Norwegian Star owner
defends company’s actions
on dog left at sea

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By Ron Staton
Associated Press

The owner of a cruise ship that rescued 11 crewmen from a disabled Indonesian tanker off Hawaii last week has received three cancellations and critical e-mail for leaving behind the captain's dog, which perished when the ship apparently sank, a spokeswoman said yesterday.

"We have responded individually to each (complaint)," said Susan Robison, public relations director for Miami-based Norwegian Cruise Line. "They feel better after they hear our side of the story."

The company issued a statement yesterday criticizing the Hawaiian Humane Society for saying the crew of the cruise ship Norwegian Star would not allow the skipper of the tanker Insiko 1907 to take his dog aboard the ship during the April 2 rescue.

"At no time during the rescue operation or immediately after the rescue did Insiko crew members inform the captain of Norwegian Star that a dog was onboard the cargo ship," the statement said.

"Had the NCL captain been aware, the dog would have been safely transported onto the Norwegian Star," it said.

Humane Society spokes-woman Eve Holt raised the possibility that cruise ship captain didn't immediately tell the Norwegian Star crew about the dog.

"I don't doubt that the captain of the Norwegian Star is being truthful when he said he didn't know about the dog being on the tanker," Holt said.

The Humane Society began a rescue effort on Friday after cruise ship passengers during a stop on Maui told a Honolulu television station they heard a dog barking on the tanker.

The $50,000 rescue effort ended Sunday when a tug boat and airplane hired by the society went to the scene and concluded the tanker had sunk.

Mason Matheny of Tulsa, Okla., a passenger who told KHNL-TV that he heard the dog barking, said he and his wife Judy went out on their balcony after being awoken after 1:45 a.m. April 2 by a noise. They saw the tanker between 50 and 100 yards away, and the Norwegian Star crew launching lifeboats to rescue its crew.

Matheny also heard a dog barking.

"We heard that dog bark for a while," Matheny, who is vacationing in Honolulu, said in an interview yesterday.

Matheny said he took out his video camera to start filming the rescue.

"I turned on the video camera, and you can hear me, I said 'Judy, I don't hear the dog barking anymore. I wonder what happened to it.' "

Matheny said an announcement was made later that morning, as a helicopter approached to take a badly burned crew member to Honolulu, telling passengers the cruise ship had rescued the people from the tanker.

"They said 'Unfortunately we couldn't bring the dog onboard' -- it was the captain who said it," Matheny said.

"The captain may not have known it at that exact time" of the rescue that the dog was left on the tanker, he said.

Colin Veitch, president and chief executive officer of Norwegian Cruise Line, said it was "simply untrue" that the cruise ship's captain left the animal behind.

"It is unfortunate that the heroism of the crew onboard Norwegian Star has been overshadowed by false allegations that we deliberately and maliciously left an animal behind," Veitch said in a statement.