Staying safe on cruise ships

Today's grounding of the Empress of the North cruise ship in Alaska, and the sinking of a cruise liner in Greece last month in which two passengers died, puts cruising safety in the spotlight.

The U.S. Coast Guard does safety inspections of all ships that take on passengers at U.S. ports; individual ship reports, including on the Empress of the North, are available at http://cgmix.uscg.mil/PSIX/

Yet it's difficult for individuals to assess the technical data in the inspections or to judge the seaworthiness of a ship or competency of a captain.

What passengers can do is take some simple steps to safeguard themselves aboard cruise ships, which will carry an estimated 12.6 million passengers this year, the majority of them Americans, on worldwide sailings.

The most basic safety measure is to pay strict attention to the shipboard emergency drill. By U.S. and international law, a safety drill is held on each sailing. Many passengers, especially repeat cruisers, take the drill lightly. But it instructs what to do in case of an emergency at sea, including where to find lifejackets and which lifeboat to report to if the ship must be abandoned.

Passengers also should check and double-check the location of exits by their staterooms. Big modern cruise ships can carry more than 3,000 passengers and are a confusing warren of multi-level corridors.

Passengers also can "book defensively," getting a higher-deck stateroom that is close to exits. In the sinking of the Greek cruise ship Sea Diamond last month, two French passengers were unable to escape after the ship hit rocks and their lower-deck stateroom filled with water.

Passengers also can check other safety issues on ships, such as sanitation, through federal inspection reports. The Centers for Disease Control regularly inspects cruise ships; the Empress of the North failed an inspection earlier this year on food handling and sanitation (the cruise line hired a consultant to help it fix problems). Get individual vessel reports and tips on staying healthy on cruises at www.cdc.gov/nceh/vsp/ The Empress of the North, which went aground near Juneau early today, began sailing Southeast Alaska cruises roundtrip from Juneau this month. All passengers were safely evacuated and taken by other ships, including other cruise ships and fishing boats, to Juneau. The ship returned under its own power to Juneau.

The Empress of the North, owned by Seattle-based Majestic America Line, stopped in Seattle on April 30 on its way north (in winter it offers Columbia River cruises out of Portland). That was one of more than 200 cruise ship visits scheduled for Seattle this summer, which has become increasingly popular for Alaska-bound cruises with more than 754,000 passengers expected this year, according to the Port of Seattle.

Kristin Jackson: kjackson@seattletimes.com