Al Gore still waiting for his ship to come in
Burled Frau
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100304/ap_on_re_eu/eu_baltic_ferries_stuck_5
1,000 trapped on ferry stuck in Baltic Sea ice
By KARL RITTER, Associated Press Writer Karl Ritter, Associated Press
Writer - Thu Mar 4, 6:45 pm ET
STOCKHOLM - Dozens of ships including a passenger ferry with nearly 1,000
people on board were trapped Friday in heavy pack ice in the Baltic Sea off
Sweden's east coast, officials said.
Ice breakers were trying to free the ferry Amorella and two cargo ships
stuck at the edge of an archipelago northeast of Stockholm, while rescue
helicopters and military hovercraft were on standby to evacuate passengers
if needed. Gale-force winds were hampering the effort, the Swedish Maritime
Administration said.
"As soon as they break the ice, it freezes over again," sea rescue spokesman
Peter Lindquist said. He said no one was hurt and there were no immediate
plans to evacuate the ships.
The Maritime Administration said the Amorella had 753 passengers and 190
crew on board. The 10-deck ship belongs to Viking Line, which operates
Baltic Sea cruises between Sweden and Finland.
The other ships stuck in the area were the roll-on-roll-off ferry Sea Wind
with 32 people and the Regal Star, a cargo ship with 56 people on board.
Three other ferries that got stuck in the ice were able to break free
earlier Thursday.
One of those ships, the Finnfellow, collided lightly with the Amorella when
the ice pressed the two ships together, but there was no major damage to
either ship, Lindquist said. "Just some paint that was scratched off," he
said.
A total of about 50 ships were stuck in ice along Sweden's eastern seaboard,
said Johny Lindvall, who manages the maritime administration's ice breaker
service. Heavy ice cover is not uncommon further north, but the ice rarely
gets thick enough in the Stockholm archipelago to trap powerful passenger
ferries like the Amorella.
"There's no danger for the passengers as long as there's food and drink on
board," Lindvall told The Associated Press.
Mats Nystrom, a passenger on the Amorella, told Swedish broadcaster SVT that
there was no panic on the ship.
"The atmosphere is calm so there is no danger in that sense," said Nystrom,
who is a sports presenter for the network. He said the most dramatic event
had been when the two ships touched.
"Suddenly in the loudspeakers there's a voice saying that all passengers
must immediately move to the front. Of course at that moment the passengers
got worried and wondered what was happening," Nystrom said.
The maritime administration said the ships had ignored warnings about the
icy conditions.
"Normally we can handle this type of obstacle," Viking Line CEO Jan Karstrom
told SVT. "But in this case the wind is unfortunate. It's blowing toward
land and it means that (the ice) is packed more and more against land."
Three Swedish icebreakers were trying to free the ship. Finland also
dispatched an ice breaker to help out, said Benny Paulsson from a maritime
rescue center on Finland's southwest coast.