Two crew members died on board a Holland America Line cruise ship in the Bahamas over the weekend. The men were in the engine room of the Florida-based ship Nieuw Amsterdam, anchored at private resort island Half Moon Cay, when there was an “accidental steam release”. While officials provided limited details, one maritime lawyer said the men — whose bodies were found close to the engine room’s hydraulic doors — had been trapped and suffocated in sweltering temperatures.
“The explosion released steam into the engine room.” According to Walker’s reports, an alarm was triggered and doors were closed as ventilation to the space was shut down before it was evacuated. “The two crew members, who were not equipped with emergency escape breathing devices , were unable to manually open the closed, heavy hydraulic doors. They were trapped in the space,” Walker said. Walker said the men suffocated due to a lack of oxygen and 180C steam filling the room.