Cruise ship sinking in Antarctica
By Gary Cleland
Last Updated: 9:24am GMT 23/11/2007


More than 150 passengers and crew are adrift in lifeboats off the coast of Argentina after a cruise liner hit an unidentified object and started sinking.

British Coastguard from Falmouth are helping to co-ordinate the rescue of 100 passengers and 54 staff, which is being carried out by Coastguard from Argentina and Norfolk, Virginia in America.

It is not known what the cruise liner, thought to be the MV Explorer, hit.

A second, nearby ship has been diverted to the area, near the South Shetland Islands, to assist the rescue but is more than an hour away.

Currently only the Captain and chief officer remain on board the Explorer.

advertisementAndy Cattrell, from Falmouth Coastguard, said they were involved because they have specialist knowledge in rescue and hold search and rescue plans for the liner as part of an international co-operation programme.

He added: “What they have at the moment is that all the passengers and crew are now off the vessel and are waiting for the other ship.”

He said it was not known what the liner had hit but added: “These vessels are designed to operate in that area.

“It has obviously hit something unusually strong to damage the hull in this way.”

The liner, built in 1969, has a multi-national crew made up mostly of Scandinavians and Filipinos and had been on a summer tour to Antarctica.

The make up of the passengers is not yet clear, but is likely to be multi-national.

Mr Cattrell said he was confident that the rescue was being handled competently and professionally by Coastguard and that everyone should emerge safely from the ordeal.

The Explorer is now sinking and is listing at 25 degrees.

Antarctic Cruise Ship Hits Ice, Passengers Evacuated (Update1)

By Brian Lysaght and Camilla Hall

Nov. 23 (Bloomberg) -- The cruise ship ``M/S Explorer'' evacuated 154 passengers and crew after hitting heavy ice and taking on water in the sea off the coast of Antarctica.

The passengers and crew were moved to lifeboats then boarded another ship and are safe, said Susan Hayes, an executive at Toronto-based tour operator G.A.P. Adventures. The company owns the ship, she said.

The Explorer was on a summer cruise of Antarctica, and the incident occurred off the coast of the South Shetland Islands, south of Argentina and north of Antarctica, according to the U.K. Coast Guard. The ship began taking on water after hitting ice, said Paul Sadler, a spokesman for the U.K. Maritime & Coastguard Agency. It was notified of the incident at 5:24 a.m. U.K. time.

The U.K. agency provided the ship's emergency plans to the Argentine Coast Guard, which is coordinating the rescue, Sadler said. The Explorer is a Liberian-registered passenger explorer ship built in 1969. It has a strengthened hull, so ``it wouldn't have been a small amount of ice'' that caused the incident today, Sadler said.

``The water that was coming in is being managed by pumps,'' said Hayes. ``There was a small hole about the size of a fist, caused by the ice.''

The captain and first officer stayed on board the ship after the passengers and other crew were evacuated, and Hayes said she didn't have information about whether they were safe.