More than 12 million people take cruise ship vacations every year. A few suffer humiliating and traumatic experiences on board, or never return — not very many, but enough to provoke unease and spur U.S. congressional hearings in March 2007.

A cruise ship is christened at a shipyard in Germany. With more than 12 million people taking cruises every year, the big vessels are one of the most popular tourist experiences in the world.
(Malte Christians/Getty Images)

According to statistics from the cruise industry, there were about 180 sexual assaults on U.S.-owned passenger ships between 2003 and 2005. There were also dozens of "disappearances" and people whose tumbles into the ocean were seen by witnesses. Some survived, others drowned, and some bodies were never found.

Cruise lines say they put the safety and security of their passengers first, pointing to the vast majority of passengers who suffer no more than sunburn or hangovers as they party their way between Caribbean islands or Alaskan fjords.

The deck of a cruise ship is far safer than the streets of a major American city, cruise line officials maintain.

Yet controversy persists. It's not the absolute numbers of cruise ship crimes that have activists and victims' families fuming — it's the attitude, they say, of cruise lines.

Crew 'didn't believe' woman's allegation of rape by guard

Laurie Dishman — a 36-year-old from Sacramento, Calif. — told the U.S. House of Representatives committee that she had been raped by a security guard onboard a Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines vessel while on a trip to the Mexican Riviera.

Dishman told CBC Radio's The Current that her assailant forced his way into her cabin after accosting her in a shipboard bar.

She reported the assault the next day, speaking to the purser because her alleged assailant was working for the security department. She found staff unsympathetic.

"Basically the purser didn't believe me. He … said it sounds like you need to control your drinking," she told The Current.

"I remember putting my hands on the side of my head and putting my head down between my knees and thinking, 'Nobody is listening.'"

Later, after the FBI investigated her claims, U.S. prosecutors declined to file charges, saying that there wasn't enough evidence. Dishman is now suing Royal Caribbean, which says it can't comment on the case.

Cruise industry says all allegations taken seriously

Greg McClary, one of the cruise line's security consultants and a former officer for the Federal Bureau of Investigation, told The Current that the company had apologized to Dishman.

Critics say the relaxing atmosphere onboard a cruise ship lulls passengers into a false sense of security but cruise lines say it is far safer on their vessels than in major U.S. cities.
(Christina Jonas/Canadian Press)

"One crime is one too many," he said. "Policies [to control shipboard crime] are fine. It's the execution of them that fell short in this case."

Terry Dale of the Cruise Lines International Association, an industry-run lobby group, told the congressional committee that member companies had plans to tighten security and build on existing "zero tolerance" policies towards onboard crime.

Dale pointed out that the cruise lines have signed a formal agreement with the FBI and the U.S. Coast Guard to report every single incident to the authorities, even if it takes place beyond American jurisdiction in international waters.

"The cruise industry takes all allegations and incidents of crime on board its vessels seriously and reports them to the proper authorities," he said.

Jurisdiction a problem, experts say

Confused jurisdiction has long plagued investigations of shipboard crime, experts say.

Most cruise liners are registered under flags of convenience: they're registered in countries such as Panama, Bermuda or Liberia rather than in the country of the ship's owner. When the ship is in international waters, beyond 15 kilometres offshore, some types of onboard crime come under the jurisdiction of the country of registry.

In practice, U.S. authorities can investigate cases involving American citizens, if they're given permission from a ship's captain.

That's good news for U.S. citizens — but cruise lines haven't agreed to notify Canada or other countries if their citizens are affected.

Industry 'flies under the radar'

These could fall between the cracks, according to Ross Klein, a sociologist who investigates the cruise industry and works at Memorial University in St. John's.

Klein said flags of convenience gave cruise ships a lot of latitude in dealing with law-enforcement problems.

"This is an industry that flies under the radar in most respects," he told The Current.

On his website, Klein offers statistics and survivors' stories to vilify cruise lines for what he says is a lack of attention to security and safety — a tendency to put damage control before justice when a passenger is assaulted or lost at sea.

Other victims' groups have established their own websites. The head of one of those groups, Kendall Carver, lost his daughter, Merrian, when she apparently disappeared from a Celebrity Cruise Lines voyage out of Vancouver in 2004.

He told the congressional committee that the cruise line didn't even report Merrian's disappearance to the authorities, despite a steward telling officers that she had not slept in her cabin and her clothes and possessions were untouched.

Her fate remains unknown.

That case embarrassed Celebrity Cruise lines, which is owned by Royal Caribbean. The company says its reporting and safety procedures are now much more rigorous.

$40B industry employs 100,000

The cruise industry is worth some $40 billion in the United States and provides employment for more than 100,000 people in many different countries.

As well, the cities, islands and countries visited by cruise ships can count on about $300,000 in revenue per day from a single vessel's port fees and passenger spending.

And cruises are undoubtedly popular. The number of Canadians and Americans boarding the big ships for a seaborne frolic increases by at least eight per cent every year.

The risk of being a victim of onboard crime is slight but undeniable.

The best remedy, according to security experts, is to take precautions in advance. They suggest avoiding over-drinking, staying in public areas of the ship and reporting suspicious or harassing behaviour to onboard security.