FREEPORT, BAHAMAS—The lights of Freeport Harbour narrow into a single fading line as the dark sky and inky ocean come together over deck 6 of the cruise ship Bahamas Celebration.

The whispers of two couples are clearly audible in the darkness. One couple is fighting; the other is pledging love.

First the lovers: “Let’s promise to come back every year,” she says, as his arms encircle her protectively, pulling her closer.

Now the fighters: “I wish I never met you. Can’t we try to have a good time?” Her hands are clenched around the railing, her stance combative.

A second ago, she shoved him. “This is miserable,” he agrees, his hand gripping an elbow as he gives her a shake.

The sight and a conversation are startling for a number of reasons. No one is paying attention to this scene except me, a lone observer. I can see the woman is about my height, which means the railing where they are standing is at her waist. I stare and wait, prepared to yell for help.

Over the past decade, nearly 200 people have disappeared from cruise ships, never to be found. Eight have already vanished this year, according to a cruise industry expert who tracks these incidents.

How does that happen?

Imagine a small city with thousands of residents who change every week or two. Imagine a rotating crew from around the world. They come together and travel from port to port, a vast ocean separating destinations. There are no police and no consistent laws.

It is, in almost every way, the setting for the perfect crime. Or suicide. Or a terrible accident.

She boarded with her boyfriend, Ramiz Golshani, a man she had met at a salsa dancing class in 2011.

Their relationship was tumultuous. At one point last October, Amani, 47, went to a Vancouver-area private investigator and wanted to hire him to follow Golshani. But that is only part of their story: the investigator, Thomas Dolo, says Amani never followed through on her plans.

The couple left Vancouver together for a two-day voyage from Palm Beach, Fla., to the Bahamas.

Only Golshani returned to Vancouver. He has declined to talk to reporters.

Golshani told FBI investigators and cruise ship security that the two went separate ways after midnight on Feb. 29, the last night of the cruise, she to the gift shop and he to the casino.

At 4:30 a.m., a few hours before the ship was to arrive in Palm Beach, Golshani reported her missing, crew members say. Amani has not been seen since.

Crew members say no effort was made to stop passengers from disembarking or to interview them for clues about Amani’s disappearance. Ship captain Jens Hoybe says the focus among crew was on searching the ship. More than 1,000 passengers were on that cruise.

“They knew she was missing and the crew was searching for her for hours that morning,” says one staff member, who requested his name not be published for fear of reprisal from his employer. “But there was no talk about questioning the passengers.”

Copeland Lewis, the Bahamas Celebration security chief, says he talks to every passenger as they leave the vessel.

“Got to make sure everyone is safe and gets off safely,” he says, noting that he remembers dozens of people by name as they disembark.

Passengers need an access card with their name and face to get on or off the Bahamas Celebration. Two crew members confirm that Fariba Amani was on the vessel when she disappeared and did not go missing during a sojourn onshore.

Lewis says he can’t make any further comments about Amani because of the potential for litigation.

Michael D. Leverock, a spokesperson for the FBI, which has been investigating Amani’s disappearance, says there are no updates on what happened to her.

Officials with the cruise ship company, Fort Lauderdale-based Celebration Cruise Line, decline to discuss Amani’s disappearance.

Captain Hoybe calls Amani’s disappearance a mystery.

“It’s a very unusual situation. This is the first time any of us have heard of such an incident. The person is missing. You cannot ask what happened because there are no witnesses.”

Hoybe suggests that Amani may have been responsible for her own disappearance.

“If she jumped, and suppose she did, some places are such that we cannot stop that from happening.

“We have to trust people are happy when they come on board. It’s a happy time for most people. She may have done this herself or someone did this to her.”

The International Cruise Victims Association, a group advocating for more safety measures aboard cruise ships, reports that at least 170 people have gone missing at sea since 1995.

At the same time, investigations have become tougher.

Cruise ships are almost always incorporated or “flagged” in countries where they are favourably taxed, such as the Bahamas, Liberia and Panama. That allows owners to skirt U.S. taxes and U.S. labour laws, according to Rivkin.

It also means that the country where the ship is flagged is responsible for investigating any possible criminal activity onboard.

He represents the family of George Smith, a Connecticut man who vanished in 2005 while on his honeymoon cruise between Greece and Turkey.

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Smith’s disappearance was investigated by the cruise ship and Turkish police. Rivkin says the FBI was not allowed to get involved because Smith disappeared overseas (the FBI investigated Amani’s disappearance because the boat is based in Fort Lauderdale.)

“The cruise lines pick a country that issues them flags of convenience and . . . that country is in charge of investigating crimes, but there’s a tremendous incentive for them not to do much investigation,” Rivkin says.

“It’s the same as investigations that occur where the ships come in. In our case, Turkey felt they had the jurisdiction, and again, there wasn’t much incentive for them to do much because this was something that happened to a U.S. citizen versus their interest in keeping the cruise line happy.”

Rivkin says there have been some improvements in ship safety, but cruise lines have no reason to want stricter regulations.

The cruise victims lobby group has been pushing American authorities to force vessels to install video surveillance on board.

Lanie Morgenstern, director of public and media relations with Cruise Lines International Association, says technical and other standards are still being defined for the industry, and that video-recording technology is already on some ships.

“Cruise ships are very safe, but our industry is continuously seeking to improve the level of safety for our passengers and crew members,” says Morgenstern.

Son Michael Pham says his parents were reported missing but it took four hours before the crew notified the U.S. Coast Guard. Within 13 hours the search-and-rescue mission had been called off.

“My parents were not reckless people, drinking and partying,” says Pham in an interview from Washington state, where he lives. “They were having the best time of their lives and then suddenly they’re gone.”

He says he can’t imagine a possible motive for his parents’ disappearance: nothing was missing from their room, and they hadn’t met anyone new on the ship.

“They didn’t do this to themselves,” Pham says. “Somebody caused my parents to disappear, and the thing cruise ships don’t want you to think about is there are predators on-board and they can put thousands of people in danger.”

Pham has joined International Cruise Victims to demand laws be changed, but they apply only in the U.S.

Some progress has been made. Pham says improvements include peepholes at cabin doors and mandatory rape kits in every ship clinic, though no one makes sure these measures are in place.

Frequent cruise passenger Arlene Pretty, who lives in the Vancouver suburb of Langley, says her voyage two months ago on a Celebrity cruise ship almost turned deadly.

Pretty was in a lounge with her husband when, she believes, someone put the date rape drug GHB in her drink.

By the time she and her husband walked back to their cabin, she was staggering. Within minutes her legs went numb and she couldn’t breathe. She was rushed to sick bay, where she was stabilized and where blood and urine samples were taken from her.

“The FBI refused on two requests to take the blood and urine samples and have them tested,” she says. “My samples are still on the ship, going to the Caribbean every 14 days, or they probably just got rid of them . . .

“What happened to me was absolute hell,” says Pretty, who has been on 19 cruises. “I thought I was going to die.

“It was a shock to find out these kinds of things can happen where someone can get drugged and no one really wants to do anything about it. They have no ability to charge anyone or try and convict anyone.”

Security on board these vessels is severely lacking, says Kendall Carver, president of International Cruise Victims. His daughter Merrian went missing on a cruise ship sailing from Vancouver to Alaska in 2004, when she was 40.

“The cruise ships like people to think these ships are safe, but the truth is these cruises are like cities with cooks and waiters and all these other workers, but they don’t have police on board.

“The cruise ship industry has a reason to cover up any indication that these trips are not safe.”