I’ve been covering the cruise industry since 1993 and prior to that, worked at Cunard Line.  Over the years I’ve collected stories of events that have happened … all of them true.

*** Rosemary Roberts’ family decided it was time she enter a nursing home, but Roberts had a better idea of a future dwelling?on board a cruise ship. Roberts eventually cruised and lived aboard the former Royal Viking luxury liners for 18 consecutive years, transferring to another vessel in the fleet when her “home” ship entered its annual dry dock. She banked and voted by mail, and when her family decided to pay her a visit, they merely consulted a Royal Viking brochure. Roberts pointed out “it’s cheaper than a nursing home,” and, at a $400 per diem for her room, board, and entertainment, she may have been correct. It was certainly a lot more enjoyable.   In the early 1990’s, shortly before the demise of the Royal Viking Line, the cruise company evicted Rose Mary, citing psychological problems. She was 89 at the time.

*** In 1996, an 18-year-old inebriated passenger aboard Carnival’s Celebration decided to relieve himself while standing on a high deck, shortly after the ship left San Juan.  As his shocked traveling companions looked on, he fell several decks off the Celebration into the Caribbean. His buddies immediately notified Celebration’s senior officers, who contacted the U.S. Coast Guard. A massive search immediately got underway , involving dozens of boats and helicopters. In a strange turn of events, the passenger turned up safe and sound, on a beach near San Juan, having swam four miles to shore. He spent two nights in a local hospital and returned home in excellent condition. However, he may opt to use restrooms in the future.

*** Morgan Robertson’s “The Wreck of the Titan,” is an unusual novel describing the doomed voyage of the luxury liner Titan, the largest and most glamorous liner ever constructed. Carrying the wealthy and prominent of her time on her April maiden voyage between Southampton and New York, she set out to break a nautical speed record. In the middle of the night, the Titan struck an iceberg and sank, killing most of the passengers as a result of an insufficient number of life boats. Sound familiar?

Yet, “The Wreck of the Titan” was published in 1898, fourteen years before the Titanic sank!  (I have a reprint of this book)

***  Between 1972 and 2007, Queen Elizabeth 2  made a yearly ninety day world cruise, carrying 1,200 passengers, whose median age is 72. In addition to carrying more than a ton of caviar, the QE 2 transported 27 coffins during its annual circumnavigation of the globe. Let’s hope they’ll run out of the caviar and not the latter!

*** In the 1970’s, before cruise lines worried about polluting the oceans, passengers aboard a now-defunct Royal Viking Line cruise ship sailing off the coast of Brazil, were invited to put a message in a sealed bottle and toss it in the ocean. A year later, one couple was contact by a boy in Indonesia who had discovered their bottle on a local beach. They exchanged mail for a while and the couple eventually went to Indonesia to visit him. They paid for his visit to the United States, later for his college and medical school expenses.

***In the 1960s, Holland America’s Rotterdam was sailing between Nassau and New York when a worried woman informed the ship’s officers that she couldn’t locate her husband. The staff scoured every inch of the ship and determined that he must have fallen overboard. Turning the ship around, they charted a course for their most recent port of call, where he had last been seen aboard the vessel. To everyone’s amazement, especially the Rotterdam’s captain, the elderly gentleman was found alive, treading water in the ocean, a full 18 hours after he had fallen from the ship. He did not request a refund for the time he wasn’t able to use the ship’s facilities.

*** Cunard’s Queen Elizabeth 2 (QE 2) entered service in 1968, and during her early years as a transatlantic liner, she carried many celebrities. Among them was artist Salvador Dali, who booked two suites — one for himself and the other for his two pet cheetahs. During the first night at sea, the cheetahs completely destroyed their penthouse suite and after a brief stint in the dog kennel, they were evicted from the ship. Apparently the QE 2 was not up to the cheetahs’ typical speed.

*** In “The European Discovery of America,” Samuel Eliot Morisson described what he considered the first pleasure cruise in history. It took place around 1536, when a London merchant chartered two vessels to set sail to Newfoundland, with the dual goal of catching codfish and enjoying the cruise. Sixty persons signed on, but the excursion was hardly a success. The first ship was lost soon after setting sail, and although the second eventually reached its destination, the voyagers found nothing but misery and had to resort to cannibalism. When the ship eventually returned to England, there were few survivors. As a leisure-time activity,  cruising was set back several centuries!
Any “amazing but true” stories to ad?

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