Drunken cruise liner captain fired in Seattle

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – The captain of a cruise ship
docked in Seattle has been stripped of command and will be
fired after he failed an alcohol breath test, a spokesman for
Celebrity Cruises, said on Saturday.

The unnamed captain of the Mercury cruise liner was taken
ashore on Friday after a Coast Guard inspector detected alcohol
on his breath and he failed a test, according to a spokesman
for the U.S. Coast Guard’s 13th District Command in Seattle.

A staff captain who was on board assumed command of the
Mercury, a Celebrity Cruises spokesman said. The liner, which
has a capacity of about 1,870 passengers, sails weekly to
Alaska from Seattle in the spring and summer.

Michael Sheehan, a spokesman for parent company Royal
Caribbean Cruises Ltd., said in a statement the captain who
failed the breath test had been relieved of his command would
be dismissed.

Federal maritime law makes it illegal to operate a vessel
in U.S. waters with a blood-alcohol content level above 0.04,
which represents roughly what a 170-pound man might register up
to three hours after consuming a 12-ounce beer.

Company policy forbids any officer from consuming alcohol
within eight hours of reporting for duty, a spokesman said.

The Coast Guard command center in Seattle referred further
calls on the incident to the local U.S. Attorney’s office.

The Seattle Post Intelligencer quoted a Coast Guard
official as saying the captain was under investigation for a
misdemeanor punishable by up to a year in prison for operating
a commercial vessel under the influence of alcohol.