The 125m MS Nordkapp ran aground off Deception Island, part of the South Shetland Islands, about 5.30am (AEDT) today.

Tour operator My Planet said there were no injuries and the vessel made it into a sheltered harbour nearby.

Efforts were now on rescuing those on board, and a sister ship was expected to reach the remote island group, about 120km north of the Antarctic Peninsula, later today.

"There is no danger to passengers, crew, the environment or the vessel," My Planet managing director Greg Arnott said.

"MS Nordkapp has under her own steam been able to come off the ground and is now safely anchored in ... Whalers Bay on Deception Island.

"The weather conditions in the area are good and the situation is under control."

Mr Arnott also said a representative of the Hurtigruten Group, which owns the vessel, had been in contact with the vessel and "everything is calm on board".

The vessel is carrying 295 passengers and a crew of 76.

"All passengers will be transported back to Ushuaia in southern Argentina with the help of (sister ship) MS Nordnorge, which is also part of the Hurtigruten fleet, and other vessels in the vicinity," Mr Arnott
said.

Mr Arnott said the families of all of the Australian passengers had been contacted and the MS Nordnorge was expected to reach the stricken vessel about 6pm (AEDT).

The MS Nordkapp, built in 1997, tours Antarctica during the southern hemisphere summer.

It sails off the coast of Norway during the European summer and is suitable for light ice conditions.

Cruise ship runs aground in Antarctica

[ 01-31-2007: Message edited by: bmajor ]

Reports say they 'think' the outer skin has a few small holes, but not the inner skin and she is not taking on water and has not lost any fuel etc. She is now being accompanied back to Argentina.

As to whether the rocks or whatever was unchartered will only come up in the investigation. Other vessels have run aground off Deception Island too in recent years. Clipper Adventurer was one and also one of the Russian expedition cruises. Mona Lisa and Hanseatic have run aground off Norway. Then Monarch of the Seas managed it at St Maarten.

I do not think it wise a Grand Class vessel enters this area. Princess say they will make sure all are safe.. exactly the same as every other line. Grand? Princess has grounded before [Rhodes?], so whatever equipment is aboard it can still happen.

The Hurtigruten vessels keep to a pre-programmed route. The Capt selects the destination and the ship sails... in Norway anyway, must be different in Antarctica. So I then asked why he was needed.. Ah, to keep a lookout for all the tiny 'pesky' fishing vessels which pop out of nowhere in the way.

As far as soundings in the Antarctic go, from what I understand they are from many years ago beforemodern 3D multibeam sonars became the standard to making bathymetric charts. What the charts of the area probably have is only the sounding taken with a simple single beam depth sounder which leaves huge gaps in coverage or even a hand lead line which would really leave gaps! Many areas have never even received any soundings but if that were the area that the ship were, it would have been a fool's errand for the master to take her in there unless he had a forward looking sweep sonar which very few commercial vessels have.

Sonar equipment for every vessel is probalby too expensive (not that I would not like to see them having that) - but giving the increasing traffic to e.g. the Antarctic peninsular one probably should start a survey of the concerned regions - especially as some cruise lines already go there with quite large vessels. (the Grand Class is not the frist step in the wrong direction)

Allowing large ships with no ice strengthening or forward looking sonars to cruise the Antarctic Peninsula is in my opinion not prudent seamanship and a risk to the environment. The IMO should prevent such ships sailing those waters. However, money talks loudest and what Carnivore Corp wants Carnivore gets!

[ 01-31-2007: Message edited by: Marlowe ]

(Picture - UK Ministry Of Defence / PA)

A Lynx helicopter from Royal Navy ice patrol ship HMS Endurance assists MS Nordnorge evacuate passengers to sister ship MS Nordkapp.

[ 02-01-2007: Message edited by: joe at travelpage ]

Lovely photo Steve and the links Ernst.

quote:

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Originally posted by Rex:
Aren't they the cutest little ships?

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quote:

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Originally posted by Johan:
If it is effectively a major spill, this will have repercussions I think about future cruises to Antarctica.

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IMHO this shows that the Hurtigruten vessels are already too large. It makes a difference whether one has to evacuate hundred or three hundred passengers (....not to talk about more than thousand). Especially as the transit to the next port can be lengthly in such a remote region.

Some operators going to this region schedule their ships to go in 'pairs' being 'close' to each other - I am not sure whether this policy can be 'scaled up' that easily - so one could argue that it is better to have several instead of only one large ships in the region....

Nevertheless, as this is not the first incident of this kind it seems as if one should think about surveying this remote regions.

[ 02-02-2007: Message edited by: Ernst ]

[ 02-02-2007: Message edited by: Ernst ]