Mooring Fatality – St. Kitts Line Handlers Drown Assisting Royal Caribbean Cruise Ship

Royal Carribean’s Independence of the Seas is berthed at the City Cruise Terminal, Southhampton, England. Photo By Mathew Reeve

CNN reports the drowning of two line handlers assisting Royal Caribbean’s Independence of the Seas during her departure from St.Kitts on Wednesday.

Passengers told CNN that the longshoremen were in a small boat attempting to remove the last mooring lines when wake from the cruise ship’s azipod swamped the vessel throwing the two men into the water.

According to The Times Caribbean eyewitnesses report that the Cruise Liner may have pulled out before the men had enough time to clear the berthing area. As a smaller line-handling boat capsized and two men were thrown from the boat and drowned.

A crew member aboard the Cruise Ship told The Times ‘The small boat capsized when our rear azipods pushed us away from the dock. The two men where thrown overboard and never resurfaced, only one had on a life vest, the other man’s life vest came off when he was thrown into the water. The capsized boat was then pushed into the back of the Silhouette. All of this viewed from my aft balcony, kinda puts a damper on an otherwise wonderful cruise. Very sad for the families of these two men.'”

The incident is currently being investigated by the St.Kitts Air and Sea Port Authority.