Wanna go for a swim?
"Liner rescues 154 after cruise ship hits iceberg; Frigid weather in lifeboats reported" by Bill Cormier/Associated Press November 24, 2007
BUENOS AIRES - A Canadian cruise ship struck a submerged iceberg and sank off Antarctica yesterday. All 154 passengers and crew, including at least 13 Americans, took to lifeboats and were plucked to safety by a passing cruise ship.
No injuries were reported, although passengers reportedly endured subfreezing temperatures for several hours as they waited in bobbing lifeboats for a Norwegian liner that took them to a Chilean military base in the region.
The Chilean Navy said the stricken ship, the MS Explorer, was listing heavily to starboard and taking on water last night before it went under, 20 hours after the collision.
Susan Hayes of G.A.P. Adventures of Toronto, which owns the Explorer:
"The ship ran into some ice. It was submerged ice and the result was a hole about the size of a fist in the side of the hull, so it began taking on water . . . but quite slowly. The passengers are absolutely fine. They're all accounted for, no injuries whatsoever."
The accident occurred near King George Island, part of Antarctica's South Shetland Islands, shortly after midnight yesterday, officials said. The group calmly abandoned ship when the captain's order came and pumps helped keep the ship stable for an orderly evacuation.
G.A.P. Adventures is a tour company that provides excursions with an environmental focus. The Explorer was on a 19-day circuit of Antarctica and the Falkland Islands that allowed passengers to observe penguins, whales, and other wildlife while getting briefings from scientists who study the region.
Hayes said traveling to Antarctica is always risky: "There is ice in the area. Obviously, it's a hazard of the area. But it's highly unusual [that the ship would hit the ice]. This has never happened to us."
An Argentine rescue and command center received the first distress call at 12:30 a.m. yesterday from the Explorer amid reports it was taking on water despite efforts to use onboard pumps, said Captain Juan Pablo Panichini, an Argentine navy spokesman.
A navy statement said that the captain ordered passengers to abandon ship about 90 minutes after the first call and that passengers and crew boarded eight semirigid lifeboats and four life rafts, with the captain leaving the ship later.
A Chilean ornithologist identified as Paola Palavecino was quoted in an Argentine media report as saying she and others aboard went into the lifeboats before dawn and endured subfreezing temperatures for a few hours until they were picked up at about 6 a.m.
Ms. Palavecino was quoted by the Argentine news agency Diarios y Noticias as telling a local radio station in a call from the Nordnorge: "The ship took on water quickly."
But the company spokeswoman said it took on water slowly?
Aaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhh!!!!
Even lying about this!
An Argentine Navy statement said the Explorer hit the iceberg about 475 nautical miles southeast of Ushuaia, the southernmost Argentine city and a jumping-off point for cruise ships and supply vessels for Antarctica. Seas were calm and winds were light at the time of the accident, officials said.
It is just like that night in 1912 -- except for the dead, of course (may their souls rest in peace).
"Icy Rescue as Seas Claim a Cruise Ship" by GRAHAM BOWLEY and ANDREW C. REVKIN
There were the alarms, then the captain’s voice on the public address system calling the 100 passengers and the crew of about 50 to the lecture hall, according to passengers’ accounts on the radio and others relayed from rescuers and the tour operator.
In the lecture hall, they were told that water was creeping in through a fist-size hole punched into the ship’s starboard. As it flooded the grinding engine room, the power failed. The ship ceased responding.
Well, it wasn't exactly Titanic then!
John Cartwright, a Canadian, told CBC radio: “We all got a little nervous when the ship began to list sharply, and the lifeboats still hadn’t been lowered.”
Yeah, that company spokeswoman was LYYYYYING!!!
About 1:30 a.m., the passengers climbed down ladders on the ship’s side into open lifeboats and inflatable craft. They bobbed for some four hours in the rough seas and biting winds as the sun rose and the day broadened, sandwiched between the 20-degree air and the nearly freezing waters, huddled under thin foil blankets, marking time. Their ship traced loose circles in the steely ocean.
And then a research ship and a Norwegian cruise liner that had heard the distress call approached.
Jon Bowermaster, a travel writer and filmmaker who was aboard the ship, the National Geographic Endeavour, and was reached by satellite phone:
“There was a long line of black rubber Zodiac boats and a handful of orange lifeboats strung out, and it was very surreal because it was a very beautiful morning with the sun glistening off the relatively calm sea. And all you could think was how relieved these people must have been when they saw these two big ships coming.”
Sure must have felt like Titanic out in those boats on the freezing ocean, though!
Passengers on the Endeavor prepared hot tea and gathered blankets, and a section of the ship was dedicated to medical emergencies. But none were reported.
It was not immediately possible yesterday to reach the passengers, among them 14 Americans, 24 Britons, 12 Canadians and a smattering of other nationalities. But they were in good spirits, said Capt. Arnvid Hansen of the Nordnorge, who was reached by telephone about 10 hours after the rescue.
The weather had turned worse, he said, but despite snow and wind, the passengers had begun to leave the ship for the solid ground of King George Island.
Capt. Hansen: “They are healthy, no problem.”
The authorities said they would head to Chile on Saturday, weather permitting, and from there return home.
And so the 154 people who survived a modern Titanic have fallen into that strange category of luck — the kind that would not be necessary had not horrendous bad fortune preceded it.
The accident occurred well north of the Antarctic Circle in an island chain that is part of the Antarctic peninsula, which juts close to South America and where a sharp warming of temperatures has occurred in recent years. It is prime territory for a new travel industry catering to an often young clientele enthusiastic about the wild in an age of environmental uncertainty.
So they go to despoil it?
The tour operator, G.A.P. Adventures, is based in Toronto, and offers cruises to the Antarctic, Greenland, Scotland and the Amazon. It normally sends a dozen cruises a year into the Antarctic, all on the Explorer.
The passengers stopped at the Falkland Islands and South Georgia Island before heading for the tip of Antarctica. Scientists on board give lectures on wildlife, geology and climate change.
The Explorer did not have a double hull, a complete second steel sheath, the kind developed after the Titanic sank.
There appeared to be questions about its safety record. Mr. Brown said “some deficiencies” were found in tests in March in Chile and in May in Scotland. On its Web site, Lloyd’s List said the British authorities had reported deficiencies, including missing rescue plans, and lifeboat maintenance problems, while watertight doors were deemed “not as required,” and fire safety measures were also criticized.
Safety questions?
Just like Titanic (although safety regs were so lax then, Titanic was actually in compliance).
The Explorer’s fate was sealed by yesterday afternoon, after hours of listing, awash in ice floes. Even its captain and chief officer, who had stayed to operate the bilge pumps in the hope of salvation, had long before evacuated when the Chilean Navy said the little red ship had gone down."
And down she went to the frozen depths!
Think I'll go give the the movie a go, readers.
Good night!
