For vacationers encountering trouble on cruise ships, U.S. laws may provide little help

She and her parents were aboard the cruise ship Costa Concordia , which began listing badly and taking on water shortly after scraping along a rocky reef off Italy's Tuscan coast and gouging a bus-size hole in the port side just below the water line.

http://www.abajournal.com/magazine/article/for_vacationers_encountering_trouble_on_cruise_ships_u.s._laws/