Cruise Ship Crashes Into Dock
Maria Mauri
The MSC Opera cruise ship rammed into a dock and a tourist riverboat on a busy canal in Venice, Italy. An investigation is underway into the cause of the crash. Luca Bruno/AP hide caption
The 13-deck MSC Opera rammed into the dock with its horns blaring, injuring five tourists, according to The Associated Press. Two tugboats tried to guide the cruise ship but were unable to prevent it from crashing.
"When we saw the ship bearing down on us, everyone began shouting and running," said a sailor who was on the tourist boat, according to AFP. "I didn't know what to do. I got away quickly, jumping to get on shore."
"The MSC ship had an engine failure, which was immediately reported by the captain," said Davide Calderan, the head of one of the tugboats accompanying the cruise ship, according to AFP and Italian media.
The MSC Opera can carry more than 2,675 passengers, and according to its sailing schedule, the ship left Venice on May 26 and traveled to Kotor, Montenegro, and to Mykonos, Santorini and Corfu in Greece before returning on Sunday to Venice.
Sunday's collision adds to growing criticism of cruise ships in Venice, where the large vessels crowd waterways, block views and create waves that risk damage to the city's buildings and infrastructure.
"What happened in the port of Venice is confirmation of what we have been saying for some time," Italy's environment minister Sergio Costa tweeted. "Cruise ships must not sail down the Giudecca. We have been working on moving them for months now ... and are nearing a solution."
The Norwegian Epic cruise ship crashed into a dock in San Juan, Puerto Rico, on Tuesday, an incident which was captured in a video posted on Twitter. No injuries were reported, according to a statement posted on Twitter by Norwegian Cruise Line.
Norwegian said that the ship was docking with a local pilot on board and the help of two tug boats when "prevailing winds caused the ship to veer towards the pier, damaging two mooring points at Pier 3 East."
Shortly after the incident, Norwegian tweeted: "No injuries have been reported and guests are currently disembarking the ship as previously scheduled. We are working closely with local authorities to assess the damage."
The Epic was on a seven-day cruise in the Eastern Caribbean, and was not originally scheduled to stop in San Juan. Passengers were told that the ship was experiencing mechanical problems and would be diverted to San Juan, skipping planned calls at Tortola in the British Virgin Islands and St. Thomas in the U.S. Virgin Islands.
Cruise passengers aboard the MSC Armonia experienced quite the shock when their ship crashed into a pier as they began to dock into the port off Isla Roatan, Honduras. The ship was attempting to dock on Tuesday, April 10 around 9 a.m. when it struck and crumbled parts of the pier.
Stunned witnesses reported that the 65,000-ton vessel was coming into the port too quickly. Video footage of the event recorded patrons of a restaurant located off the pier being told to get out of the kitchen as the ship quickly approached.
As the ship quickly came to shore, crew members were reported as trying to stop the ship by throwing two heavy anchors overboard shortly before the ship hit the dock. Unfortunately, their efforts were unsuccessful.
The damage to the ship was relatively minor and no injuries were reported. The exact cause of the accident is still under investigation. Guests of the ship were able to disembark for shore excursions shortly after the crash.
After repairs were made to the ship and it was cleared by Honduran Port State Control authority, the ship was then able to sail from Roatan to complete the remainder of the cruise course. The ship left around 5:30 a.m. Wednesday morning for the next stop on its trip, which was Belize.
The Havana-based MSC Armonia, regularly travels to the Cayman Islands. The Armonia was built in 2001 and can hold approximately 2,700 passengers and 700 crew members. At the time of the crash, the vessel was on a Caribbean itinerary which included either a seven-day or 14-day cruise. The Armonia is scheduled to arrive in George Town on April 19, according to the Port Authority of the Cayman Islands.
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On the wonder of the seas and just got diverted from going to San Juan Puerto Rico and DR. now going to st. Marteen and St. Thomas. They said a ship crashed into the port in San Juan. Does anyone have information on that?
First time on Royal, trying to find good cruise line for world cruising. Folks chose cruises in large part on itineraries. To just drop the D.R. is unconscionable. We are now on the exact cruise we just took in January and would otherwise not have booked. Royal has now delivered on 25% of the destinations we purchased.
This. Can't blame Royal for either cancelling Labadee or not being able to dock in PR... which then caused them to have to switch out the DR as well. They can't control civil unrest, dock damage, or geography.
While I largely agree with you, some people are more interested in the ports than the ship so I can understand being disappointed, just not to the extent of the OP. We missed the port we were most looking forward to once (high winds) and had a great time overall, yes, but we were disappointed even with the full understanding that it was no one's fault. We also had a port swapped not too long ago and were happier with the replacement (and fortunately had a couple days notice so we could book a 3rd party excursion in the new port). Many people were unhappy with the switch. Lots of personal preference involved in cruising.
Just to clarify for anyone on a PR itinerary on an Oasis class ship, Captain said the dolphin Oasis ships use is unstable from the MSC ship striking it in PR. They tried to work with the port authority to dock on the east side of the pier instead of the usual west side, but the port authority rejected this option and told them that we cannot dock until the dolphin is repaired (unknown downtime). No mofongo for me this cruise, but will have to do conch fritters and coconut shrimp.
Unless it's a bucket list thing that you really only have one chance at (say, Panama Canal or Greenland), cruising is a lot less stressful when you just prepare yourself that port changes may happen and mentally adjust when they do.
We were on Majesty going to Cuba. The only reason we were on that ship was for Cuba, and I'd have rather had them cancel it when we weren't allowed to sail there. We ended up with horrible weather on a very tiny ship and got switched to Nassau. It wasn't a win. We still made lemonade outta lemons, but I'd have been happy with a cruise credit for sure. But this is a very unique case...Though I'm starting to sail more smaller ships for itinerary not ship. Jane
According to this article in Spanish, it was the Meraviglia. It appears to have happened on the 11th of April (the article is dated 12th April and reports the incident as happening "ayer" ("yesterday"). Otherwise, there's really very little detail at all in the article. Apparently the ship was undamaged and the Puerto Rican authorities are supposedly going to provide updated information as and when.
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