Carnival Cruise Ship with 3000 aboard adrift after "technical glitch"

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Feb 15, 2000 - 12:02 PM

Carnival Cruise Line Ship Drifting Near the Turks and Caicos Islands The Associated Press

MIAMI (AP) - The Carnival Cruise Lines ship Destiny was adrift Tuesday near the Turks and Caicos Islands after the ship suffered a technical malfunction.

The Destiny, which was carrying 2,956 passengers on a seven-day eastern Caribbean cruise, left Miami Sunday. There were 1,063 crew members on board.

The ship was on its way to San Juan about 1:40 a.m. Tuesday when a malfunction occurred on one of the ship's two cycloconverters, said Carnival spokesman Andy Newman.

The cycloconverters transmit electricity from the ship's diesel engines to the propulsion motor, which moves the ship. As the ship's engineers were trying to diagnose the problem, the other cycloconverter went down, Newman said.

He said that five additional engineers were en route to the ship, three from ABB Marine, the manufacturer of the cyclo converter, one from Carnival and one from Lloyds of London.

In addition to San Juan, the other intended ports of call were to be St. Croix and St. Thomas.

Newman said all shipboard functions were normal and passengers had air conditioning, running water and working toilets.

Seas were running about three to five feet, he said. The ship was about 60 miles east of Grand Turk, Turks and Caicos Islands.

"The ship is not in any immediate danger of running aground," he said.

Newman said it was too early to tell whether the cruise would be canceled.

The Destiny can carry 3,360 passengers and a crew of 1,100.

Link

http://ap.tbo.com/ap/florida/MGIGDE1RP4C.html

-- Carl Jenkins (Somewherepress@aol.com), February 15, 2000

Answers

Actually, there are about 4000 aboard including crew..sorry..

-- Carl Jenkins (Somewherepress@aol.com), February 15, 2000.

Hope the toilets are working this time. Gee, what a fun cruise!

-- Lurkess (Lurkess@Lurking.XNet), February 15, 2000.

Adventure! Enough of a "trip" for a ticket refund? Not yet.

-- sailing (friendly@blue.water), February 15, 2000.

If I recall, there was another mishap regarding a Carnival liner earlier this year.

-- Tim (pixmo@pixelquest.com), February 15, 2000.

Someone post the schematic of the cycloconverter, pronto!!

-- that'll prove this is a y2k problem (won't it@huh.whoknows), February 15, 2000.


Where is their Corporate Headquarters,Miami or Jerusalem?

-- Observer (not@gain.U Bums), February 15, 2000.

Annoying maybe but hardly a tragedy. Planes and other ships can easily reach the stranded passengers or bring in supplies.

-- Carol (glear@usa.net), February 15, 2000.

Actually, if memeroy serves, this is the THIRD Carnival Cruise ship to have engine trouble over the last few months. I believe the first one was a fire in the engine room -- made the evening news, etc. That may have been December or early January. The second one was ...... mid to late January, but .....hmmmm the problem escapes me: smoke? lost a prop? The ship, as I recall was disabled about 1 mile off the coast of Florida.

>"<

-- Squirrel Hunter (nuts@upina.cellrelaytower), February 15, 2000.


Being a former Officer aboard another large Cruise Line, I am still to this day amazed at the responses of people who are not even aboard these ships. Lets think know, how many ships are there sailing around the seas of our world, 2000+ ever day? Things will go wrong, as it does in land based hotels, but we NEVER hear about those now do we!! I think it's time that we stop knocking the cruise line industry and start looking at other problems in the world like wars and what sort of Ice Cream shortages we may have in 50 years time! I'm sorry to Carnival Cruise Lines, because they seem to be the only ones who get the shit thrown at them, do people really think that they are the only ones who have problems? Look at Princess Cruises, they have had ships run a-ground, go on fire, RCCL, NCL, Holland America - all ships have problems, they have VERY strict procedures to deal with situations just like this, having been involved in three of them I would cruise with any of the top cruise lines at any time, people even blame the cruise lines for the weather, they are not GOD. Please stop blaming Y2K, this has been a message from a supporter of the Cruise Line Industry aginst the bashers of this fine world of ours. (By the way how many of the bashers have even sailed aboard a large cruise line?)

-- Mike Nicholson (nichlson@earthlink.net), February 16, 2000.

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