BOSTON -- The U.S. Senate Friday unanimously passed a bill to close a legal loophole that often prevents crimes committed on board cruise ships from being reported to U.S. law enforcement.

Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) sponsored the Senate bill.

"Murky lines of jurisdiction are no longer an excuse for risking the safety of millions of Americans who will board cruise ships this year. I applaud my colleagues for helping to ensure that security, safety, and accountability be strengthened to hold criminals accountable and end the cycle of serious crimes on these vessels,” he said.

In May, Team 5 Investigates exposed the problem. Cruise ship companies that carry 11 million American passengers each year are not required to report any alleged crimes to law enforcement if the crime happens while the ship is 12 miles or more from land.

Team 5 cited three local cases, including that of Merrian Carver, a 40-year-old Cambridge woman who disappeared while on a cruise. Her father, so frustrated by his search for answers after her disappearance, founded a victims’ rights group called International Cruise Victims.

"I am thrilled that the Senate has passed this legislation that will serve to protect Americans around the world during what ought to be relaxing vacations," said Ken Carver. “These common-sense and necessary reforms are one significant step closer to becoming law."

The bill would, among other things, improve safety on board cruise ships, by requiring surveillance systems, peep holes in doors and higher guard rails. It would also require transparency in reporting alleged crimes to the FBI and the Coast Guard.

“We'll never know what happened to Merrian,” said Carver in a recent with Team 5 Investigates’ Cheryl Fiandaca.

“The (ship's) steward had reported Merrian missing daily, for days, and his supervisors told him to 'forget it and do his job,' said Carver.

He immediately launched an international investigation into his daughter’s disappearance, spending, he said, $75,000 in legal fees before his attorney was allowed to depose that steward.

“You wouldn't do this unless you loved her,” said Carver.

Angela Orlich, of Massachusetts, is another victim who has testified about the matter before Congress. Orlich went on a cruise with friends, never realizing a scuba diving trip would change her life. She said the instructor sexually assaulted her.

“He took of the top of my bathing suit and started molesting me,” she said. “He shut my air tank off. It was a struggle. I could have died underwater.”

Orlich stayed calm and managed to get back to the ship, where she told two cruise ship employees what had happened.

“In my case, they didn’t do anything,” she said.

And then there’s the still unsolved case of George Smith. Five years ago, the handsome newlywed from Connecticut vanished from his honeymoon cruise. His body has never been found.

“When something happens on land, you have the police involved,” said Carolyn Latti, a maritime attorney in Boston who has represented hundreds of victims of crimes on board cruise ships. “When you're on a cruise ship, when you leave the port, you basically leave your rights.”

Currently, cruise ship companies are not required to report crimes to any American law enforcement.

The FBI tells Team 5 Investigates there is no way to know how many vacationers become victims.

“People have no idea,” said Latti. “They think, ‘I'm a United States citizen, I’m going to have the same rights apply to me once I get on the boat.' And it doesn't. And that's the sad part.”

According to lobbying records from the Senate Office of Public Records, in 2009 alone, cruise companies paid millions of dollars to lobbyists.

Coincidentally, the Merrian Carver, Angela Orlich and George Smith cases all happened on board Royal Caribbean cruise ships. The company refused numerous calls from Team 5 Investigates and e-mails requesting comment