By Rajwa Quasim
A small cruise ship in Southeast Alaska found itself at the center of a viral story this week after towing a stranded skiff to safety while billionaire CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s yacht sat nearby without responding to the call for help.
The incident took place early Monday, when the 21-foot skiff ran out of fuel between Petersburg and Juneau. Michael Love, a software developer from New York City who was a passenger on the cruise ship, took to social media to share that the cruise’s captain announced Zuckerberg’s $300 million 387-foot yacht Launchpad was closer to the skiff but hadn’t answered the radio call for help.
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Love said on Bluesky that this drew a unanimous booing from the passengers. He said, “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.”
According to the vessel tracking data, UnCruise Adventure’s ship Wilderness Legacy went around Zuckerberg’s Launchpad to reach the skiff and tow it into the sheltered waters of Farragut Bay, meanwhile superyacht remained in the middle of the waters.
The episode drew criticism online, with some accusing Zuckerberg’s yacht crew of violating international maritime rules, which require the nearest vessel to respond to a boat in distress.
As per the accounts of U.S. Coast Guard and the Marine Exchange of Alaska, the skiff sent out a call for assistance at 9:30 pm on Monday and the Coast Guard determined it was not a distress call at 9:56 pm. It then sent a callout on their radio to help the skiff.
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Chief Operations Officer of the Marine Exchange John Hollingsworth said, “We did assist the Coast Guard with callouts on our radio and (were) able to hail the Wilderness Legacy who ended up rendering assistance […]. From my experience, I know that situations like this contain myriad details for the vessels involved, so the AIS (tracking) snippet you obtained only reveals one of those details. I do know that Wilderness Legacy is an UnCruise vessel and is very familiar with Alaska waters, so that may have contributed to them rendering assistance quickly,” according to Alaska Beacon.
The crew of Zuckerberg’s yacht reportedly said they were operating on a different radio channel and did not hear the assistance request initially. Though it is not clear who was on the yacht, a spokesperson for Zuckerberg said, “Mark and his family were not on board at the time of the incident. 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.”