Something Sinister
When Cruising Can Sink To The Lowest Depths
Ammo Found Aboard Carnival Cruise Ship Again
March 17, 2008
I was drinking my morning coffee, when this story came to my desk. I paused on it for several days, coming back, reading the details over and over. Something about it just seemed terribly wrong, something sinister.
It is clear to me that there are people who live in areas of the world, where sleeping with a handgun under their pillow is the only way they can survive. Dirty little secrets have a way of rearing up their ugly heads, in the middle of the night.
There is also no surprise to me that people travel with guns in their vehicles, take them with them on vacation, and even use them in the course of jobs that require them to travel. Some people, just live life on the edge, all the time.
But, that does not explain to me, how a handgun, or ammunition for it, goes through the stringent security check points at airports or sea ports, within the U.S. only to end up aboard a flight or cruise ship.
I dare say it is highly probable that every cruise on every ship out of the U.S. likely has at least one police officer aboard at any given time. Police officers make good money, live a good life, and cruising is one way for them enjoy their well-earned time away from the badge, in theory.
Every really big case I have on Cruise Bruise has an off-duty officer somewhere in witness testimony. While they may officially be off-duty, no officer is really ever free of their duty to 'protect and serve', whether in the pool, sunning on deck, dining in the restaurants, or dancing the night away. They are an alert and detail oriented bunch, always seeing what the average person over looks. They make great witnesses.
The question is, do they arrive at embarkation with a handgun in their possession lugging along the ammunition for it, just in case things get off the wall, along the way? The short answer should be, "no".
Still, at least twice in the past two years, ammunition has been found aboard cruise ships both of them Carnival Cruise Ships, and both of them on cruise ships that were traveling in around the Caribbean. How the ammunition got there and why it got there are two questions that have never been answered.
This just really bothers me. I am on a cruise, you are on a cruise, and the guy in the cabin next door has a gun and ammunition. You and I could not bring a gun and ammo aboard with us, and I don't really think you or I would find a need to be armed to teeth while we sailed the high seas. It was not part of the process.
Toothbrush? Check. Hairbrush? Check. Diapers for grandson? Check. Handgun and ammo? Check. Check.
For some passengers, these items seem to be a holiday packing check list item. Now, if they were headed off to a Holiday Inn Express for a week of land lubbing relaxation, I can stretch my imagination to the limits and just begin to imagine why in the world anyone would pack some 'heat' with them as they pack the kiddies into the family car. There is just something sinister about needing to arm yourself in order to float in a swimming pool for a week with the children under foot.
I do not profess to know alot about police officers or the military. But, I would bet any person trained in law enforcement or in military combat knows the proper procedures for handling, carrying, storing and transporting firearms and their ammunition well enough that they just don't drop ammunition on the floor in a ship's lobby or leave a bag of it in a closet of their guest room, after they removed their garments from the hangers.
Yet, this is exactly what happened aboard two Carnival Cruise Line ships, on two different cruises. Try as I might, I can only come up with a few explanations for how the ammunition might have ended up aboard.
In July 2006, aboard the Carnival Conquest, out of Galveston, Texas a housekeeper tells Cruise Bruise in an unconfirmed report that ammunition was found aboard the ship, and a housekeeper was questioned about the incident.
The male housekeeper says he was told by a female housekeeper that
" the bullets were in the closet of a guest cabin, and the female housekeeper who had been assigned to clean that cabin, said that she was called by the housekeeping manager and told security needs to talk with her about a little bag found with bullets in the cabin. Apparently, new guest who arrived on the cruise said they found it in the closet."
How is it this incident never made the news down in Galveston, Texas? The quick answer is, it never happened. I might buy that if not for the fact that I have another case on this web site, that did make the mainstream media.
In that case, March 1, 2007 aboard the Carnival cruise ship Celebration ammunition was found on the floor in a public area of the ship, while passengers were disembarking.
The story posted on this site a year ago says, "A passenger turned in the ammunition at an information desk after she found two .22-caliber bullets in the lobby, and turned them into guest services during docking of the vessel at Jacksonville, Florida. The Coast Guard ordered a top-to-bottom inspection of the Celebration, delaying boarding by passengers by about an hour."
With all the bomb scares and threats at the ports, real bombs going off, real terrorist attacks, a child's belt buckle in the shape of a hand grenade setting off security alarms, and other security issues at passenger ship ports, is it possible that handguns and ammunition are being slipped through security routinely, being brought on to cruise ships everyday with the ammunition being carelessly left anywhere, even in a guest room closet, where it might have been found by a child just unpacking his suitcase?
Does that make the Cruise Bruise Ethics Test scenario much more likely to become a reality, AGAIN?
There is one other possibility. Maybe the ammunition was already aboard, brought on by crew, easily smuggled aboard the ships from third world countries. I mean after all, if a person, or persons can board a ship without detection, leave a ship without detection, and numerous pedophiles, murders, and members of organized crime can board cruise ships, what else can be brought aboard a ship without detection?
For me, it is not so much the "what", it is the "why" that is important.
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