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FAMOUS POLAR CRUISE SHIP MV 'EXPLORER' SINKS OFF THE ANTARCTIC PENINSULA

DOUGHTY ANTARCTIC TOURISTS EXPERIENCE A TASTE OF 'THE SHACKLETON EXPERIENCE'

British Explorers enjoying a Polar cruise as part of a “Spirit of Shackleton” party came rather closer to the experience of Sir Ernest Shackleton and his 27 marooned colleagues in 1915 than they had planned, as their cruise ship, the MV Explorer, approached the Antarctic Pensinsula.

The MV 'Explorer' photographed in port prior to one of her regular Polar expeditions
Their 2,646-ton ship, owned by Toronto-based Gap Expeditions, left South America on 11 November and was on the 12th day of a 19-day tour of the Falkland Islands, the South Atlantic and the Antarctic Peninsula.

Some 445 miles south-east of Ushuaia, the Explorer was in the general area of the South Shetlands and Graham Land, off King George Island and approaching the Bransfield Strait as she made for the tip of Antarctica and the Danco coast, when it apparently struck what Shackleton would have known as a ‘growler’, an underwater iceberg.

One of the cabins below the waterline was punctured with a hole ‘the size of a fist’, and there was subsequent cracking. That was sufficient, after attempts were made to stem the water incursion, to cause a 45 degree list in the ship. 90 minutes later the captain gave orders for ‘abandon ship’.

Holed below the waterline, the 'Explorer' tilts at a perilous angle
One source reports there were 91 passengers, plus nine expedition staff members and a crew of 54, making a total of 154. The expedition included 24 Britons, 17 Dutch, 14 Americans, 12 Canadian, 10 Australians, Argentinians, Colombians, Chinese, Japanese, Belgians, Swedish, German, Danish, French, Irish and Swiss tourists. The entire passenger list (just under 100), staff and eventually crew were evacuated into the ship’s boats, which were open lifeboats (a point that has incurred some criticism: one has only to recollect the appalling experience of Shackleton’s men escaping from the ice in the three open boats.)

The area north of the tip of Antarctica is famously prone to major storms and howling winds. Fortunately the conditions were relatively mild (only -5 degrees centigrade, with a sea temperature at around -1 degree), seas were calm and winds light at the time, providing optimal conditions for an evacuation, and everyone was safely evacuated from the eight semi-rigid lifeboats and four life rafts onto the 403 foot, ten-year-old Norwegian cruise ship NorNorge, in a rescue operation coordinated from Norfolk, Virginia and by the Argentinians in Ushuaia.

The Chilean navy, which first received a distress signal around 10 p.m. Eastern Time on the night of Thursday 22 Nov (3 a.m. GMT on Friday morning) reported that after attempts by the captain and crew to see if she could be righted, the water pumped out and the damage made good, the Explorer was completely abandoned and finally sank beneath the Antarctic waves on the evening of Friday 23rd November, about 20 hours after the accident.

Gap Adventures spokeswoman Susan Hayes said it was not an iceberg, but a "submerged piece of ice."

The MV 'Explorer' keels over as water penetrates her starboard side
The area off Antarctica where the crisis occurred is the subject of an ongoing disputed claim by both Britain and Argentina, but Antarctic cruise ships now ply more than ever before. The Independent reports that 52 cruises are expected into Ushuaia between October 2007 and April 2008.

The MV Explorer is known as the ‘Little Red Ship’, a 'small ship with a big heart’, because of its plucky endeavours prior to now. She was the first custom-built ship designed for cruises and expeditions; most famously, she was the first cruise ship to traverse the North West Passage, and to visit the far east of Russia as part of an Arctic exploration. Originally Scandinavian-owned, she currently belonged to Gap Adventures, a respected Canadian travel firm, sailing under a Liberian flag of convenience.

The ship is abandoned and passengers and crew take to the lifeboats to await picking up by nearby vessels
No injuries were reported and both air and sea temperature, although below freezing, were relatively mild. Waves were calm and winds light, Argentinian coastguard reported. Once rescued from the lifeboats the discomfited but spirited travellers were billeted in the more hospitable lounge of the NordNorge, which has room for 691 passengers but was carrying only 300 at the time of the incident, and hence was able to accommodate the Explorer's passengers with relative ease.

The Independent also reported Captain Arnvid Hansen, the Norwegian skipper of the NordNorge, as saying, ‘All are aboard my vessel. There are no afraid passengers, or anything like that. Some are cold but none has hypothermia. We are giving them as many clothes as we can.’

The NordNorge, whose captain, Arnvid Hansen, came swiftly to the rescue of the stricken MV Explorer
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