Cruise ship diverted as judge orders seizure over fuel debt

The Crystal Symphony docked in the Bahamian island of Bimini with passengers taken by ferry to Fort Lauderdale on Sunday.

The Crystal Symphony.

A cruise ship bound for Miami diverted to the Bahamas with hundreds of passengers on board after a US judge granted an order to seize the vessel over unpaid fuel bills.

The Crystal Symphony docked in the Bahamian island of Bimini, about 80km east of southern Florida, with passengers taken by ferry to Port Everglades in Fort Lauderdale on Sunday.

The vessel, which can carry up to 848 passengers but was thought to have about 300 on board along with 400 crew, could have been seized in US waters under an arrest warrant obtained by Peninsula Petroleum Far East. It claims that Crystal Cruises and one of its sister lines, Star Cruises, both owned by Genting Hong Kong, owes it $US4.6m in unpaid fuel bills dating back to 2017.

Elio Pace, a British singer who had just joined the ship as a performer, tweeted: “We were told that we would all need to disembark the ship and make our way home. Would you believe me if I told you that yesterday, Friday, (the night of my second show) after all arrangements had been set for flights, car hire etc by all disembarking passengers and crew, we were notified by the captain that the ship was no longer sailing to Miami and was instead diverting to Bimini in the Bahamas where we would arrive tomorrow, Sunday, and disembark from there?”

Crystal Cruises said last week that it was suspending operations until late April. “Suspending operations will provide Crystal’s management team with an opportunity to evaluate the current state of business and examine various options moving forward,” the company said.

The Times