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A Luxury Cruise Ship, Stuck Off Greenland's Coast for 3 Days, Is Pulled Free (nytimes.com) 69

A luxury cruise ship that had been stuck for three days after running aground off the coast of Greenland was pulled free on Thursday morning, the authorities said. From a report: The ship, the Ocean Explorer, had been carrying 206 passenger and crew members and was headed toward Alpefjord, in a remote corner of Greenland. The ship's destination was the Northeast Greenland National Park, the world's northernmost national park, which is home to icebergs, glaciers and high mountains. The Joint Arctic Command, which is part of Denmark's defense forces, and SunStone Maritime Group, the coordinators of the rescue operation, said in statements on Thursday that the ship had been pulled free by a vessel named Tarajoq.

There were no reported injuries on board the ship, and there was no threat to the environment. The ship's operator, Aurora Expeditions, a cruise company based in Australia, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The rescue came after an unsuccessful attempt on Wednesday, in which a fishing research vessel owned by the government of Greenland tried and failed to pull free the Ocean Explorer at high tide. Bad weather also slowed the government's rescue operations, officials said. Before the ship was freed, the Joint Arctic Command had said that "the crew and passengers are in a difficult situation, but after the circumstances, the atmosphere on the ship is good and everyone on board is fine."

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A Luxury Cruise Ship, Stuck Off Greenland's Coast for 3 Days, Is Pulled Free

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  • McAllister: "Arr, I'm in a lotta trouble now. Hey, I'll give ya a hundred bucks if you'll take the blame."

  • Aussie to Greenland, thats a long cruise.

    • Aussie to Greenland, thats a long cruise.

      Yep, and they likely burned a lot of diesel fuel getting there. Coming up to reduce CO2 emissions are nuclear powered cruise ships.
      https://www.cruisehive.com/shi... [cruisehive.com]

    • by bobthesungeek76036 ( 2697689 ) on Thursday September 14, 2023 @01:42PM (#63848704)
      From TFA:

      The 112 passengers and 94 crew on the Australian tour operator's cruise had set off from Norway on 2 September and were due to return on 22 September.

      • Now this is the tale of the castways, they're here for a long, long time, they'll have to make the best of things, it's an uphill climb. The first mate and the Skipper too, will do their very best, to make the others comfortable, in the tropic island nest. No phone, no lights no motor cars, not a single luxury, like Robinson Crusoe, as primative as can be. So join us here each week my freinds, you're sure to get a smile, from seven stranded castways, here on "Gilligan's Isle."

      • I've been following the progress of that ship since it was pulled free. It first went to Reykjavik to unload its passengers - spending a couple more days there - and then headed off to Caen in Northern France. It docked there a couple of hours ago and my suspicion is that it is there for repairs. Two more ships from Aurora Expeditions Australia - Ocean Odyssey and Greg Mortimer - are also at Caen and it appears to be the equivalent of a Hub for that cruise operator.

  • by Anonymous Coward
    Here's an alternate: https://www.bbc.com/news/world... [bbc.com]
  • I would imagine that a ship as fancy as this would have some kind of radar or depth sensing capability.

    I know nothing about boats. Genuinely curious.

    • Well, with tides and whatnot the water level changes over time, of course. There could be a shallower stretch that they thought they could navigate during high tide, but the transit took longer than expected for whatever reason. Or someone simply miscalculated.

    • I would imagine that a ship as fancy as this would have some kind of radar or depth sensing capability.

      People thought similar things about the Titanic too but it seems to remain a general rule that no amount of technology can overcome our capacity for human error.

      • by skam240 ( 789197 )

        People thought the Titanic, a boat built in 1912, had "some kind of radar or depth sensing capability."? No they didn't.

        • They did have methods to test depth in 1912.

          • by skam240 ( 789197 )

            Of course they did. Did they have methods that were used on cruise boats that could be used while moving though? No they did not.

        • No, that's why I said "similar" - which means like but not identical. They thought the Titanic had technology that made it immune to the dangers of icebergs, _similar_ to how you think that a modern ship has the technology to make it immune from running aground. It turns out both assumptions were wrong because of the capacity for human error.
          • by skam240 ( 789197 )

            I wouldnt say two things were similar because they're both "technology".

            In other words, I dont understand how engineering that would supposedly allow a boat to survive a collision with an iceberg is similar to technology that would allow them to see underwater threats.

            • It's not just the technology - it's the fact that in both cases people thought the technology made them immune to a problem and in both cases human error trumped technology.
              • by skam240 ( 789197 )

                Yes but in this case the "technology" was already put into context by the person you were responding to. No one thought the Titanic had "some kind of radar or depth sensing capability" or anything that is actually similiar to that.

                • Yes, that was the initial idea which I then expanded on by comparison to a similar situation using different technology but the same hubristic assumption that technology somehow means you'll never encounter the problem it was designed to solve. Are you really saying that you cannot see the similarity between the two situations? Is your thinking really that inflexible?
    • by jwhyche ( 6192 )

      Now I'm curious. What is the procedure for when a boat or ship runs aground. What happens after they pull it off? I assume it must undergo some lengthy stay in dry dock to make sure the hull wasn't compromised in some manner.

    • Ships don't stop suddenly. There are no brakes. So you are going ahead at a reasonable speed and the depth sounder says the bottom is rising, then it rises suddenly, as in sand bar. You stop the engines or even put them into reverse, but momentum carries you forward and whomp. Oops, stuck.

      Even trolling across a fresh water lake it's quite common to see the bottom come up ten feet in the length of the boat. Too deep to see the bottom, then there is the bottom, then oh shit, reverse now. And then the sand cru

  • ... they kept passengers entertained while they were stuck. Showing the mini-seriesThe Terror [imdb.com] in the ship's theater would be appropriate.

  • Atrocious. Leave the captain there. Unemployed, in Greenland.

  • There's a website which shows where a large number of cruise ships - and some ferries - are in pretty much real time and I looked at this ship's position yesterday. Initially it was shown as not moving, then - after it was reported as having been freed - it was shown as moving but still virtually in the same place. Now it is still in the same place and not moving. https://www.cruisemapper.com/?imo=9883194 [cruisemapper.com].

    - the red circle shows where it was when you first opened that page
    - if the ship is shown as a blob,

    • ok, it is now around 400 feet SE of its previous position. Static again, but definitely mobile.

    • by PPH ( 736903 )

      Just a guess: They probably want to inspect the hull for possible damage before commencing a cross-ocean trip back to Denmark (or Australia or where ever).

      • Whatever they were waiting for, it's over.
        They are 15 miles N of where they were stuck, heading back out of the Fjord - or whatever it's called in Greenland - towards the open sea. The site I linked to says they are on their way to Reykjavik and that appears to be their actual destination and not one left over from before things went wrong.

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