The move came as part of a $10 million lawsuit filed in federal court in Galveston by relatives of a German tourist who died in the Costa Concordia disaster.

Reports say that the warrant ordering the ship held in port states that "the court finds that the conditions for an attachment of defendants' joint and collective property within this district, mainly the MS Carnival Triumph, appear to exist upon an admiralty and maritime claim".

To make matters worse, raw sewage began to back up into passenger deck areas, creating a major health hazard.

Carnival Legend was en route from Tampa and arrived on the scene around 3:00 p.m. on the afternoon of February 11 to complete a transfer of food and water and to take on a patient in need of dialysis for transport to Cozumel.

[18] Carnival Conquest en route to Montego Bay, Jamaica from New Orleans stopped and delivered food and supplies during the afternoon and early evening on February 11, 2013.

Sailings through April 13 were canceled, after which Carnival announced the first phase of a fleetwide review, to include installation of back-up generator systems on the line's ships.

[19][20][21][22] The ship finally docked by 9:20 p.m.[23][24] An incident investigation was then started by the Bahamas Maritime Authority, the U.S. Coast Guard, and the National Transportation Safety Board.

[28] Two weeks prior to the engine room fire, Carnival Triumph experienced propulsion issues that caused it to be five hours late returning to its Galveston home port on January 28, 2013, delayed the ship's departure for its next cruise from 2:30 p.m. until 8:00 p.m. that night, and resulted in the elimination of a scheduled stop in Cozumel because of the ship's diminished cruising speed.

[29] While in port, a Port State Control (PSC) vessel inspection by the Texas City, Texas, U.S. Coast Guard Marine Safety Unit was conducted, resulting in a finding that there was "a short in the high voltage connection box of one of the ships [sic] generators causing damage to cables within the connection box", a deficiency under 50AC SOLAS 2009 Ch 1 Reg 11.

The Coast Guard Marine Information Safety and Law Enforcement System showed that this deficiency remained unresolved at the time of the subsequent fire and loss of power while at sea on February 10.

[28] On April 3, 2013, while Carnival Triumph was docked in Mobile, Alabama for repairs following the February 10 fire, gale-force winds caused the ship to break free from her moorings and strike a moored United States Army Corps of Engineers vessel, Dredge Wheeler, sustaining a 20 ft (6.1 m) gash and railing damage on her stern above the water line before coming to rest against a cargo ship.