Shaping up, The ms Patriot, last remaining symbol in Hawaii of American Classic Voyages Co.'s 21-year round-the-islands cruise service, is now under the custody of the U.S. Marshal's Service.
shipping out
Bankruptcy, consolidation and
security fears have put the cruise
industry on a new course
BANKRUPTCY
Marshals take the Patriot into
custody as Holland America
prepares to take overSECURITY
By Russ Lynch
rlynch@starbulletin.comFederal marshals seized the 1,212-passenger ship Oct. 26, responding to a complaint from Holland America Line that American Classic stopped running the ship without paying off $79.4 million owed on a mortgage. A public notice to run in Hawaii media outlets today said anyone challenging the idea that Holland America can take over the ship has 10 days to make a case.
Miami-based American Classic, which shut its Hawaii operations and almost all of its mainland business when it filed for federal U.S. Bankruptcy Court protection Oct. 18, has not filed a response with federal court in Honolulu. Company officials did not return calls.
The ship, meanwhile, sits at Pier 24 with a skeleton crew aboard, just enough people to maintain it, running up a wharfage bill of about $2,500 a day with the state Department of Transportation.
Under an order signed by U.S. Judge Helen Gillmor, the ship is detained "until further order of this court." No hearings are scheduled.
American Classic's S.S. Independence, the 860-passenger vessel that had been cruising around the islands since 1980, sailed out of Honolulu Harbor Oct. 30, escorted by a harbor fire boat, bound for San Francisco and mothballs at best, but probably headed for the scrap yard.
The Patriot, the former Nieuw Amsterdam, stayed in Honolulu while American Classic said it cannot see resuming its Hawaii cruises anytime soon.
Since, the Mississippi shipyard that had begun work on two 1,900-passenger cruise liners for American Classic's Hawaii cruises has given up on the job and moved the 40 percent-complete structure of the first $400 million ship out of its fast-track building yard. American Classic had hoped to get the first of those ships into Hawaii waters in early 2004 and the second in 2005.
Meanwhile, American Classic, whose stock has been stuck at 46 cents since trading stopped Oct. 18, said yesterday it will be delisted from the Nasdaq Stock Market, effective tomorrow. The bankruptcy filing was one reason and Nasdaq also cited American Classic's "failure to demonstrate sustained compliance with all requirements for continued listing."
The ms Patriot, built in Europe and operated by a European company, was purchased from Holland America Line in 1999 for $114.5 million. U.S. laws do not allow foreign-built ships to carry passengers between American ports, but the Patriot got an exemption under special laws passed to back American Classic's "Project America," a billion-dollar plan to build the biggest ships in an American shipyard in half a century.
While the company was in financial trouble before Sept. 11, the attacks cut into American Classic's bookings for all of its business, the round-the-islands cruises in Hawaii, its Delta Queen riverboat cruises on the mainland and its more recently developed mainland coastal cruises.
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico >> Beneath the blackjack tables and bulging all-you-can-eat buffets, divers search cruise ship hulls for explosives. At the docks, workers screen passengers for weapons and contraband. SECURITY
Safety experts say ships are a soft
target for terrorists despite
industry claims to the contraryBy Paisley Dodds
Associated PressIn the wake of the Sept. 11 suicide hijackings, security has been tightened aboard the giant vessels that can stretch nearly a quarter of a mile long and carry thousands of passengers.
In the United States, Coast Guard boats have been escorting cruise ships into port since the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, and cruise companies have been submitting crew and passengers' names to the FBI and immigration officials for checks.
"We have always had security measures in place," said Tim Gallagher, spokesman for Carnival Cruises. "But since the attacks, we've gone to level three security, the highest security level there is."
Still, security experts say that with attention focused on air safety, cruise ships could be enticing targets.
"When you protect air, land and other targets, terrorists are going to look for soft targets," said Rohan Gunaratna, a research fellow at the Center for Study of Terrorism and Political Violence at Scotland's University of St. Andrews. "Cruise ships are considered prestigious because there is a perception that they are filled with wealthy Americans."
Gunaratna, who has been asked by various governments to work as a consultant and question terrorists from the Middle East, Latin America and Asia, said groups such as Hamas, Hezbollah and al-Qaida are being trained for maritime attacks. In Sri Lanka, divers have planted explosives on commercial ships and suicide bombers have sunk navy vessels. In the South China Sea, pirates have attacked commercial vessels. And in Yemen, suicide bombers attacked the destroyer USS Cole in October 2000.
Cruise ship officials say that since Sept. 11 they have added security personnel and increased staff, making their ships far less vulnerable than planes.
They also point to the industry's safety record -- only one large cruise ship has been hijacked since 1985 -- and say modern construction with watertight compartments makes ships difficult to sink.