Cruise ship sinking in Antarctic waters

[Bluebear]

Source: CNN



(AP) -- More than 150 people have abandoned a sinking cruise liner that struck an object in Antarctic waters, Britain's Coast Guard said.

Media reports said the ship, believed to be the MV Explorer, was going down near the South Shetland Islands, south of Argentina. The area is in a sector of Antarctica claimed by the United Kingdom.

Tour companies describe the Explorer as a passenger ship which runs tours between South America and Antarctica.

Some 154 people are reported to be on board ship, which carries a Liberian flag, including 100 passengers. However the nationalities of those on board is not yet known.

Coastguards in Britain, who are helping the sinking vessel, said it was expected to go down shortly.

Mark Clark, a spokesman for the Maritime and Coastguard Agency told the Press Association five ships were on their way to help the sinking vessel.

"She hit something and is taking on a serious amount of water, that is all we know."



Read more: http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/europe/11/23/antarctica.ship/

[Ghost Dog]

1. All hands saved (BBC)

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7108835.stm

Ms Hayes, vice-president of marketing for Toronto-based Gap Adventures, told the BBC News website: "The M/S Explorer hit a lump of ice off King George Island this morning and the impact left the vessel with a crack in the hull the size of a fist.

"All passengers and crew have been evacuated, they are all accounted for and are safe and well and have been transferred to another vessel."

Map

Another ship called Antarctic Dream, which was in the area, was diverted to help the rescue.

The captain and the chief officer remained on board until everyone was evacuated.

Ms Hayes said the ship was taking on water and that pumps were being used to stop the ship, which had an eight-degree list, from sinking.

The spokeswoman did not have a passenger list to hand but said most of their customers on the cruise route were typically from Britain, Canada and America.

[dubyaD40web]

2. Awesome

I can't imagine how bad that would suck. Worse than the Titanic in those waters.

[MaineDem]

3. Pic from the BBC

[theHandpuppet]

4. Oh yeah, the old "registered in Liberia" scam

I used to work in a shipyard and saw all manner of vessels, both well-known cargo and passenger lines, which carried the Liberian flag (or those of other third world nations) in order to skirt the inspections and regulations required of vessels in countries like the U.K. and the U.S. No way I'd ever sail on one of those deathtraps.

[jpak]

5. Sounds like they hit a growler

I visited that ship when she made a port call at Palmer Station several years ago - pretty swank (and Guinness on tap too).

Unfortunately, oil spills - even small ones - are bad news in Antarctic waters.

An Argentinian cruise ship went aground near Palmer Station back in 1989 - it caused a serious oil spill and is leaking fuel to this day...

http://main.uab.edu/antarctica/Templates/Article.aspx?pid=415

Legend has it that someone at Palmer watched it hit the rock. He turned to the cooks and said "300 more for dinner"...

[boricua79]

6. what the HELL were they doing in the antartic

really.

talk about "predictable".

next time, pick the caribbean.

[shanti]

11. probably there to see the glaciers

:shrug:

[LeftyMom]

12. While there are some left. nt

[boricua79]

14. yeah

the glaciers sure saw them :)

[shanti]

15. heh

what i want to know is why the captain sailed that ship right into all of those ice floes...if i'd taken that cruise, my idea of an adventure would have ended when the ice floes began!

[TrogL]

7. CBC says the six Canadians on board got off OK

3 passengers and crew left on board.

[XemaSab]

8. Press release:

Explorer Update (November 23, 2007)

As you may be aware on November 22nd our expedition ship the M/S Explorer, hit floating ice in Antarctica, south of King George Island, resulting in a small crack in the hull.

All passengers onboard received evacuation training the first day they arrived on the ship. This training was put into place as passengers were assembled in the lecture hall and informed of the situation. With everyone well dressed and prepared, the passengers of the M/S Explorer were safely taken off the ship in lifeboats and are currently aboard a Norwegian passenger ship.

Everyone is safe and accounted for, and nobody was injured. All passengers are in good spirits and the process of evacuating people home has begun.

Further updates will be posted as they become available.

http://www.gapadventures.com/explorer/news

[cliss]

9. Here's another photo -

from Swedish online newspaper "Dagens Nyheter"

[Nihil]

17. What was it doing in those conditions?

That's a cruise ship, not an icebreaker, so why is it in that much ice?

From the original reports, I thought it had been unlucky to hit a rogue
chunk of ice but, from the photo above, it would have been amazing NOT to
hit the stuff!

:shrug:

[Xithras]

19. It was ice rated and double hulled.

Supposely it was built to handle that kind of thing.

I'm wondering more about the sinking itself. According to two different reports, the hole was only about the size of a fist. Why was there no mechanism on board to repair a hole of that size, and why couldn't the flooding be contained?

[Paul-Z]

10. All hands safe

Ships can be replaced. People can't be replaced. Thank God nobody lost their life.

[XemaSab]

13. The ship has sunk

:(

[Endangered Specie]

16. Soooo when does the DiCaprio movie come out?

[Javaman]

18. Has anything been said about it's fuel oil leaking? nt

[Xithras]

20. No more than the thousands of other boats and ships that litter the sea floor.

My understanding is that the ship went down pretty far offshore, so they're probably not that concerned about spillage. Once you get out a certain distance, the sea itself will break any fuel slick up before it reaches land. Fuel oil spills are fairly small in the grand scheme of things, and they tend to leak slowly which gives the ocean plenty of time to break it down before it does any real damage.

Bunker oil spills can be a concern when they happen in a closed bay, such as the spill in SF a few weeks ago, or when they happen close to shore, where the ocean cannot break the oil up before it reaches land, but it doesn't sound like that's the case here.

[Javaman]

21. Thanks for the info. :) nt