S. Coast Guard on Monday continued to search for six missing fishermen after receiving a mayday call Sunday from the captain of a sinking ship. The call to the U.S. Coast Guard’s Houston-Galveston operations center cam about 1:15 p.m. and said the boat was taking on water. The captain was unable to report the vessel’s exact location, but ...

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Thirteen crewmembers from a fishing vessel are missing after the ship collided with a large cargo ship off the northeast coast of Japan. The vessels collided about 2:30 a.m. Sunday. Japanese coast guard rescue planes were deployed to search for survivors. Of the fishing boat’s crew, nine were rescued by a nearby vessel, and 13 still are missing...

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The National Transportation Safety Board has released its final findings after an investigation into the 2009 boating accident in the San Diego Bay that killed a young boy.  According to the report, the accident was the result of excessive speeds by the Coast Guard boat involved in the accident as well as lack of oversight by the Coast Guard. T...

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Japanese researchers have successfully used stem cells derived from tooth pulp to treat damaged spinal cord cells. The research has been conducted on rats, and clinical trials on humans are still a long way off, but the results have been encouraging enough for researchers to be optimistic about the results in humans, too. The stem cells were e...

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Russian transportation city officials are blaming errors made by the captain as the reason for the sinking of an Indonesia-flagged vessel in the Sea of Okhotsk. Russia's Far East transport department says that one of the main reasons for the capsizing of the Ginga was the violations of safety regulations by the captain of the vessel. The Ginga ...

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A number of recent maritime incidents have had maritime lawyers concerned about increased access to technology on vessels, and the accident risks from this. In one incident, reported by the London P & I Club in its Stoploss Bulletin, a recent pollution-incident was caused by a duty officer's distraction.  The officer was apparently trying to ma...

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Six oil workers were rescued after they were stranded for three days post Tropical Storm Nate in the Gulf of Mexico. The seventh worker, who had been rescued, died in the hospital. Out of the ten workers who were stranded in the Gulf of Mexico, two died and their bodies have been recovered. Search efforts for a missing crewmember are still on. ...

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In 2011, there was a decline in the number of pirate attacks reported across the world, including the Somali Coastline where most of these incidents occur annually. However, according to the International Maritime Bureau Piracy Reporting Center, the decline has been slight, and maritime piracy lawyers must continue their concern over piracy off ...

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Investigators are looking into incidents of sexual assault of child passengers involving a crew member on two luxury cruise liners. The alleged sexual assault occurred on the Cunard vessels, the Queen Mary 2 and the Queen Elizabeth over a five-year period. The suspect is from the United Kingdom. Local police have confirmed that they are investi...

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A Shell Oil drilling ship lost its mooring in Alaska’s Dutch Harbor last week, drifting dangerously close to shore. Despite witness claims, inspections by divers show no evidence that the ship ran aground.  The 571-foot Noble Discoverer is part of the Shell fleet getting ready for exploratory drilling in the Arctic waters of the Chukchi and Bea...

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A crewmember on an offshore supply vessel that ran aground at the Galveston North Jetty last week, sustained injuries, and had to be taken to the hospital. The accident occurred at the Galveston Jetties over the weekend when the offshore supply vessel, the Ashton T ran aground. The 94-foot vessel was carrying about 1,600 gallons of diesel fuel a...

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Rescue operations again were suspended Friday after the stricken Costa Concordia shifted in choppy seas off the Italian coast, increasing concerns about a possible fuel leak. Eleven people have been confirmed dead and at least 22 are still missing after the cruise liner struck rocks and capsized off the coast of the tiny island of Giglio. Also...

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The captain of a Malta-flagged cargo ship was charged with negligent operation of a vessel last week, after he was found operating a vessel with several times above the allowed limit of alcohol in his system. The captain of the MV Laconia was arrested after the Coast Guard inspected the vessel, and found him under the influence of alcohol. Earl...

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A French-owned oil tanker, reported missing with 17 crewmembers on Sunday off the Ivory Coast, is thought to have been hijacked by pirates. The suspected pirate attack is the latest in the Gulf of Guinea region. The Luxembourg-flagged tanker was reported missing after the owners lost contact with it. Its last known location was 70 nautical mile...

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The United States Coast Guard has released a Marine Safety Information Bulletin to provide guidance regarding the employment of non-American citizens on board US-flagged vessels. According to the guidance, vessel operators must be aware of the citizenship waiver limitations for vessels returning to the US after operating from a foreign port. Ac...

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Distracted operation of a vessel may involve more than cell phones and texting devices as maritime lawyers often see. The captain of a British ferry that crashed into a French fishing vessel in March this year was distracted by, among other things, a discussion of the way actress Halle Berry looked like in the movie, “Catwoman.” According to an...

