Links to Maritime & Cruise Line
Related Sites

If you would like to recommend a site or add your URL to this page, please contact  James Walker by email and provide us with your suggestions.  Recent news articles and links are indicated as "new." If any of the links are broken or misdirected, we would appreciate hearing from you.

Maritime Statutes, Treaties, and Conventions

• Title 33 of United States Code - Navigation and Navigable Waters (Statute).
• Title 33 - Code of Federal Regulations - Navigation and Navigable Waters (CFR).
• Title 46 of United States Code - Shipping, includes Vessels & Seaman, and Maritime liability (Statute).
• Title 46 - Code of Federal Regulations - Shipping (CFR).
• Law of the Sea - Contains links regarding the United Nations Convention of the Sea.
• United States Cruise Tourism Act of 1999 - Introduced in the House H.R.248IH.
• All American Cruise Act of 1999 - Introduced in the House H.R.3392IH.
• All America Cruise Act of 2000 - Introduced in the Senate S.2564.IS.

Maritime Law Publications

• Admiralty Law News - Published by the Law Journal Extra; contains admiralty law case summaries.

Maritime Cases

• U. S. Supreme Court: Recent Decisions on Admiralty
• U. S. Circuit Courts of Appeal: Recent Decisions on Admiralty
• Cornell University's On Line Admiralty Library 
• "The Coconut Case" - A passenger sues for head injuries caused by a "Coco-Loco" tropical drink dropped from an upper deck.  The Court discusses the issue of the cruise line's "actual" or "constructive" notice of potential dangers to passengers.
• "The Sofa-Bed Case" - A passenger trips on a sofa-bed blocking the bathroom, and sues the cruise line for negligence.  The Court discusses the definition of "reasonable care under the circumstances."
• Carnival Cruise Lines v. Shute - The text of the United States Supreme Court decision interpreting Carnival's forum selection clause in cruise passenger tickets, requiring passengers to sue in Florida.
• Travel Law and Consumer Law Articles - Links to travel-related and consumer legal sites sponsored by Judge Thomas Dickerson, including summaries of cases involving accidents and injuries while travelling abroad; includes reference to Travel Law Book by Judge Dickerson.

• "Recent Developments in Maritime Law" - Summary of maritime cases prepared by Seattle maritime lawyer Charles M. Davis.
  

Medical Issues on Cruise Ships:

• Consumer Reports: "Ocean Liner's Medical Care May Not Be Shipshape"
• American College of Emergency Physicians - Section of Cruise Ship and Maritime Medicine
• Medical Issues on Cruise Ships - "Safe and Sound at Sea?"
• "The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly of Cruise Ship Medicine"
• Summary of Sanitation Inspections of International Cruise Ships
• Legionnaires Disease on Cruise Ships
• 200 Passengers Fall Sick  on Disney Cruise Line Due to Gastrointestinal Ilnesses
• Cruise Line International Medical Association
• Medically Speaking - What the Cruise Passenger Should Know
• "Medical Neglect Reported on Foreign Flaged Cruiseships"
• New York Times Articles on Cruise Ship Medical Care - The NY Times published two articles dated October 31, 1999 entitled "Getting Sick on a Cruise May Mean Medical Care With Few Standards" and "Getting Sick on the High Seas: A Question of Accountability."  (These articles are online for a short period of time.  Viewers will need to sign on, search the archives, and pay a nominal fee to access the NY Times articles)

Passengers with Disabilities:

• Does the ADA Govern the Operation of Cruise Ships? - The amicus curiae brief of the US government.

Injuries, Accidents, and Physical and Sexual Assaults on Cruise Passengers:

