A small cruise ship operating in Southeast Alaska made an unexpected detour Monday night to help a 21-foot skiff that had run out of fuel between Petersburg and Juneau. Mark Zuckerberg’s $300 million superyacht reportedly was closer to the crippled vessel but ignored calls for help.
The Alaska Beacon reports that Michael Love, a passenger aboard the small cruise ship that rescued the stranded boat, described the incident on social media. What caught his attention most, he said, was when the ship’s captain announced that a nearby yacht belonging to Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg was closer to the stranded boat but had not answered the radio call for help.
“There was near unanimous booing when the captain announced this,” Love wrote in a post on the social media platform Bluesky.
Vessel tracking data from the area supports part of that account. The tracking shows the $300 million, 387-foot superyacht Launchpad slowing to a halt outside Farragut Bay while the UnCruise Adventures ship Wilderness Legacy travels around and past the Launchpad, stops near the apparent location of the skiff, and tows it into sheltered Farragut Bay.
In a message on Bluesky, Love said it was gratifying to be aboard a vessel that responded positively to the situation. “Frankly, if I was Mark Zuckerberg I would be absolutely ecstatic at a chance to do something helpful for someone in need and maybe get some good PR out of it,” he said.
Some social media users responding to Love’s post accused the yacht’s crew of violating international maritime agreements requiring the nearest vessel to assist a boat in distress. But according to the U.S. Coast Guard and the Marine Exchange of Alaska, which tracks ship traffic in the region, there was no formal distress call, only a general request for assistance.
Coast Guard Public Affairs Specialist Shannon Shepard said by email that the Coast Guard received the call for help just after 9:30 p.m. Monday. “At approximately 9:56 p.m., the Coast Guard determined they were not in distress and issued a marine assistance request broadcast on their behalf,” she said.
John Hollingsworth, chief operations officer of the Marine Exchange, based in Juneau, said the organization relayed that broadcast. “We did assist the Coast Guard with callouts on our radio and (were) able to hail the Wilderness Legacy who ended up rendering assistance,” he said. He added that the Wilderness Legacy’s familiarity with Alaska waters “may have contributed to them rendering assistance quickly,” noting that tracking data alone does not capture every detail of an incident involving multiple vessels.
AA spokesperson for Zuckerberg stated the billionaire CEO and his family were not on board at the time. “As the Coast Guard noted, the boat was not in distress, and by the time the crew reviewed the Coast Guard contact on a different radio channel from the one they were operating on, the assist was already underway. We’re grateful all parties are safe,” the statement said.
The Wilderness Legacy’s detour marks the second time in two weeks that a small cruise ship in Southeast Alaska has provided assistance to a vessel in trouble. On July 30, the National Geographic Quest helped a family who swam to shore in Glacier Bay National Park after a humpback whale sank their sailboat.
Read more at the Alaska Beacon here.
Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of AI, free speech, and online censorship.