A few days after the Anthem of the Seas was forced to return to port after being caught in 120 knot winds off Cape Hatteras, Bill Baumgartner, Royal Caribbean’s senior vice president of Global Marine Operations, told The Jersey Journal that predictions of the storm had forecast wind speeds of 55 to 65 knots, or around 63 to 74 miles per hour, which “these ships are made to withstand without any significant issue.”
I read that sentence several times. That is apparently what he said. A senior executive at Royal Caribbean appears to suggest that the company knowingly sent one of their ships with 4,500 passengers into a violent winter storm with possible hurricane force winds.