Posted on 10/30/2025 10:58:29 AM PDT by Red Badger
Missing a boarding time for a cruise ship could end up fatal.
An 80-year-old Australian woman was discovered dead on a remote island after she was left behind by the cruise ship she was traveling on.
The woman was hiking on Lizard Island with a group of other passengers, but was separated from the group after she decided to take some time to rest.
The Coral Adventurer cruise ship ended up leaving the woman on the island, but returned several hours later to find her after she was discovered not to be on board.
On Sunday, she was discovered dead.
Per BBC:
An 80-year-old Australian woman has been found dead on a Great Barrier Reef island after being left behind by the cruise ship she was travelling on.
The woman had been hiking on Lizard Island, 250km (155 miles) north of Cairns, with fellow passengers from the Coral Adventurer cruise ship on Saturday but is believed to have broken off from the group to have a rest.
The ship left the island around sunset but returned several hours later after the crew realised the woman was missing. A major search operation found her body on Sunday morning. No details have been released.
The Australian Maritime Safety Authority (Amsa) said it was investigating and would meet the ship’s crew later this week. It is understood the woman, who has not been named, was on the first stop of a 60-day cruise around Australia, with tickets costing in the tens of thousands of dollars for the journey.
The woman has since been identified as Suzanne Rees.
Suzanne’s daughter Katherine Rees revealed the day her mother was hiking was very hot and her mother rested after unfeeling during the hike.
Katherine Rees, in a statement to the press, stated the cruise ship’s “failure of care and common sense” led to her mother’s death.
She added, “She was asked to head down, unescorted. Then the ship left, apparently without doing a passenger count. At some stage in that sequence, or shortly after, Mom died, alone.”
Cruising expert Adrian Tassone shared that cruise ships usually know who is on and off board. The case of Rees being unaccounted for appears to be a tragic blunder.
Yes, they may have split into separate groups, one set going with the Indians and one to Hatteras Island.
There were no signs of the colonists having planted crops or even clearing any ground for farming. So they may have decided that life was too difficult in the New World and one group wanted to return to England, while the other group wanted to stay with the Indians.............
Their relationship with the local Indians deteriorated pretty soon and there was open conflict. The first colony was all men and basically military in character. The second group consisted of families. There is a theory that some of the second group joined the Indians and supposedly some of the North Carolina Indians later may be their descendants.
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