Hundreds Rescued From Cruise Ship

[qprrules]

Interesting story from CNN! Greek ship Sea Diamond! Looks like she is very small, @ 22000 tons..... reminds me of my first cruise in the Mediterranean:) Not the running aground.....the ship:D

[DqALEX]

I just seen it on TV. I would never sail with the Greeks after what happen on the last Greek cruise ship when the Capt and the crew left all of the passergers on the ship. The next day people woke up and the Capt and crew were gone all but the cruise director. I WOULD NEVER SAIL WITH THE GREEKS. Italian and English are the best sailors

[KroozFoolz]

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,264309,00.html

[BrendaB1]

Just read the story on AOL. Did you hear about the other ship were a crew member was killed practicing the safety drill? Lifeboat incident.:(

[Wennfred]

I just saw a close up shot of the ship on Headline News, its sitting on this side :confused: Think about all of the fish homes and endangered coral reefs this guy destroyed just to take a short cut. :(

 

 

Fred

[KroozFoolz]

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=530974

[Curler61]

They just had a story about this on our local news as there was a high school travel club from a small town near Edmonton on the ship. Apparently everyone got off safely.

[smeyer418]

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20070405.wcruiseship04005/BNStory/International/home

 

contains a video...

[m steve]

I was caused by Nancy Pelosi being in the Middle East and distracted the captain!

[Shelledpea]

This is what has been said on Louis Lines own website : http://www.louiscruises.com/news/news_details/sea_diamond.html

 

 

05/04/2007: SEA DIAMOND INSIDENT (sic)

ANNOUNCEMENT

 

 

 

Louis Hellenic Cruises, confirm that m/v Sea Diamond flying the Greek flag, while maneuvering to moor at the anchorage of Santorini today at 4 p.m scraped its side on a reef. The vessel has taken a list due to the penetration of water, but has now been stabilised.

 

Evacuation of the 1167 passengers and 391 crew members onboard was considered prudent for safety reasons. The situation is under control. The company’s internal emergency procedures have already been activated.

 

All passengers have been safely disembarked. There are no casualties. All the crew is safe.

 

M/V Perla, under the management of Louis Hellenic Cruises, is on its way for the passengers to embark. The company’s technical team is on its way to m/v Sea Diamond to evaluate the situation.

 

All the competent Greek authorities have promptly and professionally responded to assist the company and have greatly contributed to the success of this operation.

 

A more detailed update will follow in due course.

 

 

18:00 5/4/2007

 

 

 

 

I only went on to see where a ship I once sailed on is now (Royal Caribbeans Nordic Prince/Airtours Carousel/Louis Aquamarine ~ now Arielle) and found this!

 

Happy cruising, hope we've all got good insurance!!!

Shelley

[wb2]

The BBC has a good article on this incident. Check out the video / audio links,

there is an interview with an EF Tours student. My son is also part of an EF Tours group. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6530475.stm

 

Report is that they will be transported to Piraeus on board the Perla. Don't know it that will be big enough for all of the Sea Diamond's passengers as the Perla is 2/3 the size. Of course they don't have luggage and I was told that all passports were still on the Sea Diamond, but they are working on retrieving the luggage and passports.

[falcon5travels]

My daughter too is on the EF Tour. We have not heard from her directly as of yet. But have been told 4 times removed..... that they are spending the night in Santorini.

[falcon5travels]

as i said 4 times removed. I just heard the other ship is coming to pick up the passengers by 2:00 am their time. oy. I was also told the kids (girls in particular) are very emotional right now. They have nothing, no money, no passports, nothing but the clothes on their back and are worried. Me too..:(

[KINGBOBOFTHENORTH]

Gee, Louis Cruises just obtained the Sea Diamond last year from Birka Cruises (http://www.birkacruises.com) of Sweden, where she sailed for many years in waters with more rocks then in the Greek islands. The ship was previously known as the Birka Princess.

 

BobK/Orlando

[causeyoutdoor]

My sons are also on the Sea Diamond. We are told by the tour operator that they are all safe and they are working with the cruise line to secure the luggage for the passengers. CNN just reported that the passengers were staying the night in Santorini, which was different than I had heard previously. I had heard that the passengers were going to board the Perla to head back to Athens. It is now 2AM in Greece and I wonder where my kids are sleeping.

[keltic]

I just seen it on TV. I would never sail with the Greeks after what happen on the last Greek cruise ship when the Capt and the crew left all of the passergers on the ship. The next day people woke up and the Capt and crew were gone all but the cruise director. I WOULD NEVER SAIL WITH THE GREEKS. Italian and English are the best sailors

 

 

I think we have to be fair with the hundreds of skilled Greek captains who are in charge of ships all over the world. In fact, nobody knows better their own coast than the Greeks. It´s too sudden to put the blame on him. There are good and bad captains and their passport is not an issue.

 

In fact, Greeks were sailing all over the world even before the British existed.

[falcon5travels]

I finally heard from my daughter for 30 seconds, (thank god) she called from a ship's phone. Her group lost everything. they were below deck 5 (i guess). But they are safe. But as an afterthought..... no pictures no video. too sad :( and the kids very distressed.

[MMSmith]

BBC News:

A 45-year-old man and his daughter were reported missing by family members also on the cruise, officials said. The Greek-flagged Sea Diamond issued a distress signal on Thursday after running aground and taking on water. Passengers told the BBC the three-hour evacuation proceeded calmly. The ship sank 15 hours after the accident. "The missing are Jean-Christophe Allain, 45 and his 16-year-old daughter Maud," a merchant marine ministry official told AFP news agency.

A flotilla of commercial ships plus six navy helicopters and various navy vessels assisted the rescue. The remaining passengers were being taken to the port of Piraeus, the ship's original destination.

The Sea Diamond was about one nautical mile (1.8km) off the coast of the island in the eastern Aegean Sea while on a short tour of the Greek islands. After running aground several hundred metres from shore in Santorini's volcanic lagoon, it was towed off the rocks for the rescue. Many of the 1,200 passengers are from Germany and the United States, and about 20 are believed to be from the UK, said Louis Cruise Lines, the Cypriot firm which runs the ship. There are also up to 400 crew. The missing French pair were in a four-berth cabin when the vessel struck a reef. The man's wife and son narrowly managed to escape to the upper decks, the BBC's Malcolm Brabant reports from Athens. Divers are preparing to examine the wreck, now about 200m down. American passenger Cliff Jones said: "We were pulling into the port and I think the ship hit a few rocks. "The ship tilted so far to the right the first five floors were flooded. We just waited at the top to be rescued," he told the BBC. Greek Tourism Minister Fanny Palli Petralia has said whoever is responsible for the incident will be held accountable in the strictest way. :(

[MMSmith]

ATHENS (Reuters) - Greek rescuers searched for two French tourists missing after the evacuation of a cruise ship which ran aground off the Aegean island of Santorini before sinking on Friday.

 

The French Foreign Ministry said the missing Frenchman was Jean-Christophe Allain. "Mr Allain's wife and her son have been removed to a hotel in Athens. Our consul in Athens has gone there to help them," Jean-Baptiste Mattei, French Foreign Ministry spokesman, told a news conference in Paris.