Cruise ship hits rocks in Aleutian Islands The Associated Press (Published: August 1, 2004) UNALASKA -- The cruise ship Clipper Oydssey refloated with the tide early Sunday after going hard aground on rocks at Akutan Pass in the Aleutian Islands, forcing 153 people to abandon ship and spilling an undetermined amount of diesel fuel, the U.S. Coast Guard said. There were no reports of injuries. The accident at about 9:15 p.m. Saturday punctured holes in both a 5,800-gallon diesel fuel tank on the port side and in a gray water tank, the Coast Guard said. An undetermined amount of fuel spilled, said Lt. Asheley Bodkin. Good Samaritan vessels in the area carried 122 passengers and 31 crew members from the cruise ship to safety at Unalaska, about 800 air miles west of Anchorage, Bodkin said. Thirty-five crew members, two pilots and two Coast Guard personnel worked on the boat to determine its stability before it departed for Unalaska on Sunday morning -- about a 40-mile trip from Akutan Pass -- under its own power, said Petty Officer Douglas Green. The Coast Guard sent cutters, a helicopter and an airplane to the scene. Fishing boats and a freighter assisted in the rescue, Bodkin said. The ship had been headed west along the Aleutian chain although its destination was not immediately known. Intrav and Clipper Cruise Line in St. Louis, the tour operator of the 340-foot Clipper Odyssey, did not return calls for comment. Cruise ship hits rocks in Aleutian Islands
The piece in the USA Today said that it was full of eco-friendly people. Environmentalist types. Why do I find this so funny? the irony...not the dead baby seals or goo covered fowl.
I've never been to the area where this happened, but I have several friends who are commercial fisherman out in that area, and they all say that coastal reefs extend several miles offshore from the Alaska Peninsula/Aleutians and that if you don't know what you're doing it is very easy to run aground there. There have been many, many shipwrecks in that area, both from navigational hazards and notoriously lousy weather. And Chance, I also find it ironic that an eco-cruise dumped an unknown amount of diesel into the Bering Sea, which happens to be one of the most productive fisheries in the world. Fortunately diesel disperses faster than crude so hopefully damage will be minimal.
Note to self: Don't go on a cruise whose operator is based in St Louis. St Louis?!?! What type of cruising exactly is done in the heartland of America??
This is f*cked up. A close friend of mine and his family left for an Alaskan cruise last Saturday...July 31st. Good news is that he doesn't fall under the category of "enviro-friendly Greenpeace freaks" or whatever group was on the ship.