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A new study finds that up to 30% of the American workforce is sleep deprived. Maritime attorneys believe that the situation is not much different on water. Seamen are at a high risk of suffering injuries when they are forced to work continuously without sufficient breaks.  The study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates th...

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A sightseeing vessel ran aground in Alaska’s Glacier Bay, filling the vessel with water. Seventy-six people were rescued, but none were seriously injured, U.S. Coast Guard officials said. The boat was stabilized after the accident, and there were no signs of spills or other pollution. Most of the passengers were transferred to a Holland America...

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U.S. Coast Guard crews rescued 14 people from life rafts and still are searching for the missing captain of the HMS Bounty, a replica 18-century sailing vessel made famous in Hollywood adventure films, including “Mutiny on the Bounty.” One crewmember was found unresponsive and later pronounced dead after the vessel rolled over in 18-foot waves f...

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The U.S. Coast Guard has ordered an investigation into why the tall ship HMS Bounty set sail and sank as Hurricane Sandy headed for the northeast last week. The search for the ship’s missing captain also has been called off."We'll be looking into anything that may have caused the incident or contributed to it, communications, records, schematics...

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More than 4,000 passengers and crewmembers were stranded after an engine fire left a Carnival cruise ship disabled in the Gulf of Mexico. The Carnival Triumph was moving around 150 miles off the Yucatan Peninsula when the fire broke out. The ship’s automatic fire extinguishing systems activated and contained the fire to the engine room, but the...

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The International Chamber Of Commerce International Maritime Bureau’s latest global piracy report has both good and bad news for maritime lawyers. The bad news is that pirate attacks continued to rise this year to record levels. The good news however, is that more and more vessels are being successful in thwarting pirate attacks. According to t...

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No crewmembers have been reported injured in a maritime accident involving a Transocean oil rig and a supply vessel off the coast of Newfoundland. According to offshore safety regulators, the collision involved the offshore drilling rig GSF Grand Banks, owned by Transocean Ltd. and working for Husky Energy Inc., off the Newfoundland coastline. ...

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The former head of the Bureau of Offshore Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement said last week that an increase in “complacency” since the 2010 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico is threatening the changes in safety regulations and government oversight that resulted from the incident.  Michael Bromwich, speaking at a National Press Club ev...

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Commercial shipping came to a standstill on the Mississippi River on Tuesday after a barge struck an auxiliary lock’s gate near Granite City, Ill. The barge jam, at one of the river’s busiest points, could last into the week, the Army Corps of Engineers said. Corps crews were determining how the damaged auxiliary lock would be fixed, and a spok...

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A Coast Guard helicopter crew medically evacuated a man from a tanker in the Gulf of Mexico on Feb. 3 after he was struck by a crane while working on deck. The 435-foot Stolt Flamenco was about 50 miles southeast of the Texas-Mexico border when the Filipino man was struck and lost feeling in the lower half of his body. The Coast Guard Sector Co...

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Maritime piracy has existed nearly as long as maritime shipping and commerce. Knowing a little about the history of prosecuting pirates and how international law has evolved can help a maritime lawyer in cases involving victims of this crime.Crime Against CommerceIn the past, maritime traditions quickly developed to give jurisdiction to any nati...

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The International Maritime Bureau on Monday reported a 54 percent drop in maritime piracy in the first six months of the year. The group attributed the decline to anti-piracy operations by international navies off Somalia, increased vigilance, and the use of armed guards by private ships. The new numbers show that 177 attacks were reported worl...

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A seaman his filed suit in a New Orleans federal court, claiming he sustained disabling injuries from a fall after slipping on a vessel’s wooden floor. The Jones Act lawsuit accuses Big R Towing Inc. of negligence for failing to maintain the vessel and her appurtenances in a safe and reasonable state of repair.  The lawsuit also claims the defe...

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A class-action lawsuit filed Feb. 18 in Florida claims Carnival Corp. was negligent for allowing the cruise ship Triumph to embark on a five-day cruise when it knew the vessel was prone to mechanical issues. The ship experienced an engine-room fire three days in and spent five days disabled in the Gulf of Mexico while tugboats towed it to port ...

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Although preliminary work began Sunday on an exploratory drill 70 miles off the coast of Alaska, a giant block of floating ice was delaying any further work from continuing. A Royal Dutch Shell petroleum drill ship had begun the first drilling in U.S. Chukchi waters since 1991 but was forced to stop after only hours and move away to wait for an...

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The Jones Act is a maritime law that essentially serves as a worker's compensation statute for the high seas. The rules of a Jones Act claim are not exactly like worker's compensation, but can also provide additional benefits based on the conditions surrounding any particular injury claim.Any possible litigant should prepare for the initial cons...

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