Minor accident on the Danube river

According to police reports and local newspapers on Sunday morning (May 17th) around 5 am the VIKING VE ran aground on her downriver journey near the port of Straubing-Sand. She wasn´t able to free herself.

No injuries occured. The 181 passengers and 51 crew have been transported to shore and bussed into nearby hotels throughout the day.

By 5:10 pm a towboat was able to free the VIKING VE. Traffic on the Danube river was closed since the accident and reopened by 6 pm yesterday. The VIKING VE was checked for damages and according to Marinetraffic is on her way to Budapest - currently near Linz, Austria.

Reason given for the accident: human error, navigational error.

steamboats

Hello steamboats,

glad to hear everyone is safe. I am a little surprised about the running aground as the Danube is not low. But then again, as we know, any river has its sandbanks and rocks...and other potential hazards.

The Viking Ve, by the way, is one of the "baby" longships. She was only christened in March.

notamermaid

Here on the Rhine the weather is lovely this morning, but rain and lower temperatures are forecast for the next few days.

I have a feeling there is an opening for bridge officers at Viking . . .

Lolol!!! :d

Viking launched so many ships so quickly that one has to wonder if the staff and crew are trained to industry standards. I would find it hard to manage such an expansion.

Viking launched so many ships so quickly that one has to wonder if the staff and crew are trained to industry standards. I would find it hard to manage such an expansion.

The Captains are licensed for segments of each river. One would expect a minimum level of competence . . . But the ship type could well make a difference. I don't imagine Viking spent the money to poach the really experienced Captains from other lines.

And, according to at least two Captains, the cruise boats are considered a better job than hauling freight which seems to be stepping stone job. Those same two Captains did not like the "longships," one reason was more draft than other types of ship.

Orchestrapal, please accept my apologies for a thoughtless remark. Of course, it's not a joke and I hope your friends are all ok. I would delete my original post, but apparently its too late. :(

Thank you for trying to do that.

One is well and on is still in hospital.

Thoughts and prayers.

I wish CC would give an hour or two to delete or edit posts. In this day of Social Media sometimes our fingers get snarky and after posting we feel bad about how something comes out and can't fix or delete a post that maybe should never have been made.

JMHO

I wish CC would give an hour or two to delete or edit posts. In this day of Social Media sometimes our fingers get snarky and after posting we feel bad about how something comes out and can't fix or delete a post that maybe should never have been made.

JMHO

Yeah, I know how that happens. I don't know what I was thinking.

I wish CC would give an hour or two to delete or edit posts. In this day of Social Media sometimes our fingers get snarky and after posting we feel bad about how something comes out and can't fix or delete a post that maybe should never have been made.

JMHO

The Mods can delete a Post if you request them to do so.

Click on the Triangle; top right corner of the Post and request that your post be deleted.

The Mods can delete a Post if you request them to do so.

 

Click on the Triangle; top right corner of the Post and request that your post be deleted.

Thanks GeeDunk....I e-mailed Jazz but I think he's still away. All this time I had no idea it was that easy and I even went to the help pages, this should be in them.

The Viking Ve, by the way, is one of the "baby" longships. She was only christened in March.

notamermaid: are you sure about the "baby longship" ? I think I saw her some days ago in Nuremberg and she looked like all the other long ships. Also 180-200 PAX sounds like the regular longships like odin, idun and the others.. To my knowledge the baby longships were only build for the Elbe river.

Hello, ingo_e,

notamermaid: are you sure about the "baby longship" ? I think I saw her some days ago in Nuremberg and she looked like all the other long ships. Also 180-200 PAX sounds like the regular longships like odin, idun and the others.. To my knowledge the baby longships were only build for the Elbe river.

Oops, I should have been clearer in this. I was just referring to her age, hence the idea of a baby among the other longships of 2013 and 2014!

Are the new ships on the Elbe of the longship type? Seeing that they have to be of a different built have they been able to stick to the design and technical innovations they chose for the Rhine, etc.?

But perhaps my question is too much off-topic.

notamermaid

No, the Elbe river ships are no longships.

steamboats

If I could delete all of my "snarky-grams" y'all would probably never hear from me!....lucky you?:D

If I could delete all of my "snarky-grams" y'all would probably never hear from me!....lucky you?:D

Are we related? :D

No, the Elbe river ships are no longships.

 

steamboats

But, they do have some design elements more similar to the longships than the current 2 boats (Fontane & Schuman) sailing the river.

1) All cabins have the option of hotel style beds (F & S only have that option in the suites).

2) They have standard, French balcony & truly balcony options.

3) They have moved the hallway off centre to give more room to the balcony cabins - meaning that the French balcony cabins are smaller than the cabins with the fixed window.

4) They do have an Aquavit Terrace up front.... (lovely feature).

We booked - and then the "new" boats were announced. We debated switching, but the cost difference was significant - so we are still on the Fontane.

Fran

The most important question is whether the new Viking boats on the Elbe share the "long boats" increased draft -- since the Elbe has more low-water problems than most rivers.

The most important question is whether the new Viking boats on the Elbe share the "long boats" increased draft -- since the Elbe has more low-water problems than most rivers.

I checked on marinetraffic.com, and they show most of the long ships as having 1.7m draft. The Viking Astrild (one of the Elbe ships I believe) shows a draft of only 1 m.

FuelScience

Fran,

But the size is different (lenght, width, draft) due to the special needs for a ship cruising on the Elbe river. So it´s a different ship design than the longships traveling on the Main/Danube/Rhine rivers and others. That doesn´t mean that they did implement other features of the longships like those you´ve mentioned.

steamboats