While one might hope that a cruise ship — or any other vessel nearby — would help people stranded at sea, that’s not always the case. Which makes it altogether refreshing and heart-warming that the captain of a luxury cruise ship listened to his passengers when they reported hearing cries for help in the water.

One couple aboard the Royal Caribbean cruise ship Jewel of the Seas tells CBS Boston that they were awoken in the middle of the night on the way from San Juan, Puerto Rico to St. Martin by what sounded like cries for help.

“We started to go back to sleep, and right after that, we started to hear voices out in the water. We heard, ‘Hey, hey, hey, hey,’” said the man. “We sat and thought about it for a minute and then we said, ‘Somebody’s out there and we better make a call.’”

Two others on the ship also reported hearing cries for help, and told the ship’s captain. He turned the ship around and turned the flood lights on to search for the source.

After an hour, a white spot showed up in the ocean.

“When it finally hit on something that was clearly sticking out of the water a little bit, that was a rush,” said the passenger. “As the ship got closer, we saw the guy there waving. That’s when we really got goose bumps.”

The captain sent out a rescue crew in a smaller boat, and it came back with three Americans from St. Croix whose speedboat had capsized 10 hours earlier.

“I really just took away from it that there’s a lot of nice and really good people in the world,” the boat’s owner said of the ordeal, which had him trapped in the cabin under water.

As for that passenger who called the captain instead of going back to sleep, he says he and his wife are relieved they picked up the phone that night.

“We still get goosebumps,” he says.

Amesbury Couple On Cruise Ship Helps Rescue Men Stranded At Sea [CBS Boston]

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