EveryThing: 11 People Who Fell Off Cruise Ships and Lived to Tell the Tale

WHEN YOU GOTTA GO… DON’T

As satisfying as the feeling of freedom may be, please, folks, don’t urinate over the side of a cruise ship — especially after already having climbed over a four-and-a-half-foot-tall railing into a restricted area. Yet, this is exactly what an unidentified 23-year-old spring-breaker drunkenly did on a Carnival Cruise in 1996, which resulted in him slipping and falling 76 feet into the San Juan, Puerto Rico, harbor. In response, the Coast Guard and cruise launched a full-scale rescue with boats and helicopters, only to come up empty. This story has a happy ending though, as the man was found on a beach in San Juan more than 10 hours later. Banged up but generally OK, the partier had swum the four miles back to the coast in order to rescue himself.

FRANK JADE CATCHES A WAVE

When Frank Jade fell off the deck of Royal Caribbean’s Oasis of the Seas on January 8, 2015, nobody noticed that one of the ship’s 6,360 passengers had gone missing. Things were looking grim for the 22-year-old American tourist, who could only watch helplessly as his ship sailed away. Miraculously, Jade was later spotted by passengers sailing the same route on the appropriately titled Disney Magic cruise ship, and Tom Parsons (a fire chief from Ithaca, New York) threw him several buoys. The vessel lowered its rescue boat and picked Jade up, treated him, and docked at Punta Langosta, Mexico, so he could receive additional medical care. Jade said a wave had knocked him overboard about eight miles off the coast of Cozumel. Royal Caribbean was criticized for not noticing the missing man and not complying with the 2010 Cruise Vessel Safety and Security Act, which requires the installation of automatic man overboard systems.

A COUPLE’S QUARREL

On September 2, 2009, at 11:15 p.m., a couple started arguing on the balcony of their Carnival Sensationstateroom. The unidentified 34-year-old man threatened to jump, and the woman called his bluff by replying, “Go ahead.” Apparently not one to be called a liar by his wife, the unidentified male leapt into the water from the sixth-deck suite. Numerous witnesses heard the event transpire, and immediately called for help and tossed life preservers to the man. Ninety minutes later, he was plucked from the waters about 28 miles east of Port St. Lucie, Florida, by the crew of the Disney Wonder, which also happened to be in the area at the time. “Two things saved his life,” Johnny Gonzalez of the U.S. Coast Guard explained. “He knew how to swim and hold on to hope, and he was wearing a white T-shirt beneath a full moon,” which made it easier for rescuers to see him. Although the man apparently suffered from severe depression, he was “beaming — big smile all over his face” after the rescue, the ship’s captain said. “I think he obviously regrets what had happened,” he added.

ALEX GIFFEL SAVES THE DAY

Just three hours after the Norwegian Spirit set sail from New Orleans on June 12, 2011, a man went overboard into the waters of the mighty Mississippi River. Luckily for him, 16-year-old Alex Giffel saw the whole thing, threw a life ring, and instructed his 21-year-old cousin to alert the crew. A rescue boat soon pulled the man to safety and he was treated for minor injuries. A month later, Norwegian and the Port of New Orleans recognized Giffel’s actions with a ceremony aboard the Spirit. As a thank you, Capt. Evans Hoyt presented the teen with two plaques and the life ring he used to save his fellow passenger.

LARRY MILLER LOSES HIS FOOTING

In the early hours of June 15, 2009, a pilot boat rescued 46-year-old Larry Miller, who had been clinging to a water marker about one mile southeast of Mullet Key near Fort De Soto Park in Florida. The man had been there for almost three hours, having fallen after he climbed over a railing of the Carnival Inspiration (which failed to notice that he fell or was missing) to get a better view. Ironically, the view Miller was seeking was of another passing pilot boat.

SPOTTED BY THE SMOKING STAFF

At 6:10 a.m. on February 23, 2005, a man was spotted by cruise ship workers as he fell from the deck of theCrystal Harmony. “A few of our galley crew saw a body fall past them and into the water and they immediately advised the bridge and threw a life ring,” a spokeswoman for Crystal Cruises said. They also tossed down a smoke canister to help locate the middle-aged man in the Mexican waters, about 100 miles south of Ensenada. The giant, 50,000-ton vessel turned around, lowered its tiny tender boat, and retrieved the man, who was treated for hypothermia. The rescue took 30 minutes and numerous veteran passengers realized the problem when the captain declared a “Code Oscar” over the ship’s speaker system. He later announced the successful rescue to the Harmony’s 900 passengers. The unidentified man, who was traveling alone, was turned over to police in San Diego, who questioned and released him without an arrest. The fall was apparently an accident.