Cruise Bruise Blog
November 7, 2009
November 7, 2009
Second Professional Photographer Dies And Second Hanging On Carnival Ships
I am not much into conspiracy theories. Sure, some are amusing, others intriguing and yet others, well they just need investigation.
The investigative arm of the media has a love-hate relationship with the cruise industry. The cruise industry loves to hate them. The last thing any cruise line, cruise ship officers or crew want to see aboard their ships is a snooper. It is hard to deny things seen in videos and photographs; the public tends to take them at face value.
An example of this love to hate attitude was aboard Carnival Corp's P&O Pacific Star on October 29, 2006. Channel 7 Today Tonight Film Crew was secretly aboard the Star doing an investigative series on the problem with teen sex and alcohol on the P&O ship when they were discovered and immediately expelled, flown back home from the nearest port.
As mentioned yesterday, I have this stack of deaths to upload to the data base, and had worked through several dozen. I have pulled a handful that struck me as odd, so I could do further research. One such case was that of Gregory Gonzalez Navarro, a crew member who had reportedly hung himself out on deck. The official report made no sense to me, his parents, his wife or dozens of co-workers.
Then, I immediately come upon a second case of a hanging, this time a passenger. Hangings are very unusual, with the ocean just over the edge of a railing, a hanging just seems so very odd. Intentional hangings, those not done accidentally, are usually done by somebody other than the deceased.
It is the kind of thing done to criminals and very common in hate crimes. It sends a message, a warning to others, that there is a price to pay for crossing a specific line in the sand, and it is at the end of a swinging rope.
It is a red flag, for a fact, that something is hinky. I know that is not always the case, but when we have two hangings at sea within eight months of each other, that just screams "investigation" to me.
The passenger Przemyslaw Moranski died on October 10, 2008, while on a cruise aboard the Carnival Inspiration. He was found hanging by his belt, an act that is nearly impossible in itself. Had I not seen the case of the Carnival Victory hanging, and had I not seen the case of another Carnival Inspiration death, it might not have been so easy to think that things did not add up.
Przemyslaw Moranski was a photographer, a travel photographer to be exact. He had a passion for ships, oceans, harbors, lakes and rivers around the world. He had photographed from the Arctic, to Asia, from Africa to North America. He was really very much like Raymond J. Malace, also a travel photographer, also a Carnival Inspiration passenger, who died several months before Moranski on February 21, 2008.
These two men have several things in common. They were traveling alone, they sailed on the exact same cruise ship, that embarked from the same port. They were found dead in their cabin, both were professional photographers, and neither produced so much as a little flicker on the media radar.
Then, of the three cases, there is the mere fact there was a hanging on a ship, two hangings, and the media didn't investigate is probably the most puzzling aspect of these cases.
I had seen Malace's case, but nothing seem to jump out at me, until I began the preliminary research on the Moranski and Navarro cases. As I began compiling facts, I remember the case of the film crew removed from the Pacific Star and I wondered.
Could it be that both Malace and Moranski, photographers traveling alone, were seen as investigating what happens behind the scenes on a cruise ship, and that someone didn't like it? Since Moranski was found hanging in his cabin with a belt around his neck, there is certainly some reason to speculate there.
Malace had done work for Soldier Of Fortune, Law Enforcement Technology,
Karate / Kung-Fu Illustrated, National Geographic and many others. Alot of the work he did was travel based, and certainly being on a cruise would give him opportunity to take photographs of the subjects he love and made his earnings from.
It is unusual for people on vacation to travel alone. Generally, people travel with at least one other person. It certainly would be unusual enough that a crew member might enquire as to why a passenger was traveling alone and to learn that the passenger was a photographer on assignment, or at minimum gathering photographs could be enough to produce gossip among the crew.
Only 55-years-old, Malace's death was described by family as "unexpected". When all other passengers had put their luggage out in the hallway, the luggage had been collected and the passengers had disembarked, Malace had not done so. Apparently, nobody reported or noticed him missing before the last moment of the cruise.
His cabin steward said that he noticed Malace had not disembarked, went to his cabin, knocked on the door, got no answer and brought a security officer to the door to unlock it.
Upon entering, the cabin steward and security officer noticed Malace was on the floor, and he was dead. It is not known how long Malace had been dead before his cabin steward realized he was missing.
Whenever there is a death and nobody witnessed it, there will always be speculation as to how the incident actually took place. When there is evidence of violence, such as in hangings, it is hard to imagine there was no investigation.
Unless somebody comes forward with more information, these will be added to the numerous other cases on this site that have many questions, and few answers.
