Maersk settles case with 'Midshipman X,' whose allegation of rape at sea roiled the shipping industry

Hope Hicks, USMMA class of 2022.

Hope Hicks/newsPRos

• Maersk settled a lawsuit with ex-merchant navy cadet who said she was raped aboard one of its ships.
• Hope Hicks, formerly known as "Midshipman X," prompted a major reckoning with her allegation.
• The case further highlighted the disturbing issue of sexual assault at sea.

Maersk Line Limited has settled a lawsuit filed by a former merchant navy cadet whose allegation that she was raped aboard one of its ships sent shockwaves through the shipping industry. 

Neither the shipping giant nor the cadet, Hope Hicks, disclosed further details of the settlement in a joint statement on Friday. 

Hicks' lawsuit, filed in June, alleged that the company failed to protect her when, as a cadet in 2019, she sailed aboard Maersk's MV Alliance Fairfax as part of her at-sea training with the United States Merchant Marine Academy (USMMA). 

On board, and hundreds of miles from home, she says she was plied with alcohol, passed out and was raped by the ship's First Engineer, a man at least 40 years her senior. She was a virgin at the time, saving herself for marriage, she said. 

In an interview with Insider in June, Hicks said the alleged rape "changed me completely ... it took me months, even a year or so, to even recover from everything that happened on that ship." 

Hicks' allegations first emerged in September last year, when she published an anonymous blog post on the website of Maritime Legal Aid and Advocacy, a campaigning organization set up by lawyer Ryan Melogy. 

Writing only as "Midshipman X," Hicks not only alleged her own rape but also that she knew of several other female cadets at USMMA who had been raped.

Speaking to Insider, she said the problem "goes out of the scope that you and I can even imagine."

Her blog post set off a major reckoning in the shipping industry and at USMMA, prompting a group of lawmkers including Sen. Maria Cantwell to call for the resignation of then-Superintendent Joachim "Jack" Buono, who retired this summer.

It also prompted a pause in USMMA's highly popular at-sea training and an upheaval in its procedures for safeguarding cadets at sea with partner shipping companies. 

In June, Hicks went public and filed her lawsuit against Maersk alongside another USMMA cadet who was identified only as "Midshipman Y."

In a disturbing parallel, Midshipman Y alleged that in 2021 she suffered "extreme sexual harassment and repeated and unwelcome physical touching" aboard the very ship Hicks had sailed on two years earlier.  

Maersk declined to provide Insider with an update on its case with Midshipman Y as of Friday. 

The First Engineer aboard the Alliance Fairfax at the time of Hicks' sailing, who has not been named, has since been fired for failing to cooperate with Maersk's investigation.

The case highlighted glaring issues with holding sexual offenders accountable at sea, where women make up approximately 2 percent of the industry and sailors can often spend weeks cooped up with their attackers, out of sight of shore. Prosecution is exceedingly rare.

It also highlighted the reluctance of merchant navy cadets to report allegations of rape and sexual assault while training.

Maersk's CEO William Woodhour said in a statement emailed to Insider that "the events Ms. Hicks describes are unacceptable.

"No matter who and where you are, those who work with us must feel safe and protected in our work environment," he said. 

The company added that it has set in motion "a full program" of training and accountability.

In a statement sent to Insider on Friday, Hicks said that she was glad her case had brought awareness of sexual assault and harassment to light. 

Maersk's changes "are an important first step, but there is still a lot of work to be done in the maritime industry," she added.

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Contributer : Business Insider https://ift.tt/imIX1sC

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