1 child dies, 1 hospitalized after being pulled from cruise ship swimming pool

People pause to look at Norwegian Cruise Line's ship, Norwegian Breakaway, on the Hudson River, in New York, May 8, 2013. (AP / Richard Drew)

RALEIGH, N.C. -- One young boy died and a second was revived and taken to a North Carolina hospital after they were pulled from a cruise ship swimming pool off the state's coast Monday, officials confirmed, though they offered few additional details Tuesday.

It was unclear whether the 4-year-old who died and the 6-year-old were related. The older boy was flown to CarolinaEast Medical Center in New Bern with his grandmother and a nurse from the Norwegian Cruise Line ship. The boy was later transferred to Vidant Medical Center in Greenville. Hospital spokeswoman Chris Mackey said Tuesday that the boy's parents did not want the boy's condition shared with the public.

Norwegian said on its Facebook page that the Norwegian Breakaway's emergency medical team responded to a report that the children were unresponsive on the ship's pool deck and quickly administered CPR.

"After extensive efforts, the younger child could not be revived," the Facebook post said. "We extend our deepest sympathies to the family during this extremely difficult time and are providing full assistance and support."

Norwegian Breakaway, an 18-deck ship with a capacity of 4,000 passengers, is one of Norwegian's newest ships and has a New York City theme with a colorful mural on the exterior hull designed by pop artist Peter Max featuring images of the Manhattan skyline and Statue of Liberty. The vessel's year-round home port is Manhattan.

It has several pool areas, including an aqua park with a play area for young children. There's also a supervised program for children ages 3 to 17 called Splash Academy.

Norwegian Cruise Line spokeswoman AnneMarie Mathews declined to specify which pool the children were found near. She also declined to say whether the children signed into care at Splash Academy or were supervised by their family.

Except for Disney Cruise Line, pools aboard cruise ships usually are not watched by lifeguards and swimming is at the patron's own risk, said Andrew Coggins, a management professor at Pace University in New York City who studies the cruise industry.

"In any event, children are not supposed to be in the pool unattended," Coggins wrote in an email.

The ship is based in New York and was headed to Florida, according to Norwegian's website. The ship was docked in Port Canaveral, Fla., Tuesday morning, port spokeswoman Rosalind Harvey confirmed. The port's police chief did not return a call Tuesday and a woman answering the phone at the department said questions were being referred to Norwegian.

When the ship launched in the spring of 2013, it was praised by industry experts such as Cruise Week editor Mike Driscoll, who called it "the best ship in the company's 47-year history."

Last October, a 6-year-old boy drowned in one of the pools aboard a Carnival Cruise Lines ship while at sea. The child was at the mid-ship pool area of the Carnival Victory with other family members on the last leg of a four-day Caribbean cruise, the company said at the time.

The Miami-Dade Police Department investigated the drowning and identified the boy as Qwentyn Hunter of Winter Garden, Fla. The drowning appeared to be accidental and foul play was not suspected, police said.