Passengers leave Antarctic cruise ship
OSLO - A Norwegian cruise ship carrying nearly 300 passengers, including 119 Americans, ran aground on a remote Antarctic island and damaged its hull before getting free of rocks, officials said Wednesday. No one was injured.
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The 294 passengers were evacuated from the M/S Nordkapp to sister ship M/S Nordnorge as a precaution, said Hanne K. Kristiansen, a spokeswoman for Norwegian Coastal Voyage. The British navy ship HMS Endurance stood by to assist. „The transfer of all of the passengers and eight of the crew was successfully completed”, she said. „No one was harmed.”
The vessel ran aground Tuesday near Deception Island, which is part of the Antarctic archipelago South Shetland Island. The ship pulled off the rocks under its own power and anchored in the sheltered waters of Walker Bay for the passenger transfer, Kristiansen said by telephone.
After the transfer, the ship carrying the passengers headed for Ushuaia, Argentina, a roughly 40-hour trip, she said. „We are having a fine time. In fact, it is very nice”, Norwegian passenger Terje Johansen told The Associated Press from the Nordkapp earlier in the day.
He said passengers initially were nervous when the ship ran aground, but quickly understood that there was no danger. „There is a little bit of waves, so they are waiting with the transfer. Right now, I’m in my cabin trying to get a little sleep”, he said by ship’s telephone.
The 404-foot Nordkapp, built in 1996, and the virtually identical Nordnorge cruise the Antarctic during the southern hemisphere summer. They sail off the coast of Norway during the European summer. (AP)
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