(6/22/2005) Nekton Rorqual crewman dies

[Tom725]

Any new info on the crew of the Nekton Rorqual who died Monday int the Bahamas. From the news story the boat did not report the accident until they returned to port on Monday????


http://www.cdnn.info/news/safety/s050621c.html

 

[The Kraken]

I'm certainly no authority on the matter of handling deaths at sea, and any observation upon the actions of the captain of the boat is pure speculation, but I imagine the captain of the boat was considering the jurisdictional aspects of the death and so forth.

Immediate notification of the authorities would serve no practical purpose. There may be some legal issues involved with not reporting the death immediately, but I don't know.

If I were the captain of a boat out of an east coast port and was in international waters between Florida and the Bahamas, then I would probably do the same thing.

The U.S. Coast Guard has no jurisdiction outside of territorial waters so they would not be involved in launching a boat or helicopter to recover the corpse.

Sometimes things are just best handled quietly and calmly.

My condolences to the divers family and friends . . .

 

[Corigan]

I have always heard the walk-in freezers on cruise ships doubles as a morgue incase of a death onboard. I assume they just keep cruising and keep the person on ice. Horrible to think of, but I'm not sure the Captain did anything wrong in the situation he was in. Hopefully more facts will come out over time.

 

[Charlie99]

The U.S. Coast Guard has no jurisdiction outside of territorial waters so they would not be involved in launching a boat or helicopter to recover the corpse.

For some things, simply being a US registered vessel will extend juridiction worldwide.

As for the helo pickup, local fisherman here have told me that generally, the Coast Guard will make a valiant effort to airlift off an injured crewmember well out into international waters, but won't bother coming out for a corpse.

Most of the local long range commercial fishing boats have saltwater icemakers onboard.

 

[Bob3]

Your link is from a very disreputable source, Cyber Diver.
They blatantly plagiarize on a regular basis.

 

[dannobee]

My parents went on an Alaskan cruise (typically really old folks) and two elderly folks died while cruising. My mom, who was previously a hospital administrator, asked what they did with the bodies. Turns out they have a two body morgue on board (at least on this particular ship). The bodies get shipped home at the next port of call.

 

[Tom725]

I was on the Nekton Pilot in Bahamian waters where the US Coast Gurad came and picked up a sick - not injured - Mexican citizen. The jurisdiction on that one was more than a little fuzzy.

I am not sure the Captian had an obligation to report the incident to the Fort Lauderdale police, which is what the article implies. The boat would not have been scheduled to return to Fort Lauderdale until Friday or Saturday and not Tuesday. The next prot of call, I believe, would have been in the Bahamas.

 

[mumphrey]

Any new info on the crew of the Nekton Rorqual who died Monday int the Bahamas. From the news story the boat did not report the accident until they returned to port on Monday????


http://www.cdnn.info/news/safety/s050621c.html

Apparently D.J. Pottorf died of unknown causes while free diving on the evening of Monday June 13. An yes, it appears that they did not report the incident for a week. I have bo more current news than this. Anyone know Pottorf? Know his certification level?

 

[mumphrey]

Apparently D.J. Pottorf died of unknown causes while free diving on the evening of Monday June 13. An yes, it appears that they did not report the incident for a week. I have bo more current news than this. Anyone know Pottorf? Know his certification level?

Sorry, I should have read your link before I replied. The Miami Herald reported that Pottorf died at 5:30 PM on Monday (no date provided) and misreported that the incident was reported to police at at 7 AM Monday. I simply concluded that a week must have passed in between.

 

[ScubaLuke]

Anyone know Pottorf? Know his certification level?

I don't think I knew him. I've only been on the Rorqual once and that was over a year ago. Most live-aboards have a fairly high turnover rate for their crew so he probably wasn't there when I was on. But he was probably a dive master. Almost all the crew members that dive are either a dive masters or an instructors.

I'm not sure why they waited until they were back in port to report the death unless their satellite phone was out of order. Looking at the map it would have taken them around 8 hours or maybe more to get back to Fort Lauderdale from Orange Cay.
Luke