Thanks for the feedback on “stowaways” — and feel free to find another term. To explain, we mean it as “unlogged unknown passengers” not as “unwanted or undesirable passengers” and when we discover them we welcome them and “onboard” them. The term as defined by various dictionaries is more about the act than a judgement call:
- to secrete oneself aboard a vehicle as a means of obtaining transportation
- a person who hides on a vehicle (as a ship) to travel without paying or being seen.
- A stowaway or clandestine traveller is a person who secretly boards a vehicle, such as a ship, an aircraft, a train, cargo truck or bus.
- A stowaway is a person who hides in a ship, airplane, or other vehicle in order to make a journey secretly or without paying.
So there’s no particular connotation as to how the operators of the vehicle might feel about it in the terminology — we don’t pass judgement on it. Sometimes people stowaway (in external life) due to poverty, needing asylum, or being underage to travel alone (runaways) etc. So someone may be escaping bad people as much as anything else — which is the case for our internal ship stowaways. They feel they’re being pursued or that they need to hide. We understand that they feel that need — and we try to reach out to help them become official passengers. Basically, we actively grant them asylum and protect them.
And it’s easier than typing out “clandestine travelers” lol.
OOOH —someone pointed out the relationship between Ripley & Newt in Aliens. Great example!