I was just checking twitter when I came across this jewel from the Miami Herald:
The horror! The plight! That is like being in a cell! Damn you Trump! I mean, how come they are not allowed to use the passenger cabins with all the space and the goodies, huh?
Wait… what’s that?
Aren’t those crew members in the balconies of passenger cabins? And wasn’t this posted mere seven frigging minutes before the other tweet?
And then they wonder why we don’t trust them and call them fake news.
American sailors have smaller (much) accommodations and longer deployments. Not much sympathy here. Also the crew stuck on a cruise ship are getting fed, probably well. I really don’t see cruise ships sailing in endless circles like modern day flying dutchmen. Even at the current price of oil, burning that much fuel with no revenue coming in just doesn’t make sense.
Living in small windowless cabins, eh? Sounds like life as usual for a sailor.
As for US authorities doing something about this, how can they? Those ships are registered in fly by night countries, operating under those laws, if any. The Herald should try complaining to the authorities in Liberia, or Panama, or whatever.
By the same reasoning, any bailouts of the cruise ship industry should also come from their country of registry. No US bailouts for third world flagged ships.