The search for a Norwegian Cruise Line passenger who fell overboard en route to the Bahamas has been called off.

The 51-year-old man fell overboard around 3 p.m. Thursday as the Norwegian Epic was sailing north toward Great Stirrup Cay from Ocho Rios, Jamaica.

“Authorities were immediately notified and a search and rescue operation was initiated under the direction and supervision of the Bahamas Rescue Coordination Center,” a spokesperson for Norwegian Cruise Line told DailyMail.com.

The search was ultimately deemed unsuccessful, whereupon the ship was “cleared by the authorities to continue its journey.”

The man who fell overboard was with a large group, including his family.

His family members are being “cared for and supported in this very challenging situation,” the spokesman added.

The ship departed Port Canaveral, Florida, on Saturday and is currently on a seven-day voyage to the Western Caribbean.

The ship is now being diverted to Nassau.

Passengers on board posted videos on social media filming the water immediately afterwards and sharing what little information they had.

A passenger on board the ship told DailyMail.com the captain told guests the person had not been found before telling them the boat was being rerouted.

In a video, a passenger could be heard mistakenly saying the missing person was a child.

Another passenger, who shared a video of the vessel circling during a search, said: “A man jumped off the boat.”

The Holland America Line happened to be nearby and steamed to the site to assist in the rescue. Crew members reportedly fired a flare into the water to mark the ship’s position when the “man overboard” was reported.

The identity of the person who fell overboard has not been released.

Cruise Hive reported that passengers were told through onboard announcements that the person who fell overboard was wearing a blue shirt at the time of his fall.

The outlet added that Holland America Line’s Zuiderdam was the ship barreling toward the Norwegian ship in one of the videos.

The Zuiderdam’s home port is Port Everglades and is also in the middle of a 7-day Caribbean voyage, with Thursday being a day at sea.

Sunset in the Bahamas was at 5:18 p.m. on Thursday, meaning rescuers would have had just a few hours of sunlight to get to the victim.

In the first video, posted at 3:35 p.m. on

“They put a flare, they’re circulating.” We made a whole circle looking for the guy who jumped off the boat. “He jumped, fell and bounced off one of those (lifeboats) and fell into the water,” she said.

In the other video, posted to TikTok around 5 p.m., the woman filming zoomed in to show what was believed to be the Zuiderdam charging toward the Norwegian ship.

She panned to a woman standing on a higher balcony who was reportedly screaming about the person who had fallen overboard. She added that the woman did not want to answer any further questions.

“Some people have binoculars and try to look out into the water,” she said. “Poor baby. I hope there is a miracle. I hope there is a miracle and they can find him.’

This latest tragedy comes just days after another person fell from a Caribbean cruise.

DailyMail.com reported that Elizabeth McElmurray, 48, died on December 21 aboard the Sky Princess while returning to Florida from the Caribbean.

While the circumstances of her death remain unclear, Princess Cruises says she fell while attempting to “jump” into the water and accidentally landed on one of the cruise ship’s decks ten stories below.

On Dec. 15, McElmurray shared a photo of herself smiling next to her mother as they boarded the ship in Fort Lauderdale.

They set sail to scatter her mother’s husband’s ashes on his favorite beach in Jamaica.

“I never thought I would lose my daughter. “I would also like to publicly thank the crew for their kindness and compassion throughout this ordeal,” her distraught mother, Ellen Downie Mathews, said in an online tribute.

McElmurray’s younger brother acknowledged this in another post.

“She was a great woman who loved her family,” he said.

“Her caring nature towards animals was a wonderful trait we shared. I would like to thank everyone who tried to help her and everyone for their kind words.”

“This is a very difficult loss.” Remember to tell your family and friends that you love them and make them smile and even laugh when life is hard. Find beauty whenever you can and strength will follow.’

According to social media profiles, McElmurray was a manager at retailer Circle K. She was born in Nashua, New Hampshire and lived in Wakefield, Massachusetts.

Passengers on board told DailyMail.com that the captain made the devastating announcement over the loudspeakers on Saturday that McElmurray had died.

They told DailyMail.com she tried to jump into the water from one of the upper decks but instead crashed onto a lifeboat deck about 10 floors below. Later that day, police were seen combing the cruise ship.

The ship was returning to Fort Lauderdale, Florida from an eight-day voyage to Cozumel, Mexico; Ocho Rios, Jamaica; George Town, Grand Cayman; and the cruise line’s then-private Bahamian resort, Princess Cays.