Stranded ship off Latvia evacuated
RIGA (Reuters) - Latvia’s coast guard evacuated all 651 passengers from a grounded cruise ship after overnight efforts to move the vessel failed, officials said on Monday.
The Bahamas-registered Mona Lisa, with mainly Germans on board, ran aground on Sunday in the Irbe Strait, a main route from the Baltic Sea to Latvia’s capital Riga.
Attempts to move the ship failed throughout the night so officials decided to move the crew and passengers to the nearby port city Ventspils 37 kilometers (23 miles) away.
“All passengers, all 651, have been evacuated from the ship and taken to Ventspils safely,” Latvian coast guard spokeswoman, Liene Ulbina said.
“Later they will all be taken by train to Riga,” Ulbina said, adding there were more than 330 crew members on board still waiting to be taken off the stranded ship.
“When all crew members have been evacuated we will try again to pull the ship free,” Ulbina said. It was not immediately clear whether the vessel had been damaged.
The Mona Lisa, which first came into service in 1966, was on charter to a German ferry tour operator, Lord Nelson Seereisen, from April 28 to August 31, according to Dutch cruise information website www.nedcruise.info.
The ship was sited about 18 km from the coast.
(Reporting by Jorgen Johansson and Patrick Lannin; Editing by Matthew Jones)
Tags: cruise, lisa, mona, ship
May 5th, 2008 at 12:22 pm
It seems you really have trouble with basic reading comprehension. I can’t say that I blame the doctor- dehydration in a 7 month old isn’t a jokeExcept for the fact that the child was NOT dehydrated, as confirmed by the real doctors at the hospital.Also, it was late and they were given 10 minutes to get the fuck off the boat. The wife wasn’t even allowed to change out of her PJ’s into normal cloths.Really, READ THE FUCKING ARTICLE.
May 5th, 2008 at 1:12 pm
No you didn’t.
May 5th, 2008 at 2:03 pm
You’re right- I caught the part where the hospital doctor said that the infant had a cold, not that it wasn’t dehydrated. That said, if I was a doctor on a ship I wouldn’t screw around with possible dehydration in an infant either, if that’s what I thought it was. (And yes, I realize that a lot of cruise ship doctors are not that competent, but after having many kids of my own I do realize how serious dehydration can get very quickly).This still strikes me as an odd story on too many levels. Why on earth would the family not have taken their passports? Anyone I know who is traveling internationally (especially to or from North American) knows that passports are the ONE thing that you always take with you. And trip insurance is a no-brainer- who takes an international cruise without it?I personally detest cruise ships and think that if for no other reason than public relations they should have taken care of this family, but there’s a lot that this article doesn’t fill in.
May 5th, 2008 at 2:53 pm
Maybe that infink was a germ/virus carrying/disseminating full-fledged terrorist designed to infect a ship full of infidels.Allahu Ackbar!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
May 5th, 2008 at 3:44 pm
Yeah but the whole way this went down makes it sound like this was the first cruise RC has ever done.It this really the best protocol they can come up with? Kick a whole family off in a strange city with 10 minutes notice? Either the family is lying or RC is run by morons.