The 47-year-old ship racked up its worst notoriety in 1985. Palestinian terrorists hijacked the liner, shot and killed Leon Klinghoffer of New York, a wheelchair-bound Jewish hostage, and dumped him overboard. The episode led to a daring interception of the gunmen by U.S. Navy fighter planes – and a crisis in relations with Egypt, which harbored the hijackers, and Italy, which refused to extradite them.
Even before the incident, the Achille Lauro had a long and inglorious rap sheet. Launched in 1947, the ship carried Italian immigrant workers to and from Australia before breaking into the pleasure-cruise business in 1970. A year later it smashed into a fishing boat, killing a Neapolitan fisherman. In late 1981, a fire broke out as the vessel anchored off the Canary Islands; when terrified passengers leaped into the ocean, two people drowned.
The latest calamity began early last Wednesday, when a fire broke out in the engine room. More than four hours elapsed before the ship sent out an S.O.S. – and another four hours before the first rescue ship, a Panamanian-registered oil tanker, began evacuating passengers and crew members, most of whom were still dressed in their nightclothes. Many people baked in the harsh sun off the coast of Somalia – and the far end of the world seemed a fitting place for the final hours of the Achille Lauro. After the last people set off for home on freighters or U.S. warships, two private salvage tugs steamed toward the ruined hulk. But before either scavenger could claim the spoils, the Achille Lauro sank.
