Oasis skips St. Thomas call to search for crewman
Published: May 26, 2010
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Without Oasis of the Seas, Crown Bay is empty on Tuesday.
ST. THOMAS — Vendors and business owners expecting a bustling day at the Austin “Babe” Monsanto Marine Terminal in Crown Bay were surprised on Tuesday morning by what they found as they arrived — or, more specifically, what they didn’t find.
The enormous Royal Caribbean Oasis of the Seas was nowhere to be seen.
Royal Caribbean issued a statement Tuesday saying that the ship did not call on St. Thomas because it had reversed course to search for a missing crew member.
According to the statement, about 1 p.m. Monday the Oasis of the Seas’ crew reported that one of their co-workers was missing. Security searched the ship and paged the missing crew member, then contacted the U.S. Coast Guard and the Bahamian Coast Guard.
Closed circuit camera footage revealed that the missing crew member fell from the ship, Royal Caribbean said.
The company did not disclose the circumstances in which the crewman — identified by the U.S. Coast Guard as Dillon Roache, 45, of St. Vincent and the Grenadines — went overboard while the ship was underway between Nassau, Bahamas, and St. Thomas.
According to the U.S. Coast Guard, the ship retraced its route in search of the missing man.
The Oasis of the Seas departed from its search efforts Tuesday morning and continued on to St. Maarten to continue sailing a seven-night cruise of the eastern Caribbean that departed Saturday from Port Everglades in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.
Most businesses were closed by Tuesday afternoon at the Monsanto Marine Terminal, where just a few people walked among the mostly darkened storefronts.
Cory Baker, a manager at Jumbies BBQ Joint next to the dock, said business was so bad that they cut back five or six employees to just the bartender for the day.
“It was definitely a huge difference in traffic here today,” she said.
— Contact Sean McCoy at 774-8772 ext. 365 or smccoy@dailynews.vi.
