A cruise ship by any other name is a passenger liner. But not vice versa.
Ocean liners were designed to transport passengers and deliver mail from one country to another. They were simply a mode of transportation, such as the TITANIC’s ‘unthinkable’ voyage from the United Kingdom to the United States in 1912.
Travel by sea came long before air travel. However, the period from 1950 to 1970 brought a dramatic decline in transatlantic passenger traffic by sea and a sharp rise in air travel with the introduction of commercial jet aircrafts. Passenger liners have been replaced by floating hotels that cater to vacationers. Now, the echo of ‘Welcome Aboard’ is for those not looking for transportation but rather treating every day as a ‘Sun Day’–the motto proudly posted aboard Virgin Atlantic’s newest ship, MV BRILLIANT LADY in New York recently on its Maiden Voyage.
The name ‘cruise ship’ now implies its mission: cruising, gambling, shopping, swimming, dancing and dining. What was once just transportation has evolved to be just entertainment. There are even water parks, climbing walls, spas, and private islands. And, with that comes the associated risks and liabilities under maritime law.
Cruising for a Bruising
A hairdresser was injured aboard the SS INDEPENDENCE on a voyage to the Mediterranean falling and bruising her face and lower back. The hairdresser sued the shipowner and her employer, House of Albert, who had the concession to staff and operate the barber and beauty salons on board three large passenger liners. The Second Circuit determined that the hairdresser could maintain an action against the shipowner for unseaworthiness and general negligence, reasoning that the duty to provide a seaworthy ship extends not only to the vessel owner’s employees but to all “who perform the ship’s service…with his consent or by his arrangement”. Mahramas v. American Export Isbrandtsen Lines, Inc., 475 F.2d 165 (2d Cir. 1973) quoting Seas Shipping Co. v. Sieracki, 328 U.S. 85,95 (1946). Although Mahramas was not performing any of the historic functions of a ship’s crew, because she was required to have seaman’s papers, signed articles, and was performing a service upon the ship, she was found to have seaman status. As a result, she could also maintain a cause of action for negligence as well as maintenance and cure against her employer under the Jones Act. Mahramas at 170.
Admiralty to Aviation?
Now that air travel has taken over the same routes traditionally done by ships, lawyers have cleverly argued that federal admiralty jurisdiction should apply to the airborne travel that was once a ‘traditional maritime’ activity. The application of maritime law could be particularly relevant to issues such as damages in death and injury cases.
In a most interesting 1972 air crash into navigable waters case, Executive Jet Aviation v. City of Cleveland, the Supreme Court was compelled to revisit its test for federal admiralty jurisdiction which at the time was based strictly on the ‘locality’ of the loss; to wit, if the incident occurred on ‘navigable waters’, it was subject to federal admiralty jurisdiction. In Executive Jet, the aircraft crashed into navigable waters of Lake Erie after it struck a flock of seagulls on takeoff from Cleveland enroute to Portland, Maine. A jurisdiction battle ensued with petitioners looking to invoke federal admiralty jurisdiction and maritime law concepts. Petitioners argued that when an aircraft crashes into navigable waters, the dangers to persons and property are much the same as those arising out of the sinking of a ship or a collision between two vessels. 409 U.S. 249, 269.
The Executive Jet flight would have been almost entirely over land and within the continental United States. Thus, the Court denied admiralty jurisdiction finding no ‘significant relationship’ to traditional maritime activities such as navigation and commerce on navigable waters by a flight falling from one point in the continental United States to another. 409 U.S. 249, 272.
However, the court did acknowledge that if a plane flying from New York to London crashed in the mid-Atlantic, there could be admiralty jurisdiction over resulting tort claims. As stated by the Court, an aircraft in that transoceanic situation “might be thought to bear a significant relationship to traditional maritime activity because it would be performing a function traditionally performed by waterborne vessels” such as passenger liner transportation. 409 U.S. 271.
To avoid inconsistent results based on ‘locality’ test alone, the Supreme Court expanded the test for admiralty jurisdiction. It determined that for admiralty tort jurisdiction to apply, more than just ‘locality’ on navigable waters was necessary, stating that it is ‘far more consistent with the history and purpose of admiralty to require that the wrong bear a significant relationship to traditional maritime activity’. 409 U.S. 249, 268.
The Scrappy SS UNITED STATES
The majestic passenger liners of the past are nearly extinct – a forgotten era of glory and romance of ships like the SS UNITED STATES, SS INDEPENDENCE, RMS QUEEN MARY, RMS MAURETANIA and RMS TITANIC. In America, the grandest of all was the SS UNITED STATES. The ship made dozens of transoceanic voyages. Launched in 1951, it was and remains the largest ocean liner ever built in the United States (in Newport News, VA). Delivered to New York in June, 1952, on its maiden voyage, the ship shattered the Atlantic Ocean speed record, crossing in 3 days and 10 hours. Its longest serving and highest ranking Master (1953-1964) was Commodore John Anderson, the father of one of New York’s preeminent admiralty lawyers, Charles Anderson.
Sadly, the aged ship has been marked to be sunk to become the world’s largest artificial reef while its appurtenances to be set aside for a land-based museum. On August 27, 2024, Okaloosa County of Florida took possession of the vessel and moved the ship to Mobile, Alabama to prepare for its eventual sinking as an artificial reef of the shores of Okaloosa County, Florida.
But, like Rocky, this ship wouldn’t go down without a fight. The ship with nine lives was recently in litigation in a last-ditch effort to save her from the marine equivalent of a knockout and to be fully restored to glory.
In March 2025, a not-for profit corporation, the “New York Coalition to Save the Steam Ship United States” commenced suit against Okaloosa County, Florida in the Northern District of Florida in an effort to save the ship from being cut up, sunk and becoming an artificial reef off the coast of Florida. 3:25-CV-212, ECF No. 28, at *1. The lawsuit, like the ship itself, was big and bold. The NY Coalition had even sent a letter to President Trump requesting an executive order for the US government to take ownership of the ship to prevent scrapping. But the Coalition was soundly defeated.
The suit was dismissed without prejudice on August 6th, 2025, by Judge M. Casey Rodgers in a 12-page decision holding that the NY Coalition lacked standing. Id. at 12. The Court noted that “[t]he NY Coalition lays claim only to a widely shared interest in historic preservation, which is not a legally protected interest.” Id. at 9. The Coalition recently threw in the towel agreeing on August 16th, 2025 to a voluntarily dismissal with prejudice. 3:25-CV-212, ECF No. 30.
Passenger liners designed for transportation alone is a concept of the past, but cruise lines, where every day is a Sun Day, continue to thrive and provide seafaring enjoyment. Had the SS UNITED STATES survived its challenge in admiralty court, it ‘coulda been a contenda’ in New York as a tourist attraction, cultural facility, or industrial/residential complex. Instead, it will now swim with the fishes. RIP.
JAMES E. MERCANTE is the Admiralty partner at Gallo Vitucci Klar LLP; US Navy Reserve Captain (Retired); and President of the Board of Commissioners of Pilots of the State of New York, jmercante@gvlaw.com. JOANNA GRILLO, maritime associate at Gallo Vitucci Klar LLP, assisted in the preparation of this article.