Playing Titanic
Passengers on a Canadian cruise ship off the coast of Antarctica got a chance to play Titanic in real life. The Explorer appears to have hit an iceberg and is taking on water rapidly. The captain ordered passengers to abandon ship. They have all been picked up by a passing Norwegian cruise ship but the ultimate fate of the Canadian cruise ship is not yet known.
It was believed that the 91 passengers included at least 22 British citizens, 10 Canadians and an undetermined number of Americans. Earlier, the British coast guard had said 154 people were aboard.
"The passengers are absolutely fine," Hayes said. "They're all accounted for, no injuries whatsoever."
The Nordnorge has enough room to accommodate all the passengers, "so they may very well continue their journey on the Nordnorge," Hayes said.
The Explorer was completing an ecological tour of Antarctica when it struck a chunk of ice that tore a hole about the size of a fist in its hull, Hayes said.
She called the evacuation process "calm," saying pumps were able to deal with incoming water until the Nordnorge arrived.
Still, Hayes said the ship is in danger of sinking.
"It is listing. … There is a possibility we may lose the ship," she said.
The British coast guard said it was told at 12:24 a.m. EST of the incident involving the 2,646-ton Explorer near the South Shetland Islands and Graham Land, an Antarctic peninsula.
Rescue centers in Norfolk, Va., and Ushuaia, Argentina, were taking charge of coordinating the rescue, the coast guard said.
The company that runs the "eco-friendly" cruises may have a bit of explaining to do if the ship does sink. That would not be the most eco-friendly thing, would it? At least the passengers are safe, though. Which saves us from having to see another dreadful movie starring Leonardo DiCaprio.
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Blue Crab Boulevard » Playing Titanic - Update — Friday, 23 November , 2007 @ 7:44 pm
By feeblemind, Friday, 23 November , 2007 @ 7:54 pm
‘Eco-friendly tours’? How can that be? Isn’t there a giant carbon footprint made by flying people down there and then loading them on a ship and then sailing around the ocean for no useful purpose? Looks like avoidable CO2 emissions to me. To lessen the the enviromental impact, I would suggest that the cruise company replace this ship with a replica of Roman Galleon. Let the passengers row to reduce the carbon footprint. It would also keep them warm and reduce the need for artificial heat, another source of CO2 emissions. In addition, it would be great for the passengers’ cardio-vascular systems and would aid in weight loss and general fitness.