No one was hurt when a Norwegian cruise ship with 300 people aboard rammed an iceberg in the Antarctic after its motor failed, officials said Saturday.

A spokesman for the Hurtigruten cruise line says the ship had engine problems and lost power shortly before the accident on Friday.

The crew restarted the engine and the vessel continued on its route.

The ship was headed for King George Island, where it will be inspected for damage, a spokesman for the company said.

It was unclear whether the ship would continue the tour.

Norwegian cruise ship hits glacier in Antarctic; captain reports no injuries

The Associated Press
Saturday, December 29, 2007
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina: A Norwegian cruise ship carrying some 300 people lost engine power during an electrical outage and struck an Antarctic glacier, smashing a lifeboat but causing no injuries, officials said Saturday.

The MS Fram hit the ice late Friday near Browns Bluff in the Antarctic, said Ragnar Norum, a spokesman for the Hurtigruten cruise line company in Norway. The engine started again and the liner continued to King George Island for an inspection.

"We hit a glacier. We have damage to a starboard lifeboat and a little bit forward," ship Capt. Steinar Hansen told The Associated Press by telephone. He said the ship apparently suffered no serious damage.

Hansen said the power outage lasted 40 to 50 minutes and sent the vessel adrift against the glacier, where it spent "a few minutes" bumping up against the wall of ice before power was restored.

The Fram anchored before midday near Chile's Eduardo Frei base in an ice-free area west of King George Island.

"Everything is fine on board and we still have all the passengers on board," Hansen said. He added that the ship was "waiting for orders" on whether to continue its voyage.

Robert O'Connor, a 26-year-old American from South Bend, Ind., said he was in his cabin late Friday when the ship's crew told the passengers to head above deck.

"The electricity on the ship went out and we started drifting backward," he told the AP. "I actually saw the wall of ice coming up the starboard side. It came up fairly quickly, the ship drifted into it."

He reported a jarring impact that bent the railing and buckled the lifeboat. The captain and crew checked the ship and calmed nervous passengers, and after that "there were free drinks on the house," he said.

O'Connor said the ship left Dec. 25 from Ushuaia at the southern tip of Argentina, a frequent jumping-off point for Antarctica cruises.

Hurtigruten said on its Web site that it offers voyages in the southern hemisphere summer to take in glaciers, icebergs, penguins, killer whales and seals.

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Originally posted by DAMBROSI:
Maybe cruises need to be suspended in that area until they get a better handle on how to cruise in it again???

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Originally posted by PeterUK:
[...]Is the case of too many computer controlled functions and a systems failure renders the ship without any power?[...]

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I would not blame 'computers' as there ARE highly reliable computer controlled systems.

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Originally posted by Ernst:

This is not the first 'power loss' incident with a passenger ship and I am also surprised how ships not only lost all (!) means of propulsion but also how long it sometimes took for them to recover at least some systems.

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People would be surprised to hear how often ships lose power, due to various reasons. I have been aboard several ships when power was lost: NORWAY, LEEWARD, CROWN DEL MAR, and CELEBRATION. And on CROWN MONARCH power was lost as we were departing Ocho Rios, causing us to collide with the SEAWARD.

Now imagine if this same ratio was applied to the Caribbean with of course many more ships involved, by my calculation 6 ships would have sunk and 13 suffered siginificant damage or incidents in the last 12 months - a number equal to the entire fleet of Princess Cruises plus a couple more. Could you imagine the outcry in the newspapers and indeed the total potential collaspe of the industry as a whole ? People would simply not cruise deeming it unsafe. Of course this would not happen in the Caribbean but it is happening in the Antartic.

Cruise companies it is time for you to wake up, especially the big boys at Princess and others with their idiotic cruises featuring ships like Golden Princess and others. Go ahead - but don't cry when you end up up slaughtering the goose that laid the golden egg. IF you want to cruise to Anartic and other areas similar then build a ship that is appropriate as has Silversea for instance.

Anything mechanical can breakdown, and at any time.

Its a risk going to sea, as is walking out of one's door everyday.

If sending a Princess ship down to the Antarctic brought it with a suitable price, I'd love to go.

I would say that limiting the size to a medium size ship is as far as it should go, and that should be across the industry as a whole if these holidays become more popular.

Damage occurs in the Antarctic where under the same situations would not occur in say the Caribbean. There have been enough groundings and hittings of piers there in recent times. Also in the Med, Island Star & Millennium come to mind this year. If these had been in the Antarctic they would have been much more serious. Sea Diamond sunk.. so have a couple of ferries. I do not think the Antarctic has any worse record overall? but it does look like it on the face of things, but maybe not when the nitty is taken apart.

Many instances we do not even hear about. However in the Antarctic it is headline news. I had 2 fires on one cruise... it never made the news. They were small and quickly dealt with. We had a fire on QM2 even, little was mentioned, it was small. In the Antarctic, headlines. Also news spreads like wildfire now compared to 20 years ago.

I have been on ships which lost power, but in the middle of the night and few knew. My parents only knew of one they had once as a tablemate was stuck in the lift.

Pam

[ 12-31-2007: Message edited by: PamM ]

"2007 has been a very unlucky year in Antarctica, if you believe such things.

The Explorer sank in November.

Early December the crank shaft of the Clipper Adventurer broke, apparently taking a piece of the engine with it, but the owners wanted it to sail to Antarctica that way! The Argentinian Coast Guard intervened and forbade the ship to sail until repairs have been made. She sailed today to Stanley, after a repair job that bypassed the crank shaft (don't ask me for details, I am no engineer, just repeating what the engineer said...). The broken engine will not have full power, just about 60%.

The Antarctic Dream was trapped inside Deception Island for more than 10 hours, when floating ice closed Neptunes Bellows, the entrance to Port Foster inside the caldera.

Le Diamant encountered a heavy gale in South Georgia and their landing platform fell in the water, dragging the bosun and one seaman with it. As they were wearing their lifevests they eventually floated to surface and were recovered by the Zodiacs that were on standby to drive passengers.
However, staff on board report that their Zodiac operation is not very safe, and that they don't follow established safety procedures, like navigating with the water tight doors closed.

The Fram lost power, and drifted on to a glacier or iceberg. No major damage. One of the main generators failed, and the second generator was supposed to engage imediately didn't, nor did the back up system. No explanation has been offered for this failure to the port authorities. The ship is in Ushuaia and next cruise has been canceled. However the Argentinian authorities say they will not give her permission to sail until the damaged lifeboat has been repaired or replaced.

The Argentinians have been very strict this year, following the Explorer sinking. They are getting hell from Chile: most ships depart from Argentina, but it's Chile who is equiped to do rescue operations in Antarctica.

Well, for the first time in 15 years of sailing, I am getting really worried."

One of the main generators failed, and the second generator was supposed to engage imediately didn't, nor did the back up system. No explanation has been offered for this failure to the port authorities. The ship is in Ushuaia and next cruise has been canceled. However the Argentinian authorities say they will not give her permission to sail until the damaged lifeboat has been repaired or replaced.

By all accounts this is not the first time she has lost complete power and investigation is apparently taking place with Fincantieri to discover what the problem is, rather than just awaiting replacement of the lifeboat.