A 22-year-old holidaymaker plunged four decks of a cruise ship and later died in hospital after apparently trying to slide down a banister after a night out in St. George’s.

Richard Mulloy, from Boston, Massachusetts, was pronounced dead at King Edward VII Memorial Hospital just after 3 a.m. yesterday after the accident on board the Norwegian Majesty, which is berthed at Ordnance Island.

Police confirmed last night that they received a report of the fall onboard the Norwegian Cruise Line ship at about 1.15 a.m and were investigating the death.

“It appears that Mr. Mulloy had returned to the ship with his cousin after they had a few drinks together at a nearby St. George’s establishment,” said a Police spokesman.

“Around 12.25 a.m. the men were on the fifth deck of the ship intending to go to the disco on the seventh deck when the 22-year-old American man fell from the fifth deck to the first deck.

“Two nurses on board attended the scene and discovered the victim in an unresponsive state. They immediately gave him CPR and tended to a head wound sustained from the fall.

“Mr. Mulloy was then rushed to KEMH via ambulance where he subsequently succumbed to his injuries at 3.11 a.m. and was pronounced dead by an on-call physician.”

Cruise line spokeswoman Susan Robison said the passenger fell down an interior stairwell “while apparently trying to slide down a banister and was seriously injured”.

She added: “We have been informed by the authorities that he has passed away. The thoughts and prayers of the entire NCL family are with the family and friends at this difficult time.”

A crew member told The Royal Gazette <$>there was no boat drill yesterday out of respect for the dead man but expressed surprise that there was no announcement on the ship about the fatality.

A passenger, who asked not to be named, said many of the guests were still unaware of the tragedy yesterday afternoon. “Nobody knows about it” he said. “I just happened to run into somebody on the elevator who happened to be in a room nearby. “This woman told me that her room was near where he fell. She heard people running down the corridor. She saw what was going on. There certainly wasn’t a big to do on board aboard about it though.”

Captain John Moore, vice-president of marine operations at Meyer Shipping, agents for the vessel, said the boat docked on Tuesday morning and was due to leave at lunchtime tomorrow (Fri).

Coroner’s officer Sergeant Adrian Cook said the coroner had been notified of the death but a post-mortem had yet to take place.