Something interesting is happening in the US Senate’s Com-merce, Science and Transportation committee. There in recent months a crusade has been underway to try to have the cruise ships that ply the Caribbean and the seas of the world, pay tax, become safer and be subject to greater US regulation.
After a period during which the reputation of cruise lines have been tarnished by events including the sinking of the Costa Concordia, a fire on the Royal Norwegian’s Grandeur of the Seas off the Bahamas, alarming reports in the US media about onboard crime and other incidents, and criticism of the industry’s legal but aggressive tax avoidance measures, the cruise companies now face a new form of censure.
Following hearings in which the cruise lines did not acquit themselves particularly well, Senator Jay Rockefeller, the
