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Passengers of Doomed Cruise Ship Reach Chile With Vivid Accounts
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"It is really scary to see a ship sinking out your porthole," Enders wrote. "The people were in the water in lifeboats for 4 hours and it is cold outside. We were asked to donate clothes to those coming in from the lifeboats."
[an error occurred while processing this directive]Officials said that six passengers were treated for mild hypothermia, the Chilean newspaper La Tercera reported Saturday.
A spokesman for G.A.P. Adventures, which owned the Explorer, said Saturday that upon landing in Punta Arenas, a city at the southern tip of mainland Chile, the passengers would be given the option of joining another cruise or flying home.
The company reported that the passenger list included 24 British nationals, 17 Dutch, 14 Americans, 12 Canadians, 10 Australians, four Swiss, four Irish, three Danes, two Argentines, two Belgians, two from Hong Kong and single passengers from China, France, Germany, Japan, Colombia and Sweden. The majority of the crew were believed to be from the Philippines, the company stated.
Passengers had each paid thousands of dollars for the chance to retrace routes taken by famed Antarctic explorer Ernest Shackleton. After departing from the Argentine city of Ushuaia on Nov. 11, they had visited the Falkland Islands and South Georgia island. They had planned to visit the Danco Coast of Antarctica and the Drake Passage before returning to Ushuaia next week.
The Explorer was a pioneer of Antarctic tourism and in 1969 was the first ship built specifically for such cruises. The region's cruise industry has grown exponentially in recent years, with about 37,000 people expected to visit the frozen continent this season, according to the International Association of Antarctica Tour Operators.
In January, a Norwegian cruise ship ran aground in the same area and 370 people aboard were rescued. The incident prompted criticism from environmentalists concerned that the 50-plus vessels conducting tours in the area could contaminate the region with spilled oil and chemicals.
