Crew Members of sunken Ship admitted that they were all at far greater risk than previously disclosed because of a drifting iceberg

http://www.mercopress.com/vernoticia.do?id=11966&formato=HTML

Some of the British tourists rescued from the Antarctic cruise ship which sank after hitting an iceberg were airlifted from a remote island in the Southern Ocean last night. Last night some of the rescued holidaymakers spoke of their ordeals. Speaking from King George Island, the Explorer's British ornithologist, Bob Flood, and American expedition leader, Brad Rhees, gave a graphic account of how three male passengers, sharing a cabin, were woken by water flooding in just before 1am on Friday. Mr Rhees, 60, a veteran Antarctic explorer, said: "The impact was on the starboard side, right next to a cabin being shared by three men. It was a fairly strong strike and in a short time their cabin had a metre of water in it. "The crew didn't know anything about it until the passengers pressed an emergency button. There was a quick response from the crew but they were the people who alerted us." When we were on the rescue ship, the weather quickly got worse. It was almost a whiteout blizzard blowing 30 to 40 knots. If we had been in that in the lifeboats, we wouldn't have made it. We had to wait six or seven hours before it was safe to land at the base on King George."

Body Of Missing Cruise Passenger Washes Ashore

cbs4.com
FT. LAUDERDALE (CBS4) ―
A woman's body that washed up on a Hollywood beach Monday morning has been identified as a cruise ship passenger who vanished late Sunday.The Broward Sheriff's Office says the body was discovered around 7:30 a.m. Monday on the beach in John U Lloyd state park by a ranger. Sunday evening, the U.S. Coast Guard was contacted by the Discovery Sun casino cruise ship that a woman had vanished from the ship as it returned from a 3-day trip to the Bahamas.49-year old Monique Teresia Van der Steenstraeten's boyfriend told investigators that he last saw her around 9:30 p.m. Sunday when she left the lounge they were in to go have a cigarette on deck. When she didn't come back, and could not be found on the ship, he alerted the ship's officers who contacted the Coast Guard. During a search of the ship they allegedly found a suicide note written by Steenstraeten.
BSO says Steenstraeten's boyfriend has been cooperative with detectives and no foul play is suspected. The medical examiner performed an autopsy and has ruled the death a suicide.

Ship sinks after hitting iceberg, Antarctic

naca.sbs.com.au/worldnewsaustralia
Friday, 23 November, 2007

More than 150 passengers and crew escaped unhurt after their cruise ship struck an iceberg in the Antarctic Ocean and started to sink, an Argentine coast guard official says. Two passenger boats in the area were picking up the 154 occupants of the Explorer from the lifeboats they used to escape the ship, which ran into problems near the south Shetland Islands. "Everyone is safe and accounted for," Susan Hayes, a spokeswoman for ship owner Gap Adventures, told CNN.
Iceberg 'cause for crash' The ship was travelling out of Ushuaia in Argentina, travelling southbound to Antarctica, and off King George Island it hit some ice and began taking on some water," Hayes said. She said 13 Americans had been on board, as well as British, Canadians, Australians, Dutch and other nationalities. Cruise carrying 154 people The ship, built in 1969 and refitted in 1993, was carrying 100 passengers and 54 crew on a cruise that was due to end by Monday. The Explorer usually makes two-week cruises around the Antarctic, costing around 4,000 pounds ($A9,200) per cabin.

The South Shetland Islands lie about 120 km north of the Antarctic Peninsula. They have been part of the British Antarctic Territory since 1962, although they are also claimed by Argentina and Chile. Cruise trip travel has grown in Antarctica in recent years and Tuhay said 52 cruises were expected at the southern port of Ushuaia during this year's peak season from October to April.

Crewmember from Cruise Ship Missing at Sea

miamiherald.com [Nov 14, 2007]

The U.S. Coast Guard was searching Tuesday for a 44-year-old crew member who was reported missing from the gambling ship Island Adventure at about noon. Officers on the 512-foot ship told the Coast Guard that one of the ship's employees, Oliviero Fernandes, who is from India, had not been seen since 9:30 p.m. Monday...

Jarvis said nearly 300 crew members live aboard the ship, so it wasn't unusual to not see him later at night because he might have been asleep. But the crew knew something was wrong when Fernandes didn't show up for work Tuesday morning, she said. Crew members searched the ship several times, then called the Coast Guard, Jarvis said.

150 Passengers Sick from Virus on Norwegian Cruise Lines' Pride of Hawaii

cruisecritic.com November 11, 2007

More than 150 passengers aboard Norwegian Cruise Lines' Pride of Hawaii fell ill onboard last week with suspected Norovirus. The ship, which was carrying 2,500 travelers, had departed from Honolulu on Monday, and folks reportedly were coming down with the symptoms -- violent vomiting and diarrhea among them -- fairly soon thereafter.

Those who caught the bug were required to be quarantined in their cabins for 24 hours or so. That's fairly standard procedure among all cruise lines. The ship did not make a planned call at Maui Wednesday -- but that was due to an oil spill not related to Pride of Hawaii.

Cruise Critic members could, as always, be relied upon to provide details. Writes Whale-Watcher, "I am a nurse currently on vacation sailing on the Pride of Hawaii. Yes there is a Norwalk outbreak. The captain and the crew have been very honest about it. I see crew all over the ship with spray bottles wiping things down constantly. I went down to the medical center to volunteer my services and was told they had it all under control. They said the first cases were reported Monday night (the first night of the cruise). Since the Norwalk virus has a 72 hour incubation period that means that someone came onboard already sick. Pride of Hawai`i has been carrying out an extensive range of preventative measures on board and does not expect this issue to carry forward into the next cruise. Passengers on the next cruise will be advised before boarding that a certain number of passengers on the prior cruise experienced symptoms of stomach flu and will be given an opportunity not to sail if they feel uncomfortable proceeding with their cruise at that point.

Video of Sinking Cruise Ship Now Posted to Youtube

sinking-cruise-ship-santorini-repost-new-footage

Cruiseship owners blame sea charts for sinking

Athens News Agency, Greece - Nov 2, 2007

The owners of a sunken cruise ship now resting on the ocean floor of Santorini's picturesque volcanic Caldera on Friday blamed erroneous sea charts as causing the maritime accident, with company officials charging that the exact location and depth of a reef struck by the ill-fated "Sea Diamond" were inaccurate. According to information presented in Athens by the head of operations for the Louis Hellenic Cruises company, the reef was listed at a distance of 57 metres from the shoreline, but in fact, was 131 metres from the shoreline, which in this case is the sheer rock cliffs of the popular holiday island's caldera. Additionally, Louis Cruise official George Koubenas said the depth of the reef was given as between 18 and 22 metres on a chart issued by Greece's relevant Hydrographic Service, instead of the actual five-metre depth.