Baby Found Dead Aboard Liner, 5 Days After Blaze

MIAMI — An 18-month-old girl was found dead, apparently strangled, aboard the cruise ship Emerald Seas, which docked here today after its first trip since it was damaged by fire last week, officials said.

The baby’s body was discovered about 1:30 a.m. in her mother’s cabin while the Emerald Seas was returning to Miami from a three-day trip to the Bahamas, said Bernard A. Chabot, president of Eastern Cruise Lines.

The unidentified woman was interrogated aboard the ship by FBI and Metro-Dade Police investigators, Chabot said.

“It was a very tragic family incident,” Chabot said.

He said crew members reported that the girl died “evidently by strangulation.”

Chabot said initial reports indicated that the woman may have been be a stowaway. But he said the company is checking to see if she had registered under someone else’s name, possibly as part of a small group.

The woman, believed to be from Detroit, first came to the attention of the crew Friday night when she reported that she had lost all her luggage on her way to Miami and needed diapers for the baby.

Chabot said the cruise docked on schedule today at 8 a.m. There was no declaration of emergency or evacuation.

Most passengers probably weren’t aware of the death, discovered when the ship was 40 to 50 miles off Florida, he added.

The Emerald Seas left on the voyage Friday night, two days after a fire broke out in a storage locker, injuring 17 people and forcing an evacuation near the Bahamas.