After suffering a fire in the Bahamas in March 2006, Star Princess recovered in amazing time and is now “the safest ship afloat.” I was on board Star Princess for her first voyage after the repair, and I can report that there is no evidence of fire damage, service is excellent, and safety standards are very high.

According to Cruise Director John Lawrence and other sources, the fire broke out at about 3:10 a.m. on March 23, 2006 on a port side balcony amidships, then spread to other balconies, driven by wind from the ship’s 21 knot cruising speed. According to the UK Maritime Accident Investigation Branch (MAIB), “the cause of the fire is yet to be determined,” but press reports indicate that it was likely a smoker who failed to extinguish his cigarette. The fire spread laterally and vertically across the ship’s balconies, severely damaging 79 cabins on three decks.

The fire alarm was sounded and passengers woke up, donned life jackets, and followed crew instructions. According to Dr. Phillip Shields, a passenger on board, “The cruise line did a great job and the people were relatively calm and went to their [muster] stations appropriately.”

Cruise Director Lawrence said that he had viewed a disturbing home videotape taken by a passenger, showing some passengers watching the flames, laughing, and not reporting the fire, before the fire alarm was sounded. But fire at sea is no joke—one person died of cardiac arrest and 13 were injured in this fire, and fire can destroy a vessel very rapidly if not contained.

Due to the actions of the well-trained Star Princess crew, the fire was contained and then extinguished in less than two hours, according to the MAIB. The 2600 passengers disembarked in Montego Bay, Jamaica and were provided refunds by Princess Cruises, flown home, and offered a 25% discount on future cruises. Beth Bostrom of Nashville, Tennessee said that she was pleased by the cruise line’s response: “We were impressed—if we go on another cruise, we’d go with Princess.”

Just as impressive was the speedy repair of the ship. The damaged cabins and balconies were stripped out very quickly in the Grand Bahama Shipyard in Freeport. Then the vessel dashed over to the well-regarded Lloyd Werft yard in Bremerhaven, Germany. According to Cruise Director John Lawrence, “We chose the Lloyd Werft yard instead of the original builder’s yard of Fincantieri in Italy, because we knew that it would take almost a week to sail the vessel from Italy around Gibralter to the Baltic, after the repair. We wanted the ship’s first post-repair voyage to be in the Baltic by May 15, the start of the Baltic cruising season, and we knew that week would be critical.” In fact, just about every minute was critical. “I arrived at the ship on May 10, just five days before sailing,” said Lawrence. “Many cabins, balconies and railings were not in place, and I thought there was no way that we could sail on time. But the German yard manager assured me that ‘ve are right on the schedule!’ and sure enough we sailed on time. The Lloyd Werft yard did a fantastic job.”

According to Lawrence, “The most amazing part of the reconstruction was that most of the furniture, rugs, fixtures and other heavy items had to be air-freighted from Fincantieri in Italy to northern Germany, in order to make the very tight re-construction schedule.” The expense was huge, but the turnaround was worth it. The vessel went from severely damaged to totally passenger-ready in just 53 days, an incredible feat of logistics, management and dedication.

I interviewed a crew member who was part of the reconstruction team. “We worked around the clock to make the deadline. It was amazing the see the big holes where the damaged cabins had been pulled out—then they just miraculously filled up with shiny new cabins.”

Cruise Director Lawrence noted, importantly, that the ship is now much safer than it was before the fire. “The Bremerhaven yard installed smoke detectors and sprinklers on every balcony on board. At this point the Star Princess is the only ship in the cruising fleet that has this important new safety feature, which is recommended but not required for all cruise vessels. All of the Princess fleet will have these features installed in the next few months, but at this moment, Star Princess is arguably the safest cruise ship afloat.”

The ship’s literature notes that the Star Princess has over 15,000 smoke, fire and other sensors scattered all over the ship, in every space, in every cabin, and on every balcony. In my opinion, a passenger on a cruise ship like this is probably safer, by several orders of magnitude, than he is anywhere on land.

Our voyage through the Baltic went off without a hitch. The ship was beautifully decorated, the staff were friendly and very service-oriented, and the ports of Copenhagen, Stockholm, Helsinki, St. Petersburg, Tallinn, Gdansk and Oslo were terrific. The Baltic is one of the great undiscovered cruising grounds, and the Star Princess is an excellent and very safe vessel in which to make your voyage of discovery.

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Lew Toulmin is a member of the Naval Order of the United States and the Descendants of Pirates and Privateers. He has traveled to 170 countries and sovereign territories, and lives in Silver Spring. You can reach Princess Cruises at www.princess.com, at 1-800-PRINCESS, or at 24844 Avenue Rockefeller, Santa Clarita, CA 91355.

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