Stranded luxury cruise ship MV Ocean Explorer has been pulled free at high tide in Greenland
The operator of a luxury cruise ship that ran aground in Greenland with 206 people on board said Thursday that the MV Ocean Explorer was “successfully” pulled free by a fisheries research vessel at high tide
COPENHAGEN, Denmark — The operator of a luxury cruise ship that ran aground in Greenland with 206 people on board said Thursday that the MV Ocean Explorer was “successfully” pulled free by a fisheries research vessel at high tide.
The ship’s owner, Copenhagen-based SunStone Ships, said that it was done “based on a pull from the vessel (owned by the Greenland government) and vessel’s own power. There have not been any injuries to any person onboard, no pollution of the environment and no breach of the hull.”
It added that “the vessel and its passengers will now be positioned to a port where the vessel’s bottom damages can be assessed, and the passengers will be taken to a port from which they can be flown back home.”
The cruise ship ran aground above the Arctic Circle on Monday in Alpefjord, which is in the Northeast Greenland National Park, the world’s northernmost national park.
The park is nearly the size of France and Spain combined, and approximately 80% is permanently covered by an ice sheet. Alpefjord sits about 240 kilometers (149 miles) away from the closest settlement, Ittoqqortoormiit, which itself is nearly 1,400 kilometers (870 miles) from the country’s capital, Nuuk.
The Bahamas-flagged cruise ship has passengers from Australia, New Zealand, South Korea, the United Kingdom and the United States. It has an inverted bow, shaped like the one on a submarine, 77 cabins, 151 passenger beds and 99 beds for crew, and several restaurants.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below.
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