Allegedly drunk cruise ship captain fired and charged

It's not just airline pilots any more. On Friday Celebrity Cruises fired Periklis Petridis, the captain of the Mercury, after his blood alcohol level tested as high as .181, four times the federal .04 limit for on-duty ship captains. Then, Monday, Captain Petridis, 46, was charged in Seattle's US District Court with operating a ship while under the influence, a misdemeanor punishable by up to a year in prison.

In addition to the .04 blood alcohol limit, federal law prohibits a vessel operator from drinking for four hours before going on-duty, and Celebrity policy extends that to eight hours.

The story began when the Coast Guard boarded the ship in Seattle Friday for a garden-variety inspection. When one of the Coast Guard officers detected alcohol on the captain's breath, four breath tests were subsequently conducted, all of them well over the federal limit. Celebrity immediately relieved Petridis of his command and he was taken into custody by the authorities. The ship sailed about 90 minutes late after a different staff captain assumed command.

His attorney, meanwhile, casts the situation as much ado about nothing, explaining that Petridis was not on duty at the time and wasn't scheduled to be on duty for hours. Hopefully the courts can sort out the truth.