• "U.S. Courts are Getting Tougher on Cruise Lines" - An article from the Miami Herald.
• "Carnival? Try Criminal" - An article by Tristram Korten of the Miami New Times: "What happens when a female passenger is assaulted on a cruise ship? Not much."
• "Deep Blue Greed" - An article by Ted Kissell of the Miami New Times: "The Arison clan built Carnival into a money machine by cleverly avoiding tax laws."
• "The Perfect Scam" - An article by Kirk Nielsen of the Miami New Times: "For the workers, life is no carnival."
• "Cruise Line Crews Labor for Little Pay"  - ABC News Article: "Cruise Line Crews Labor for Little Pay."
• Flag-of-Convenience Line Ordered to Report Sex Crimes
• Norwegian Cruise Line employee charged with assaulting 12 year old passenger
• Passenger Assaulted on Sea escape cruise
• Italian Cruise Ship (Carnival) Officer Arrested on Shipboard Rape Charge
• Sexual Assaults on Cruise Ships - "When the Fun Stops" Article by Jim Oliphant of the Miami Daily Business Review.
• Romero v. Carnival Cruise Lines - Court TV's "Cruise Ship Assault Trial"- Video
• Romero v. Carnival - "Cruise Ship Assault Trial" (text)
• Carnival Cruise Lines Discloses 62 Sexual Assault Accusations
• Carnival Increases Sexual Assault Incidents to 108
• "Trouble on the Sea - Critics Say Cruise Lines Get a Free Ride"
• Sexual Assaults on Cruise Ships - "Are Cruise Ships Safer than the Streets?"
• DeLuca v. Crystal Cruise - A crew member's allegations of sexual harassment and sexual assault, as reported in the San Francisco Examiner, New York Times, and Newsweek magazine.
• "Sex in Troubled Waters" - Harassment Charges on a Luxury Cruise Ship
• "Royal Caribbean Settles Boy's Alleged Rape"
• Cruise Ships to Report Sexual Assaults and Other Crimes at Sea
• Cruise Enthusiasts Undaunted By Fires, Viruses, & Sexual Assaults
• Royal Caribbean/Celebrity Reports Alleged Sexual Assault by Waiter on Minor Passenger to FBI
• Cruise Ships "Inside Our Waters . . . Outside Our Laws" NY Times article by Douglas Franz, reprinted in the Tampa Tribune. 
• Disappearance of  23 Year Old Passenger Amy Bradley on Royal Caribbean's Rhapsody of the Seas
• "Floating Sweatshops"

Cruise Ship Fires and Collisions

• Carnival Catches Fire Again - M/V Tropicale Drifts in Gulf Near Tropical Storm with 1,700 Aboard
  "Trouble on the Tropicale" - A Passenger's Exclusive Account
  "Passengers Angry After Hellish Cruise"
  Carnival's "Cruise from Hell"  - Compilation of News Accounts
• NCL's Norwegian Dream Collides with Burning Cargo Ship
  Suit Charges NCL Negligent in Collision
  English Channel Collision Turns Into Norwegian Nightmare
  Norwegian Dream Collision - Compilation of News Accounts
• The Sun Vista Catches Fire and Sinks  - Web page dedicated to the survivors of the Sun Vista; includes passenger accounts and photographs of the doomed vessel.
• Carnival's Ecstasy - Fire - Compilation of News Accounts
  Carnival's Ecstasy - Fire - Video
• Passengers Offered Compensation for Carnival Ship Fire Aboard the Ecstasy
• "Raft of Incidents Stirs Questions About Safety Aboard Cruise Liners"
• "When Cruises Go Awry, You're at Mercy of Cruise Line"

National Transportation Safety Board Publications

• NTSB Marine Accident Reports - NTSB reports regarding collisions, sinkings, groundings, and fires involving passenger ships, freighters, tankers, and other vessels from 1971 to 1997.

• NTSB Marine Studies - NTSB studies regarding watercraft safety, accidents involving foreign passenger ships operating from US ports, post-accident testing for alcohol and drugs, and other issues from 1963 to 1999.

Vessel Safety, Illegal Dumping, & Unsanitary Conditions

• What Cruise Passengers Can Do Suggestions from the Bluewater Network. 
• The Subcommittee on Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation Hearing on Cruise Ship Safety - October 1999 oversight hearing  on cruise ship industry regarding vessel safety, environmental compliance, sanitation and medical requirements, and security and crime.
• Cruise Ship Consumer Fact Sheet - U.S. Coast Guard - Toll free numbers and other information for consumers to report unsanitary conditions, illegal  dumping, or complaints regarding vessel safety.
• United States Coast Guard - Home page of USCG; includes marine safety and environmental protection, boating safety, and licensing.

