A little boy is in critical condition after nearly drowning on a cruise ship heading out of New York Harbor to the Caribbean, according to officials. 
 
 The unidentified 8-year-old fell into a pool on Royal Caribbean’s Anthem of the Seas on Thursday evening and remained in the water for eight to 10 minutes before being discovered by ship officials, Coast Guard Senior Chief Steven Allard said. 
 
 He said that either a doctor or a nurse had performed CPR on the ship and established a pulse. 
 
 A boy on a Royal Caribbean cruise was taken to Staten Island University Hospital after nearly drowning in this swimming pool on the Anthem of the Seas. (Jacob Triplett via Twitter) 
 
 FDNY officials confirmed to the Daily News that a victim had been airlifted from a ship four miles off of Sandy Hook, N.J., to Staten Island University Hospital. 
 
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 He was in critical condition late Thursday, according to a hospital spokesman. 
 
 Anthem of the Seas, which regularly travels from New Jersey to the Caribbean, had just left its port in Bayonne an hour before the Coast Guard was called to the emergency at 6 p.m., Allard said. 
 
 Anthem was less than two hours into its journey when it started racing back to New Jersey and was met by police and fire response boats, as well as a helicopter. (Mike Ritchie / @sdmike via Twitter) 
 
 Royal Caribbean said in a statement that the 8-year-old "was treated by the ship's medical team after an accident in one of the ship's swimming pools, but required additional medical attention." 
 
 It said that the ship sailed back to Bayonne because the boy needed medical attention, and posted on Twitter asking well-wishers to pray for his family. 
 
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 Cruise passenger Mike Ritchie, a 54-year-old from San Diego, told the Daily News that the ship left Thursday for a nine-day journey that included stops in Bermuda, St. Martin, Puerto Rico and Haiti. 
 
 A bus was waiting for the ship when it returned to Bayonne at 12:31 a.m. (Jacob Triplett via Twitter) 
 
 He said that an announcement was made about an emergency on Anthem's upper decks sometime after 5:30 p.m., and that the ship later turned around and was met by a helicopter as well as multiple boats from the NYPD and FDNY. 
 
 Ritchie said that Anthem docked back in to Bayonne at 12:31 a.m., with some passengers getting off and onto a waiting bus. 
 
 Passengers were told the ship would depart early Friday to head back towards its original destinations, and Ritchie said that the ship left New Jersey for the second time at 2:15 a.m. 
 
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 The vessel previously made headlines for sailing into a storm in February. (Julie Jacobson/AP) 
 
 The vessel previously made headlines in February, when passengers were taken into a storm with hurricane-force winds of 125 mph. 
 
 It returned to port early, but not before some would-be vacation-goers went through hours of being rocked back and forth in their rooms as flying debris damaged common areas. 
 
 In December, an 8-year-old boy drowned in a swimming pool on another Royal Caribbean ship, Liberty of the Seas, which travels between Galveston, Tex., and Central America. ||||| BAYONNE, N.J. (AP) — The U.S. Coast Guard says an 8-year-old boy who fell into a pool on a cruise ship off the coast of New Jersey and nearly drowned is in critical condition. 
 
 Coast Guard Senior Chief Steven Allard tells the New York Daily News that the boy had been in the water for eight to 10 minutes Thursday evening before officials with Royal Caribbean's Anthem of the Seas found him. 
 
 Allard says the boy received CPR on the ship, which changed course and sailed toward Bayonne. Fire officials say the boy was taken to a hospital on Staten Island. 
 
 The ship left New York Harbor and was heading to the Caribbean at the time. 
 
 Royal Caribbean says it's providing support to the boy's family.
– An 8-year-old boy who fell into a pool on a cruise ship off the coast of New Jersey and nearly drowned is in critical condition, says the US Coast Guard. A rep tells the New York Daily News that the boy was in the water for eight to 10 minutes Thursday evening before officials with Royal Caribbean's Anthem of the Seas found him, per the AP. The boy received CPR on the ship, which had left New York Harbor bound for the Caribbean but sailed toward Bayonne, New Jersey, the rep says. Fire officials say the boy was taken to a hospital on Staten Island. Royal Caribbean says it's providing support to his family.