NORWAY: Stranded Mother Mourns On Dock As Cruise Sails Away With Her Children

A mother dropped to her knees and begged for a cruise ship to stop as it sailed away with her children onboard.

The dramatic incident involving Norwegian Cruise Line ship Norwegian Breakaway as it left the dock in Nassau, Bahamas has been captured in videos posted to YouTube.

In one clip, her husband leaves the ship in a golf cart, trying to find his wife before it departs. In the next clip, the woman can be seen on the dock, crying and waving in a desperate attempt to capture the crew's attention.

Both end up being left behind as the ship sets off on its three-day journey back to home port in New York.

Norwegian Cruise Line said the woman had been late for the ship's boarding time, causing crew to go beyond normal protocol and delay departure by half an hour.

"The onboard team located her husband and children on board but the family was not able to reach her, nor did they know when she would be returning," spokesman Archie Pottinger said.

"When she had still not returned and following consultation with the family, it was decided that the husband would disembark with their travel documents to wait for his wife while the children would stay with their uncle and his family on the ship for the remainder of the voyage."

The company had offered travel and lodging assistance to the couple and made arrangements for them to reunite with the ship upon its return to New York.

The parents had at least two children on the ship, aged around nine and 12.

The children seemed "really upset" that their parents had missed the boat, he said.