Kudos to Crown Princess

Crown Princess: Heroine in the Med

With all the turmoil  in Syria, it was bound to happen.  Desperate Syrians are fleeing the utter horrors ravaging their homeland crowded by any means available.  158 of them piled into a small boat in an attempt to escape by sea.  Not surprisingly, the packed boat didn't' make it to their destination.  But the refugees did - courtesy of a cruise ship.

Crown Princess by UrbanCowboy89, CC

A call for help went out from the Italian Coast Guard, who had received word that the boat was adrift some 100 miles out at sea.  That call was answered by the Crown Princess, which was in the midst of a Mediterranean Cruise.  It meant the cruisers aboard would miss their stop at the port of Corfu.  But what is that compared with human lives, 64 of them women and children?

Crown Princess diverted to the location of the stranded boat, and brought all aboard.  What a relief that must have been to those refugees to be on the comfortable big ship, where they received food and water!  Medical attention, too.

The Princess cruise ship met up with Italian naval vessels that took all but one of the people from the small boat to Syracuse, Sicily.

Watch a short video of the dramatic rescue video here.  Note the very pregnant woman dressed in brown being helped onto the ship.  The last frames of the video show the same woman being taken onto the helicopter that airlifted her to a hospital.  Her baby was born shortly afterwards.



My favorite part of the video, though is the little girl reaching for what appears to be a hamburger.  I can't help but wonder how she will remember these events years hence.

Kudos to Crown Princess for coming to the rescue once again.  That's right, this isn't her first rodeo.  She's rescued boaters and sailors in distress before, and she's not the only cruise ship that has done so.  It just doesn't always make the cut for the TV news highlights, so most people don't realize how often it does happen.