Dyflin
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Reged: 16/03/2002
Posts: 2135
Loc: Dublin
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MS Nordkapp aground
A cruise vessel owned by Hurtigruten Group with 370 people on board briefly ran aground near Deception Island in Antarctica on Tuesday.
Hurtigruten said in a statement on Wednesday that the MS Nordkapp quickly refloated herself after the incident, during which none of the 294 passengers or 76 crew was injured.
"No spillage from the ship has been discovered," it said, but added it had laid out oil spill protection equipment as safety routines demand.
The MS Nordkapp has people from 19 nationalities on board, including 117 US citizens. Hurtigruten said it was too early to estimate the direct economic consequence of the incident but the company assumed the MS Nordkapp's last three sailings planned for this season in Antarctica would be cancelled.
The 123-meter-long vessel, built in 1996, is now anchored at Whalers Bay just off Deception Island and will now continue towards Ushuaia in Argentina in the company of another ship, Hurtigruten said.
It said sister vessel MS Nordnorge would arrive before noon on Wednesday, Jan. 31, to transport all passengers to Argentina. "The situation is under control and the passengers fully informed of the situation," it said.
http://www.aftenposten.no/english/world/article1623435.ece
It looks like the ship is not at sea again, they have webcams aboard:
http://www.bt.no/kamera/article208141.ece
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Dyflin
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Reged: 16/03/2002
Posts: 2135
Loc: Dublin
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Fuel washed into a bay off Antarctica's Deception Island when the MS Nordkapp, with 370 people aboard, damaged its hull on rocks on Tuesday.
"We can confirm that such a fuel spill occurred, given that traces of hydrocarbons have been detected on more than 5 km (3 miles) of the interior shore of the island," Raul Perez, a scientist at the Gabriel de Castilla base, told Spanish state radio.
The owners, Norway's Hurtigruten Group, said they were not aware of any spill and had followed safety procedures after the 123-meter (403 ft) vessel refloated itself and anchored.
"We had laid out oil protection equipment around the ship but we have not observed any oil spillage from the vessel," Hurtigruten's spokeswoman Hanne Kristiansen said.
A spokesman for the Spanish army, which operates the base on Deception Island, confirmed scientists had detected a fuel spill in the bay after the ship ran aground. He said the base had taken samples of the fuel to determine its type and source.
"We still don't know the size of this," said the army spokesman in Madrid. "This is fuel from a ship, not an oil tanker spill."
An international treaty designates Antarctica as a nature reserve and calls on member countries to quickly handle environmental emergencies and establish liability for environmental damage. The Antarctic base, which has Spanish military and scientific personnel, said it could not measure the complete expanse of the spill as it had no aircraft.
"The ecological system has been harmed, it's going to stay in the sediment and it's going to affect the area," Perez said.
The MS Nordkapp was set to continue towards Ushuaia, Argentina, with another vessel while passengers were transported to Argentina on sister ship MS Nordnorge.
http://www.aftenposten.no/english/local/article1626472.ece
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Mirelle
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Reged: 30/11/2002
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And there were all the old codgers like me thinking that the Hurtigruten was a Government subsidised coastal shipping service in Norway...
Point of interest - are these ships NIS or real Norwegian?
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Dyflin
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Reged: 16/03/2002
Posts: 2135
Loc: Dublin
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AFAIK, they are home fleet Norwegian ships.
Flag: Norway
Signal Letters: JWPE3
Port: NARVIK
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