World

Cruise Collision Not A Sinker

By CBSNews.com staff CBSNews.com staff

August 24, 1999 / 6:55 AM EDT / CBS

Much to her prospective passengers' relief, one thing was clear as the Norwegian Dream limped into the English port of Dover looking like she'd been KO'd by a nautical Mike Tyson -- she wasn't leaving on a new cruise anytime soon.

As one onlooker puts it, "I'm glad we're not going anywhere on that!"

CBS News Correspondent Mark Phillips reports a vacation cruise turned to an unwanted adventure for 1,726 passengers -- mostly Americans -- when their cruise ship collided with a cargo ship off England's southeast coast early Tuesday. Both ships have stayed afloat.

A fire continued to blaze on the cargo ship after the collision.

Still out in the channel where the collision had taken place was the cargo ship Ever Decent, some of her containers still burning after being set on fire by the impact. The fire, fuelled by paint in the containers, burned all day.

Pollution experts were on alert. Some of the cargo containers held hazardous material, but the pollution risk was considered minimal, coast guard spokeswoman Joanne Groenenberg said.

After remaining on board for breakfast, the mostly American cruise ship passengers stepped ashore relieved they hadn't repeated nautical history.

"Well, the first thought I had was Titanic," said one woman who'd been on the ship. "Are we sinking, are we going to die?"

Containers sit on the deck of the cruise liner after they were shaken off during the collision.

At the time of the collision the passengers may have had images of Titanic, but the only thing to have sunk Tuesday was the value of Norwegian Cruise Line shares on the Oslo stock exchange.

Though the collision was so violent it knocked containers from the cargo ship onto the Norwegian Dream, the passengers counted their blessings that only a handful of minor injuries has been caused. Although there were lots of stories to bring home.

"One woman walked down the hallway and said we are all going to die," remembers one man who'd been aboard. "We didn't know if she knew what she was talking about. Fortunately, she didn't."

Investigators are equally clueless as to how this accident involving two modern ships could have happened in one of the most tightly controlled seaways in the world.