Follow-up on Galaxy/Port of Charleston

[tallblonde]

Illegal docking linked to errors in the system

Defects exposed in port security

BY RON MENCHACA
Of The Post and Courier Staff

Computer and human error allowed the cruise ship Galaxy to illegally dock in Charleston on Wednesday, exposing shortcomings in the city's port security.

The Coast Guard in Charleston ordered the ship to temporarily leave the State Ports Authority's downtown passenger terminal after discovering that the ship had not filed notice 24 hours in advance of its arrival.

Harbor pilot Whit Smith said his office knew as early as Tuesday afternoon that the cruise ship was inbound. He expressed frustration that the constant stream of vessel information his pilots provide to the Coast Guard did not help them catch the mistake before the ship docked and passengers streamed into the city.

"It looks to me like the system could be a little tighter," Smith said.

Galaxy owner Celebrity Cruises said Wednesday that a computer glitch caused its advanced notice to arrive late.

Coast Guard officials said Thursday that human error led them to believe that the ship had filed its notice on time.

The mistake wasn't noticed until the ship had already arrived in Charleston, Coast Guard Lt. Kevin Floyd said.

Although the Galaxy's 382 crew and 2,014 passengers were screened before boarding the ship in Baltimore, Charleston maritime officials had no idea who was on the ship when it arrived at the foot of Market Street.

"There was never any danger to the general public," Floyd said.

Ross Klein, who writes about shortcomings in the cruise industry, agreed that the risk to residents was probably minimal since the ship was cleared in Baltimore and didn't make any stops before Charleston.

Still, he said such problems highlight growing pains the maritime industry is experiencing under a spate of new port security mandates.

The ship's early departure caught passengers by surprise as nearly 400 people were stranded in the city for several hours while the ship waited offshore for clearance to re-enter the port.

In the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, the U.S. Coast Guard strengthened advance notice requirements for all cargo and passenger ships entering U.S. ports to give maritime authorities more time to check ship manifests against intelligence information and identify poten-tial threats before they reach shore.

The Coast Guard fined the cruise line $32,500 for Wednesday's incident, which was the Galaxy's third such violation in the past year.

[img]http://escati.linkopp.net/cgi-bin/countdown.cgi?trgb=000000&srgb=00ff00&prgb=0000ff&cdt=2003;05;04;16;00;00&timezone=GMT-0500[/img] May 4, 2003 Norway Cruise Countdown

Bermuda Star Line, Premier, 1 Carnival Mistake, Crown Majesty, Royal Cruise Lines, NCL, RCCL, Princess, Celebrity

**Hubby went on the 10/26/03 repositioning cruise on the Sea - and I redecorated the Living Room!! :-) **

[10s nut]

Thanks for the update.

[greygypsy]

Can someone explain to me why, if the ship was cleared in Baltimore it wouldn't also be cleared in Charleston? We are the same country, aren't we? Jeff

susan and/or jeff

[Guest]

That article certainly leaves out a lot of the pieces of the puzzle and doesn't really explain how the whole snafu happened, but you didn't ask about that.

Susan and/or Jeff, there are two reasons that the rules require this. First, technically the ship has been outside the country as it sailed down the coast and no one really knows what they were doing out there. [img]http://messages.cruisecritic.com/infopop/emoticons/icon_smile.gif[/img] Second and most important, it's not just the manifest that gets filed, but a "movement report" that tells the Coast Guard of the ship's intention to enter the port among other things. If the Coast Guard doesn't have this report, they stop the vessel from entering the harbor, in theory, protecting the area from unknown activity. In my interview with the safety officer at Charleston for the Cruise News Daily article, he said that if a vessel doesn't respond to the verbal command to halt, they are indeed prepared to use physical means to stop its entry. It was only because of the confusion between the Coast Guard and the National Vessel Movement Center of Galaxy's report being received at 7:00 PM rather than AM that the ship was allowed to enter.

Alan Wilson
Cruise News Daily

[signman]

That's fine Alan, but what did the CG accomplish by escorting Galaxy out to sea for a few hours, only to return. I can understand the fine, but the action of moving the ship was meaningless.

[Guest]

I agree that it's kind of like closing the barn door, etc. It doesn't seem to serve any purpose as far as security goes.

The benefit is probably more long-term. Since November the Coast Guard no longer has any flexibility in the matter as they used to. Prior to then, they routinely issued warnings to cruise ships after a delay to do the necessary checks on the spot, since they didn't want to inconvenience a couple thousand passengers, and no one ever really knew about it.

Sending the ship back out, as they did with a P&O vessel in January, got some media coverage, without which no one would ever have known that this is Galaxy's third violation of the rule. (I know I never thougth to look into it to see which lines had a number of violations of Homeland Security rules.) Maybe the long-term benefit is the deterrent factor of the embarrassment for Royal Caribbean, and they are going to be much more careful about making sure their VMR's are received on time.

Alan Wilson
Cruise News Daily

[signman]

Hopefully Galaxy will be more responsible in the future; I sail her out of Baltimore in October, and while a few extra hours in Charleston might be welcome, it could have gone the other way, and the ship might never had made it to port there at all, which would leave me very unhappy.

[cmjaffe]

HOPE...
How the heck are you?
Really "miss ya". We're you "banished"?
Send me an e-mail if you can w/your contact.
Carolyn