# 101
IN DEFENSE OF COMMON SENSE
By Hetty Gray
January 16, 2012
Ahoy? Maybe not…
Mention the term and you get a plethora of responses. Some are highly enthusiastic, others negative — still more appear as what my grandmother could call “milk toast”. Ah, yes, hitting the high seas in the era of technology.
We’ve come a long way since that first hollowed out boat skimmed along some lake or inland waterway with an early inhabitant at the helm. Over the centuries, ships plied the world’s oceans more for trade than leisure. Yet, that changed markedly in the late twentieth century.
Caribbean cruise ships in the 1970s were gaining popularity and it didn’t take long for investors to figure out that bigger ships meant bigger profits. Today, it is not unusual to spy a liner carrying 4,000 or more people. Oh, they are opulent and awash with entertainment, but they are also the bailiwick for crime.
West Palm Beach, Florida, January 5, 2012: A teenager said she was raped by two passengers while aboard a Port Everglades-based cruise ship, lured from a teen dance club to a private room in the wee hours of the morning. A teenage boy and a young man were arrested at Port Everglades on Tuesday (January 3rd). Both live in Brazil, but are being held in Broward.
While this is a horrific experience for the young girl and her family, it also brings to mind the disappearances of a number of young women while aboard cruise liners in recent years.
January 3, 2011: The mysterious case of cruise passenger Amy Lynn Bradley is again in the news. Amy was traveling with her brother and parents when she disappeared 12 years ago while aboard the Royal Caribbean cruise ship, Rhapsody of the Seas. The ship had left Oranjestad, Aruba, and was sailing to Curaçao, in the Netherlands Antilles.
On March 24, 1998, at age 23, Amy vanished. The Bradley family was highly critical of Royal Caribbean who they faulted for the delay in responding to the incident and for what they felt was insensitivity toward their plight. Like most disappearances at sea, the cruise line’s “investigation” seemed designed to protect the cruise line’s image and legal interests. The FBI investigation, as usual, went nowhere.
Amy’s disappearance in 1998 occurred 6 to 7 years before the highly publicized cases of Merrian Carver in 2004 and George Smith IV in 2005, before the formation of the International Cruise Victims organization. Before five Congressional hearings that led to the passage of the Cruise Vessel Safety and Security Act of 2010, the Bradleys were fighting the cruise line largely alone.
Given the number of people who cruise every year, perhaps the crime statistics aren’t exactly earth shattering, but they are life changing for the families involved.
Younger members of our family traveled aboard ship about a year ago, and I took great pains to talk to a teenage granddaughter about never, but NEVER, walking around the ship alone and putting herself at risk without an adult present.
It is sad that such messages are even necessary. Alas, they are. Now, with the recent upending of the Costa Concordia off the Italian coast, travelers are left to worry about incompetent crew, ranking all the way to the captain.
The old saying “bigger is better” may not be the answer. With the many discounts available, it only takes a few hundred dollars to board a cruise ship. A small investment provides the enterprising criminal or voyeur a great opportunity to scout out and prey on victims.
One odd link among Amy’s and Natalee’s disappearances is one particular Caribbean island — Aruba— yes, the same paradise from which Natalee Holloway disappeared on her senior trip.
You see, Amy Bradley disappeared from Aruba in 1988, too. Iva Bradley explained that her 23-year-old daughter, Amy, befriended three men who worked on the cruise ship and they wanted to take her to a bar in Aruba. “They said they wanted to take her to a bar on Aruba that was called Carlos and Charlie’s,” said Bradley. “She made a face and said ‘I wouldn’t get off the ship with any of those guys anyway. That’s creepy.'”
Amy Bradley was last seen in her cabin at 5:15 a.m. By 6 a.m., she was nowhere to be found…. Bradley’s case remains open with the FBI. WVTM-TV in Birmingham, Ala., spoke with her case manager in Barbados but there wasn’t much she could say. But, even more disturbing, is what happened one year later. The woman confirmed reports of a sighting by a Naval officer one year after the woman disappeared.
The officer told the FBI he went to a brothel in Curac’l on Canal. He said an American girl leaned in and said: “My name is Amy Bradley. I need your help.”
Unfortunately he didn’t report the sighting for sometime and by then the brothel had burned to the ground. The FBI has released sketches of suspects in her case.
There is a $260,000 reward for information leading to Bradley’s whereabouts. Her family continues to hope that someone, somewhere, has information that could finally reunite the missing daughter with her parents.
Within day’s of Natalee Holloway’s disappearance, I wondered if Joran van der Sloot had actually sold Natalee to someone aboard a large private yacht. It certainly would explain why no body was ever found. Worldwide, lithe pretty blondes are hot commodities among those who ply the sex trade. Human trafficking is not just in the movies, folks. It is real and it is ongoing. Much more prevalent in Asia and the Middle East, it is not just a movie plot.
Brochures describe cruising as a blissful environment featuring unlimited food, stunning entertainment, lush islands, warm breezes, sylvan afternoons on a lounge chair with a good book, and moonlit walks along the promenade deck. All well and good, unless something goes wrong.
As with any activity, one must be careful and take all precautions. Have lucrative endeavors pushed ship owners to consider profits before passengers? Do the larger ships don’t exacerbate this need for profit? Piloting a huge ship remains a serious responsibility. Are there enough qualified captains to staff the growing number of ships?
Aside from possible criminal negligence on the part of the captain, there are the personal risks. Unexplained disappearances haven’t stopped, and they are not solely women. Remember George Smith?
Criticize plane travel all you want for being speedy and unexciting, but I haven’t heard of women disappearing from jet liners.
Mix tropical or exotic locales, late night bars, alcohol and strangers, and anything can happen. Go ahead and book the cruise. However, you might want to choose a smaller ship. Chances are you will be safe and sound on the mega liners, but be alert for the dangers among to large numbers of passengers and crew.
Movies like “The Poseidon Adventure (1972) and James Cameron’s Titanic (1997) focus on the edges of human existence — for example the tantalizing prospect of profit fueled by ego that may have prompted the chairman of the board of White Star Line that urged Captain Smith of the Titanic to rush to New York to break a new Transatlantic record.
Titanic devoteés are legion. They watch and read every film or scrap of literature linked to the 1912 catastrophe. Perhaps there will always be a lure to events of this type. Let’s just hope that the disasters remain where they are — in the past. As for the cruising today, “Buyer beware.” Have a good time, but take precautions. It is simple common sense.