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Drunken cruise liner captain fired in Seattle

Posted on: Saturday, 20 May 2006, 16:07 CDT

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.

Source: REUTERS

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