Ride the Lightning

AHOY MATEY! ELECTRONIC EVIDENCE ABOARD SHIP

July 21, 2008

I regret to say that I am no longer aboard ship. Alas, I must now make my own cocktails, prepare my own meals and make my own bed. I preferred being onboard, all things considered. And, of course, I miss the Wheel of Fortune, which spun sweetly for me – to the tune of $3000, though I charitably gave some back – and shared with the three guys who were with me so they could lose at the tables. The Bank of Mama was very popular.

We had the honor of dining with the Captain of the Royal Caribbean’s Grandeur of the Seas, Jim Olson, who very kindly invited us to take a tour of the bridge. In case you were wondering, this is where the electronic evidence part comes in. Now, we knew that facial recognition technology was used every time one gets on or off the ship, and we knew there were some cameras in the public areas but we really didn’t appreciate the full extent of the surveillance. According to the Captain, ALL public areas of the ships are under camera watch – and with a few mouse clicks, he moved from place to place, finally amusing us by showing us ourselves peering at the monitor on the bridge.

Doing what we do for a living, we naturally inquired if these images were viewing or recording (recording was the correct answer) and how long the images are kept (a total of FOUR years, rather to our surprise). Should someone report that something was stolen from their cabin, the security force has both the identification from the room key as well as the hall camera images to investigate. One can see how this would discourage anyone criminally minded among the crew, to put it mildly.

Grinning at each other, John and I were remembering how often we had seen the “Love and Marriage” game show aboard ship. One of the questions is invariably: “Where is the most unusual place you’ve ever made love?”  Many times, the answer involves intimacy somewhere aboard the ship in a public area. So, be forewarned – security may not come to “break it up” but you may be leaving quite a flamboyant piece of electronic evidence around for some four years. Not that we were, at any time, considering any intimate adventures in public areas, but our mantra for the voyage was “what happens in our stateroom stays in our stateroom.”

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