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History in brief
SS
SeaBreeze was a cruise ship that made headlines when its
passengers were unloaded mid-way through their cruise and
the vessel was put under arrest in Halifax Harbor. The ship
then sank in international waters three months later. It was
owned by International Shipping Partners and insured for
$20M when its value was estimated at $5–6M
History
This ship was built in 1958 by the Ansaldo Sestri Ponente
shipyard in Italy as the Federico C. The ship was the first
new ship built for the Costa Line. The ship was initially
liner service between Genoa, Italy and Buenos Aires,
Argentina via Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. In 1966, she began
service between Genoa, Italy and Florida, the Caribbean and
Venezuela. The ship had a major refit in 1968, then added
Caribbean cruises between trans-Atlantic trips. Federico C
did cruises exclusively from 1972 to 1983, when the boat was
sold.
In 1983, Premier Cruises obtained the ship and named it the
Royale; it became the StarShip Royale' in the same year. In
1988, the ship was renamed the SeaBreeze when it was placed
in service for Dolphin Cruise Lines. One year later, the
ship was refurbished. Premier took possession of the ship
when it acquired Dolphin in 1997. When Premier went out of
business in September 2000, the ship was ordered to
immediately cease operations. At the time, it was docked at
a Canadian port.
Sinking
In December 2000, it sank off the coast of North
Carolina/Virginia. when the ship's boiler allegedly broke
off and damaged the ship.
The investigation into the sinking of the SeaBreeze I caused
international concern, based upon numerous suspicious
incidents, including the fact that the ship was likely to
fetch only between $5 and $6 million for scrap, but had a
$20 million insurance policy on it. The cruise ship sank in
international waters flying the Panamanian flag, making
Panama responsible for the investigation of the sinking of
the boat.
The ship's captain told U.S. Coast Guard rescuers that his
boat was in imminent danger of sinking as a result of its
engine room being flooded in high winds and 25-foot seas. At
the time, the Coast Guard rescuers believed that it was
highly unlikely for a ship that large to sink that quickly,
and were astonished when the Greek captain demanded that all
hands be extracted from the ship, instead of requesting
salvage tugs and trying to tow it to shore for recovery.
Subsequently, all 34 crewmembers were rescued; there were no
passengers on board.
At the time of the sinking, Steven Cotton of the
International Transport Workers' Federation in London stated
that he wished that the ship, which went down 225 nautical
miles (417 km) off the Virginia coast, had gone down 25
nautical miles (46 km) closer to the coast because that
would have put the case in the hands of American
investigators.
According to Cotton, "Panama's track record of carrying out
comprehensive investigations into vessel sinking is not very
good."
The vessel had just been purchased by Cruise Ventures III, a
subsidiary of New York-based DLJ Capital Funding and was
traveling from Halifax, Nova Scotia to Charleston, South
Carolina.
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