The crew of a yacht owned by Mark Zuckerberg did not hear a radio call requesting maritime assistance from a small skiff that had run out of fuel off the Alaska coast, and by the time they became aware of it, a different nearby vessel had already stepped in, a spokesperson for the Meta CEO said.
According to the Alaska Beacon, the skiff issued a call for help through the U.S. Coast Guard on Aug. 3, and a nearby small cruise ship, the Wilderness Legacy, towed it into Farragut Bay in Southeast Alaska and refueled it.
Under maritime law, every ship is required to respond to a distress call or request for assistance unless doing so would endanger their own vessel.
Even though it was closer, Zuckerberg’s yacht, named Launchpad, did not respond to the call.
Maritime law expert Ian Ralby said he has seen ships drop out of races they were training for to help another vessel in need.
“Human beings are required to save the lives of other human beings if they can do so at sea. The whole point of this is that maritime issues are dangerous, being out at sea is dangerous, and we want to try to protect the lives of anybody who takes that risk no matter what they’re doing,” said Ralby, who is president of Auxilium Worldwide.
The episode began drawing attention after a passenger on the cruise ship that responded shared an account on social media.
“I’m on a small-ship Alaska cruise with my son,” Michael Love, a passenger who said he was on the Wilderness Legacy cruise ship, wrote on Bluesky on Aug. 5. “Our boat rescued a stranded vessel last night and apparently we did that after the Coast Guard radioed Mark Zuckerberg’s yacht – which was closer – and they repeatedly refused to respond. (There was near unanimous booing when the captain announced this),” he wrote.
Zuckerberg’s spokesperson Brian Baker told The Associated Press that the yacht’s crew did not initially hear the radio call.
“Mark and his family were not on board at the time of the incident,” Baker said. “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.”