Tag Archives: cruise ship

Coast Guard calls off search for passenger missing from cruise ship off Texas

The large seawall that protects Galveston from major storms and the rising waters of the Gulf of Mexico is seen on Galveston Island

(Reuters) – The U.S. Coast Guard said on Sunday it had called off its search for a woman believed to have fallen overboard from the Carnival Liberty cruise ship off the coast of Galveston, Texas, two days earlier.

The cruise ship alerted the Coast Guard on Friday that Samantha Broberg, 33, was missing and might have fallen overboard about 195 miles (315 km) from the Texas coast.

The Coast Guard said in a statement that its 8th District command center had coordinated 20 hours of aerial searching with a combined search area of more than 4,300 square miles.

Earlier, it said the cruise ship had a video of a woman falling overboard early on Friday morning and had conducted a search for all passengers on board, with Broberg found to be missing.

The Carnival Liberty cruise ship departed Galveston, Texas, on a four-day Mexico cruise on Thursday.

(Reporting by Chris Michaud; Editing by Paul Tait)

Quarter of passengers on British cruise ship fall sick with norovirus

File photo of the cruise ship Balmoral prior to boarding of passengers going on the Titanic Memorial Cruise in Southampton

(Reuters) – A stomach bug causing vomiting and diarrhea has spread to more than a quarter of the 919 passengers aboard a British cruise ship, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said, as the ship docked in Maine over the weekend.

It also said eight of the 520 crew on the Balmoral, operated by Fred. Olsen Cruise Lines, had also fallen ill with the bug, identified as a norovirus.

The Balmoral left Southampton, England on April 16 for a 34-day cruise, making stops in Portugal and Bermuda before putting in at Norfolk, Virginia, where it first arrived in the United States late last month.

CDC officials said at that time that 153 passengers and six crew had been infected by norovirus. Health officials and an epidemiologist boarded the ship at its next stop in Baltimore, Maryland to assess the outbreak and the response.

The CDC said specimens collected and onboard tested positive for norovirus, and would be sent to CDC for additional testing.

Fred. Olsen said in an April 29 statement that a “gastro-enteritis type illness” had affected a number of guests, with seven cases in isolation at that point.

It said two U.S. nationals were on board, with the majority of passengers from the United Kingdom.

When the Balmoral docked at Portland, Maine, over the weekend, media reported witnesses seeing surfaces being constantly wiped down.

The ship was due to stop at St. John, New Brunswick, Canada, on Monday.

CDC said the cruise line had taken actions in response to the outbreak, including increasing cleaning and disinfection procedures, collecting stool specimens, daily reporting of illness and dispatching public health and sanitation managers to oversee and assist with implementation of sanitation and outbreak response.

Balmoral has capacity for 1,350 passengers, and is the largest and newest ship in the cruise line’s fleet.

(Reporting by Chris Michaud; Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore)