Carnival will not reimburse taxpayers for costs incurred in rescuing their ships.

MOBILE, Ala. - Carnival Corp. wants U.S. taxpayers to pick up the tab for rescuing its Triumph cruise ship in February, saying in a letter to a U.S. senator that it won’t reimburse the government for responding to the incident.

U.S. Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-West Virginia, wrote to Miami-based Carnival in March, saying he was “deeply troubled” by reports about conditions on the Triumph prior to its arrival in Mobile on Feb. 14. Passengers spent five days on the ship without power in the Gulf of Mexico after a fire in its engine room.

Rockefeller described the incident as the latest in a long line of debacles for Carnival involving its cruise ships, and cited estimates that the U.S. Navy and Coast Guard incurred costs of $779,914 responding to the Triumph alone.

That followed more than $3.4 million in costs incurred by the Navy and Coast Guard in responding to a 2010 incident involving the Carnival Splendor.

“Given that you reportedly pay little or nothing in federal taxes, do you intend to reimburse the Coast Guard and the Navy for the cost of responding ?” Rockefeller wrote in a March 14 letter addressed to Mickey Arison, chairman and chief executive of the cruise line.

Carnival responded in a March 29 letter to Rockefeller that it did not intend to reimburse the government for either incident – nor for any future incidents involving its ships.

“Carnival’s policy is to honor maritime tradition that holds that the duty to render assistance at sea to those in need is a universal obligation of the entire maritime community,” wrote James Hunn, Carnival’s senior vice president for corporate maritime policy.

What I want to know is...

Is Carnival full of shit on this or do they believe this "mariners helping mariners" thing?

Have they EVER come to the aid of another ship in distress? An honest question. I don't really know the answer... but I suspect that the answer is no.

I would suspect that they have, but possibly only because it is the law. They seem like a bunch of assholes to me.

Does the average boater get charged when the Coast Guard rescues them from their broken down or sinking boat??

I think the answer lies in whether the mechanical failures were a matter of willful neglect to the ship or not. If it was, they should have to reimburse... and I believe that's how they typically decide these types of thing. If Carnival neglected to address known issues to the components that failed they should have to pony-up. Easy to prove with records of PM checks and all that good stuff.

For example (and a couple scenarios) where I live it is the law to clear the land 100 - 200-ft (depends on what community you live in. I actually have to clear my whole 1-1/2 acres) around your home and structures and perform weed abatement, etc. on the remaining property. Failure to comply is monitored closely and tickets are very expensive.

But if the fire dept is in a situation where they could either 1/ fight fire that is advancing on a home that IS within compliance or 2/ fight fire advancing on a home that is NOT in compliance, they can legally choose to dedicate their resources to the home whose owners care enough about their home to be within guidelines, as the other homeowners have been willfully neglectful. Second scenario: If they're called to fight fire at a home that is not within compliance (I can't remember if they have to have been previously cited or not) they can go after the homeowners for reimbursement of their manhours, services, equipment, etc.

This is one of the few occasions that I feel that "more government" is better... people can be downright stupid and I don't see why that should fall on the backs of the rest of us taxpayers.

I agree 100% Ricey... I feel the same with the houses that burn or slide down the hills in CA and the houses on the beach that get washed away every time there is a hurricane in FL.. I think the owners should have sufficient money locked up to pay for either repairs or removal of the debris from the houses that burn or get destroyed in storms. Remember the rule on P'cola beach, "leave only your footprints"!!!!!!!!

The idiots who build homes on the sides of cliffs -- particularly in earthquake country -- are particularly annoying to me. What did they THINK was going to happen???

I worked as an electrician in 93-94 after a few hurricanes. The ABSENTEE owners on the beach had the houses rebuilt after the insurance agents met the owners lawyer/property reps at McGuire's and wrote checks without ever seeing the house. SOME were totally remodeled on all 3 floors and the only damage was the blow out areas (garage) under the living area. All new appliances, lighting fixtures, furniture, energy efficient windows, sheetrock walls and everything.. MOST had NO damage other that the garage area.

Jake92 wrote:

Does the average boater get charged when the Coast Guard rescues them from their broken down or sinking boat??

I don't know, Jake. I always buy the insurance to get towed... and have taken advantage of it a couple of times.