All at Sea

Twelve short stories about cruising: where none of the passengers have been screened and potentially anyone can 'cruise'. Anything can happen! With up to two thousand passengers on the big liners, an average of nine hundred staff and crew, and with no policing on board and floating in international waters, disappearances are frequent and often uninvestigated. Cruise ships are thought of as a luxury getaway from our busy or monotonous lifestyles, an escape from the drudgery of cooking and cleaning, and a chance to dress up, learn new skills, to be entertained and to explore faraway places. On these family-friendly floating paradises a woman is twice as likely to be sexually assaulted, and robbery on board ship and on the islands is fairly common-place. Death is the last thing anyone expects on a holiday cruise ship but the truth is that about 400 people each year vanish for various reasons including murder, suicides, accidents and mysterious disappearances. And all with no police to investigate or prevent crime and no immediate help available. Sickness, fire, malfunction, running aground, and the forces of nature make them a vulnerable place to be. These stories while inspired by real events have been written to be entertaining and uplifting, and whilst there are dangers, it is a lighthearted look at the pleasures of cruising.