Lost at sea -- Kendall Carver's crusade

(Photo by Randy M. Cauthron) Kendall Carver, a 1954 Spencer graduate, has become a leading voice in efforts to improve safety on cruise ships. His daughter, Merrian, disappeared five years ago while on a cruise. Often incidents at sea go unreported. [Order this photo]

-Kendall Carver, President of the International Cruise Victims Association

The days of business cards and power-point presentations were supposed to be in the past for 72-year-old Kendall Carver, a member of the Spencer High School class of 1954.

He retired to Phoenix 15 years ago after a successful career as an insurance executive in New York City. It's the stage of life when hobbies, grandchildren and travel should replace the appointment book.

But, the cell phone still rang even as Carver caught up with his old classmates over the Labor Day weekend in Spencer. He has a new business card, too. It says, "President, International Cruise Victims Association."

He started the group so other families are spared the grief and frustration he's experienced since the disappearance of his daughter, Merrian Carver, who was last seen two days into a seven-day Alaskan cruise five years ago.

A PHONE CALL

There was anxiety in the 13-year-old voice Carver heard over the phone on Sept. 1, 2004. It was his granddaughter with a question that remains unanswered since his 40-year-old daughter's disappearance:

"Do you know where my mommy is?"

It wasn't like Merrian to fall out of touch with her daughter, who lives in England with Merrian's ex-husband. Carver knew something was wrong.

First came the unreturned messages left at Merrian's apartment in Cambridge, Mass. Merrian's three sisters, other friends and relatives got the next calls. No one had heard from the high-functioning, redheaded investment banker who took classes at Harvard.

Finally Cambridge police were sent over to Merrian's apartment. Nothing there offered Carver a clue to his daughter's whereabouts.

The first break came about three weeks after his granddaughter's call. Detectives accessed Merrian's financial records. A round trip flight to Seattle and back, along with a single ticket to board the Celebrity Cruise ship Mercury, were on a credit card bill.

Three days after the family called, and 26 days after Merrian disappeared, Carver got the confirmation.

"Yes, she was on the boat for a couple of days," Carver recalls Celebrity's parent company, Royal Caribbean International telling him. She didn't use the room after the second day, but that's not unusual, they told the family.

"That's all we know," Carver said. "Was she with somebody else? The answer is, we don't know. I don't think we'll ever know."

The cruise line waited three more days after updating Carver to report the missing persons case to the FBI. Carver has come to learn that many missing persons cases and crimes on cruise ships never get reported.

The cruise lines put their corporations in Liberia or Panama to avoid taxes and regulations, Carver explained.

In testimony before the U.S. Senate's Surface Transportation and Merchant Marine Subcommittee, Carver told senators, that despite capacities that exceed the population of Milford, cruise ships take the legal position that they are not required to investigate crimes and are not equipped to do so.

"Any information they give to the FBI or Coast Guard is provided on a purely voluntary basis," he told the subcommittee. "In addition, they take the position that they also are not responsible for the medical care or accidents that occur on excursions that they have chosen, promoted and also make a substantial commission on when sold to their passengers."

To illustrate his point, Carver told the subcommittee that 10 million people took cruises in 2005. Of the 50 cases handled by the FBI, their involvement led to only four convictions.

When a disappearance draws attention, cruise lines often deflect scrutiny by characterizing the incident as a suicide, he said. The cruise line suggested Merrian's disappearance was a suicide as well.

Carver said his daughter was happy in life, to the best of his knowledge.

"It almost becomes immaterial to the fact that they did everything they could to cover up her disappearance -- whatever her state of mind was," he said. "If they had a video of her jumping overboard, then, hey, that's it. That's the end of the story. But, in fact, they had it, then they said they didn't have it."

(Photo courtesy of Kendall Carver) Merrian Carver was an accomplished investment banker who enjoyed poetry and liked to go on cruises about once a year. Her disappearance has led to reforms in the cruise line industry.

ATTORNEYS AND PRIVATE INVESTIGATORS

Carver knows about the one-time existence of surveillance footage because he hired a private investigator from California to inspect the Celebrity ship Mercury and to talk with cruise managers about the events leading up to Merrian's disappearance.

The private investigator's access was limited -- the steward who cared for Merrian's room wasn't made available. Carver's investigator was on the boat just long enough to determine that Merrian's room was about 100 feet above the waterline and not far from an open-air deck.

A fall overboard couldn't be ruled out. A swift act of foul play was also possible.

The Carvers hired two law firms -- one in Massachusetts and one in Florida -- to find out more. Almost five months later, they learned, "through legal maneuvers and depositions," that, in fact, she had been reported missing daily for five days by a steward on the ship.

The steward, Domingo Monteiro, went into the cabin each day, saw items undisturbed and asked his supervisor what to do.

"His boss told him to 'forget it' and to do his job," Carver said.

Carver told subcommittee members the cruise line gave the clothing left behind in her cabin to charity. Merrian's purse and its contents were stashed in a locker, then discarded despite protocol, which calls for property left on a ship to be held for 90 days.

Other subpoenas have produced a security report outlining a series of infractions associated with Merrian's disappearance. Her room should have been left untouched. The crime should have been reported to the ship's security team. The supervisor who disregarded the steward's concerns was fired by the cruise line.

MOVING AHEAD

None of the revelations have helped the Carvers find Merrian. They waited six months to have a service.

"And it wasn't a memorial service," Carver said. "It was a service of remembrance."

The father from Spencer doesn't want the cruise ship industry to forget either.

Merrian's disappearance and Carver's experiences with Royal Caribbean helped spark the International Cruise Victims group, which now is represented in 16 countries and has a separate chapter in Australia.

Carver and other members of the group, including relatives of missing persons and survivors of sexual assault, often pay their own way to testify before Congress. Their presence is critical to counterbalance the multimillion dollar lobbying effort by the cruise industry.

Carver said the group surprised committee members at the second hearing on cruise ship safety in March of 2006. Instead of telling stories of misconduct, the group presented a 10-point program to improve the safety on cruise ships.

Some of the reforms include peepholes in cabin doors, higher railings to prevent falls from the open-air decks. Employees should undergo background checks and ships need tighter standards to prevent underage drinking.

But most importantly, Carver wants crimes to be reported and for the FBI to follow up on those reports.

"We're not going to destroy the cruise line industry, but all we want is that, if something happens on a cruise ship, appropriate action is taken so the person is punished as if they committed the crime on Lake Okoboji," he said. "That's all we want."

The Cruise Vessel Security and Safety Act of 2009 incorporates the recommendations of the International Cruise Victims Association and received unanimous support from the subcommittee that heard Carver's testimony.

Carver called the legislation a "historic step in starting to improve the safety for all passengers on cruise ships." He credited Congresswoman Doris Matsui of California and Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry's efforts to move the legislation forward.

"The term 'duty free' does not apply to the safety of passengers," Kerry said. "Murky lines of jurisdiction are no longer an excuse for risking the safety of millions of Americans who will board cruise ships this year. Security, safety, and accountability must all be strengthened to hold criminals accountable and end the cycle of serious crimes on these vessels."

The Carver incident also spurred Royal Caribbean to make procedural changes. The company requires all passengers to swipe ship-issued identification cards not only when they get on the ship but also when they get off.

"You really get some angry, dedicated people that have paid their own way to go to Washington to lobby the bill," said Carver, who drew on his experiences in New York City and as the CEO of a company. "I'm not intimidated by these guys."