The skiff, Aug. 10 -- Five days after a small skiff ran out of fuel in the remote channels of Southeast Alaska, a cruise ship passenger named Michael Love posted on social media and turned a routine maritime assist into a story about the world's most expensive private yacht.

the Launchpad, the 387-foot superyacht owned by Mark Zuckerberg. No response came from the yacht. A cruise ship, the Wilderness Legacy, ultimately towed the stricken craft to Farragut Bay.

Love, a passenger aboard the Wilderness Legacy, recounted the episode in a post that spread widely on Sunday, five days after the incident. He wrote that the Wilderness Legacy captain had announced over the ship's intercom that Zuckerberg's yacht "had repeatedly refused to respond...