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M/S Explorer hits ice; all safe - update
12:43 pm CST Nov 23, 2007
(ThePoles.com/TheOceans.net - story edited with updates 12.25 pm) Canadian Explorer was completing a 19-day whale- and penguin watching tour of Antarctica and the Falkland Islands, when disaster struck.
The cruise ship hit ice in the Antarctic Ocean, took on water and 90 minutes later the captain ordered the 100+ passengers to abandon ship. Tourists and crew took to eight semi-rigid lifeboats and four life rafts, with the captain leaving the ship later.
Lucky enough, Nordnorge, a Norwegian cruise ship was nearby and responded to the distress call. All passengers and crew are reportedly safe and uninjured.
Ships in Antarctica waters
Boats to Antarctica are fairly easy to hire, and range from private sailing vessels to large ice breakers and regular cruise ships.
Outfitters such as Australia’s Adventure Associates offer a purpose-built icebreaker deep beyond the reach of all other shipping; but also “Adventure Ships” aboard ice-strengthened vessels and “Expedition Ships” for small-group access. The icebreaker Kapitan Khlebnikov is a 31-day voyage to the Ross Sea region, which includes visits to the preserved huts of Scott, & Shackleton.
Norwegian Rune Glednes hired a smal, private sailing boat to leave the continent following his crossing of the ice; similar to fellow polar skier's Hannah McKeand's Blizzard expeditions charter cruises in the southern ocean.
Titanic and Shackelton
The recent incident brings to mind the fate of Titanic the British luxury passenger liner which sank in 1912 at a point about 400 miles south of Newfoundland en route to New York City during its maiden voyage.
The ship too collided with an iceberg; and eventually sank with a loss of about 1,500 lives. Inquiries alleged that the Leyland liner Californian, which was less than 20 miles (32 km) away all night, could have aided the stricken vessel had its radio operator been on duty and thereby received the Titanic's distress signals. Only the arrival of the Cunard liner Carpathia 1 hour and 20 minutes after the Titanic went down prevented further loss of life in the icy waters.
And it has been almost a century since Ernest Shackleton and his crew of 27 men aboard Endurance got trapped in the pack ice of the Weddell Sea. Shackleton hoped that the ice would eventually break and free the ship. Instead the ice slowly crushed the ship and it sunk. Shackleton and some of his men then rowed in a life raft back to an island close to the SA mainland thus managing to summon help for his crew stranded on Antarctica's ice.
Survival
Man can survive in temperate climates at least 9 days without food and water, yet out of 150 survivors from a shipwreck in 1816 only 15 survived the 13 days in a life raft. Most succumbed much earlier due to sheer panic - in other words, fear killed them.
In the 1950s, French doctor and explorer Bombard survived months at sea and several crossings including the Atlantic in an inflatable boat without any provisions at all, proving that survival at sea is more a question of knowledge and determination, rather than the desperate situation.
The Telegraph reports that onboard the M/S Explorer were two Argentines, 10 Australians, two Belgians, 24 British nationals, 12 Canadians, one Chinese national, three Danes, 17 Dutch, one French, one German, two from Hong Kong, four Irish, one Japanese, four Swiss, 14 Americans, one Colombian and one Swede. Other sources: Britannica (Titanic) and TheOceans.net (Survival).
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