Powerboats & Sailboat Forum

• Yachting Magazine's Guide to Powerboats & Sailboats - Be sure to stop by  "Ask the Captain," a question and answer forum hosted by Captain Les Hall of Sea Tow International.

Cruise Ship Forum

• About.com's "Expert Guide to Cruises" - Summary of cruise related links, news, and other information for the cruising public.  
• Seacruise Undernet Chat Channel - The first cruise line related chat channel, online in 1996, with chats every night at 8:00 p.m.
• "Maritime Matters" - Ocean Liner History and Cruise Ship News - Informative site featuring ocean liner history, historic vessels, and photographs of passenger vessels.

Environmental Issues Regarding Cruise Ships

• Royal Caribbean Fined 1 Million Dollars, Pleads Guilty to Falsifying Pollution Records, "We Are a Very Different Company Now."
• Royal Caribbean Fined 8 Million Dollars, "It Won't Happen Again."
• Royal Caribbean Fined 18 Million Dollars, Pleads Guilty to 21 Felony Accounts for Dumping Oil and Chemicals and Lying to Coast Guard,  Says "Our Days of Polluting the Seas are Over,"  Stay Tuned . . .
• "Slick Justice - How the U.S. Brought Royal Caribbean to Account for Dumping Oil at Sea"
• "How the Sovereign of the Seas Did It" - A photographic view of Royal Caribbean's illegal by-pass system used to dump oil and chemicals into the sea.
• Attorney General Janet Reno Press Conference on RCCL Dumping
• . . . if people flim-flam us, they should expect the consequences . . .
• . . .  at the same time that their ships were sailing into the inland passage of Alaska, one of the most sensitive and beautiful eco-systems in our nation, their crew members were wearing buttons that said, 'Save the waves.' That's what they were wearing above deck. Below deck, business as usual was going on and oily contaminated bilge water
  was being dumped overboard . . ."
• Cruising for Trouble - Stemming the Tide of Cruise Ship Pollution
• "Gaps in Sea Laws Shield Pollution by Cruise Lines" New York Times article by Douglas Frantz.
• Cruise Ship Environmental Violations From 1993 to 1998, cruise ships were involved in 104 confirmed cases of illegal discharges of oil, garbage, and hazardous wastes.
• "Scandal at Sea" - Documentary Over the past decade, popular cruise lines have been involved in over 100 confirmed cases of illegal dumping into U.S. and international waters.
• "Royal Mess" - A local community's view of cruise ship discharge in Alaskan waters.

General Maritime Information

• Admiralty and Maritime Law Guide - Excellent site containing statutes, case law, law guides, articles and publications and other links to maritime related information.
• Mariner's "All-In-One Page" - Compilation of links to maritime related sites hosted by Maurice Bosse, Director of Library, Massachusetts Maritime Academy.
• Maritime News Sources - Compilation of news sources sponsored by Cities.com.

Cruise Line Cams

• Web Cams for Princess Cruise Ships - Enjoy the bridge mounted cams from the Grand Princess, Crown Princess, Sea Princess, Dawn Princess, Sky Princess, Sun Princess, and the Regal Princess; also includes the view from the Norwegian Sky and views of the Panama Canal. 

• Virtual Tour of RCCL's Voyager of the Seas - Visit Royal Caribbean's newest passenger ship which arrived in Miami in November.

Cruise Line Information - "Unofficial Sites"

• The "Unofficial" Carnival Cruise Line Site - Before reading the  official cruise line sites, be sure to visit this parody of the world's largest cruise line.
• The "No Paradise" Carnival Cruise Line Site - Another unofficial site created after Carnival's Millennium Cruise. 

Cruise Line Information:

• Cruise Line International Association
• International Council of Cruise Lines

• Cruise Line & Ship Profiles

• Carnival Cruise Line
• Cape Canaveral Cruise Line
• Celebrity Cruise Line
• Coastal Cruises
• Cunard
• Disney Cruise Line
• Norwegian Cruise Line
• Premier Cruise Line

• Royal Caribbean Cruise Line

Port Information:

• American Association of Port Authorities
• Port Canaveral
• Port of Miami
• Port Yellow Pages
• Listing of International Ports

• Seaports of the Americas - the AAPA Directory