A multi-million dollar lawsuit against Royal Caribbean Cruises has still not been settled nearly a year after four crewmen were injured when their lifeboat plunged 60-feet during an evacuation exercise in Dockyard.

The four crewmen were fired by Royal Caribbean soon after the accident on September 7, 2004 and their Miami-based lawyer, Jack Hickey, said the extent of their horrific injuries was not fully known before they left Bermuda.

?These are seven-figure cases in excess of millions of dollars. All these folks have suffered serious injuries,? Mr. Hickey said from Miami last week.

?Just recently we have received materials from the Bermuda Police Service ? photos and video of the accident itself. It was from a security camera mounted on the ship. It shows the lifeboat being hoisted up and falling 50 to 60 feet into the water. Photos show blood inside the cabin of the lifeboat.?

Four lawsuits were filed in Miami in December on behalf of Nelson Calderon, 44, of Colombia, Rodolpho Hooker, 26, of Nicaragua, Tariq Solomon, 26, of Canada, and Lungelo Manxiwa, 30, of South Africa.

Each lawsuit had six charges, claiming Royal Caribbean Cruises was negligent, the was not seaworthy, the company failed to provide maintenance and care to the ship, it failed to treat the crewmen after their fall, it failed to give them back pay and fired the crewmen after they spoke to a lawyer.

But Mr. Hickey said that Royal Caribbean had still not paid any compensation to the crewmen and the world?s second largest cruise line was trying to ?stonewall? the case by not giving them any information.

?They have not provided us with a representative to testify in deposition and have not yet complied with Florida law by providing documents,? he said. ?They are trying to shut us out. But I will take it to a judge and have judge order them to hand them over.

?It looks like the mechanism that releases the lifeboat failed or did not perform as it should have.?

If the release mechanism was working properly, one should have been able to brush up against it and nothing would happen, he said.

Alex Razo was pulled out of the shattered lifeboat and immediately airlifted to the Lahey Clinic in Boston for treatment of spinal injuries.

Mr. Solomon discovered a week after the fall that he had a lower back fracture.

Mr. Manxiwa injured both shoulders in the fall.

?I helped three of us who were face down in the water,? Mr. Manxiwa said shortly after the accident. ?I had to climb over their bodies to get their faces out the water.

?One of them was bleeding severely.?