Skipp Stark
Cruise Ship Grounding On Coral Reef
Norwegian Crown - June 08, 2006
reason yet known, the ship went off course and ran aground of a coral reef during the breakfast hours, while passengers relaxed in the dining rooms.
A pilot boat, under the guidance of a local mariner, was bringing the ship in for its scheduled docking at Hamilton when the cruise ship shuddered to a halt after hitting a reef. The ship began to list, and there was no panic, but passengers were unable to get answers.
However, the Captain did make announcements, saying "this" had never happened before.
The vessel showed no signs of damage, according to divers who inspected the vessel before it reboarded passengers.
Originally, passengers were told that they would be on their way in 45 minutes. As time went on, it became clear that it was going to take much longer to free the vessel. By early afternoon, it was decided to disembark the passengers, perhaps in a bid to slightly lighten the load enough for the vessel to float free.
An attempt was made shortly after the ship ran aground to pull her off the reef. Three tugboats attempted to haul the ship backwards off the reef but
with low tide approaching the ship was stuck hard with its bow raised in a shallow upwards angle.
Passengers were removed from the ship by ferry, in the rain, and according to one passenger, they were herded onto the ferry, which was overloaded, with all passengers having to stand for the trip to shore. Passengers were directed to walk across another tender to their tender via a gangway supported by 2 ice chests.
One passenger with some apparent knowledge of the vessel said, “They weren’t in the channel where they were supposed to be.”.
Other passengers complained all excursions were cancelled, and no explainations were offered.
Numerous passengers were unhappy that they were not offered any apology of immediate offer of compensation, as they were forced off the ship, trying in vain to keep dry from the rain. They huddled at Customs, soaked to the bone.
They said the attitude of the crew was to pretend nothing had happened, and they were upset that cruise directory, Pedro, was nowhere to be seen during the incident.
On other complaints, the grounding capped off a cruise that some passengers said had "low quality of NCL food and the poor service."
It quit raining around 4:00pm and all passengers were told to board the launch at 4:30pm to arrive back at the ship.
About 5:45pm an announcement was made there would be an open bar from 6pm to 7pm. But, as it turns out, there were many restrictions on drinks. Those in the dining areas could only have wine, and no frozen drinks were dispensed at the bar.
When high tide came at 6.40 p.m. the ship freed itself from the reef and was redirected to King’s Wharf at Dockyard.
Skipp Stark
Event Date: June 08, 2006
Bruise: - Grounding
Bruise Location: Bermuda
Home Town: Pennsylvania
Details:
The ship was sailing from Philadelphia, and had just left from St. Georges on the way to Hamilton, when for some
Cruise Line: Norwegian Cruise Lines
Ship: Norwegian Crown
Built: 1988 (Crown Odyssey- RCL)
Refurbished: 2003
Registry: Bahamas
Size: 34,000 Gross Tons
Length: 614
Passengers: 1,104
Crew: 525
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