As noted in our last blog post, in the 1991 U.S. Supreme Court case of Carnival Cruise Lines v. Shute, a “choice of forum” clause in a cruise ship ticket was upheld. In dissent, Mr. Justice John Paul Stevens explained the purpose of choice of forum clauses like the one contained in the COSTA CONCORDIA…
A dry cargo ship sank off the Black Sea coast of Turkey Tuesday and eight members of the 11-strong Polish crew were missing, Turkish media said. The Cambodian-registered dry cargo ship Vera was sailing from Russia to the Turkish Aegean port of Aliaga and sank in a storm one mile off the coast of the…
A boat exploded last night at the John Wayne Marina in Sequim, Washington, seriously injuring a man on board. The 40-foot boat blew up about 5:45 last night at the “C” dock in the marina. Fire District Three spokesman Patrick Young says the explosion was so large, boats within 75 yards were also damaged. One…
The London newspaper Guardian reported yesterday that Carnival Cruise Lines has opened talks on compensation with the survivors of last week’s shipwreck. One may assume that, in keeping with the practice of vessel owners and their underwriters in other shipwreck cases, Carnival is trying to settle quickly with claimants, before they retain lawyers to investigate…
Rescue efforts aboard the sunken Costa Concordia luxury cruise liner off the coast of Tuscany were halted Monday morning when rough seas caused the ship to shift, endangering divers and rescue workers who have been searching around the clock for survivors. Hours before operations were suspended, a male victim was found in an above-water section…
More than £300m has been wiped off the paper fortune of the multibillionaire boss of the company that owned the stricken cruise liner Costa Concordia. Micky Arison, the flamboyant chairman, chief executive and majority owner of Carnival, saw a large chunk of his $4.5bn (£2.9bn) holdings dissolve on Monday as the company’s shares lost almost…
The ARICA, a factory trawl fishing vessel at a dry dock on the east side of Lake Union, began taking on water one day last week. Crews members were pumping out water from the boat when they lost power and called the Seattle Fire Department around 5:15 a.m. Fire department crews arrived and began helping…
The facts of the tragic sinking of the SWANLAND resemble those in Alaska fish boat cases. Although, as noted in our earlier post, the SWANLAND is a Russian vessel, it was British managed. The British Maritime and Coastguard Agency is therefore conducting an investigation, much as the U.S. Coast Guard would conduct a marine casualty…
The NTSB recently completed its investigation into the sinking of the Fishing Vessel Katmai on October 22, 2008. The National Transportation Safety Board released their report on the disaster, and it concluded that the boat had a number of stability problems that made it unable to withstand extreme storm conditions in the Bering Sea. As…
We often have occasion to praise the princely courage of our Coast Guardsmen, their valor in rescuing mariners in peril. British news sources now report an instance of an actual prince rendering courageous service of the same sort. RAF Search and Rescue and Prince William have been praised for rescue efforts following the November 27…
There was no time that Nick was ever unavailable for me. That’s what I call a friend. That is somebody who cares.
Past Client of BoatLaw Commercial Fisherman, Southeast Alaska
