A small cruise ship called the Wilderness Legacy diverted course last Monday evening in the channels between Petersburg and Juneau, Alaska, to tow a fuel-starved 21-foot skiff carrying two women, a child and a dog to safety.
A closer vessel did not respond. That vessel was the Launchpad, Mark Zuckerberg's 387-foot, $300 million superyacht, the largest ever built by Feadship.
A passenger on the Wilderness Legacy, software developer Michael Love, posted on Bluesky that the ship's captain announced Zuckerberg's yacht had been closer and had not responded to radio requests for assistance, prompting what Love described as "near-unanimous booing" from the cruise passengers.
AIS tracking data shows Launchpad slowed or stopped nearby while Wilderness Legacy performed the rescue.
Zuckerberg's spokesperson pushed back Sunday. "Mark was not on board. The crew followed proper protocol, as the vessel was not in distress."
The Coast Guard confirmed to the Alaska Beacon that the skiff was not formally in distress, it had run out of fuel and needed a tow, but the situation did not meet the threshold of a formal maritime emergency that legally requires nearby vessels to respond.
Whether a crew has an obligation to respond to a non-distress assistance request is legally ambiguous under international maritime law.
Zuckerberg has not commented personally.