Cruiseships collide in Geiranger

[Bjarne Pettersen]

Norwegian media reports today that the two cruiseships Thomson Spirit and Ocean Majesty brushed up against each other while anchoring in the Geirangerfjord of western Norway. One ship drifted upon the other

No persons are reported injured, but apparantly there were some minor material damage to at least some of their launces.

link for news in Norwegian
http://www.nettavisen.no/bat/article1274605.ece

[Nathan]

Surely they must have known they were going to collide! You dont just drop anchor when there is a other ship doing the same proccess?

[Bjarne Pettersen]

As far as I can figure it was the Thompson Spirit tha drifted down on the Ocean Majesty. Neglible damage

This is a link to a local newspaper http://www.smp.no/default.asp?page=1024&item=996798,1&lang=1

To elaborate a little. This is a deep Norwegian fjord with high and steep mountains. It is confined with a lot of tourist traffic and alike. Now what has happened one can only speculate on.

There are the possibility that they chose to anchor relying on the ecdis instead of radar. Given the topography of the mountains it can create problems with your gps horizon and create a larger position error.

The other possibility is that they can have misjudged their distance to the nearest ship and the length of chain paid out. They could of course have dragged their anchor but I find that unlikely.

But this only guesswork

[Arnes]

This seem to have been blown up a little. I will not call it a "collision" when 2 vessels not moving are just touching eachother. The only damage occurred in this "blown up" "catastrophe", was that one of the boats transporting passengers to shore, got a dent.
Both vessels continue their cruises as normal, and are on schedule,according to their agents.
When anchoring, vessels normally make little or no speed through water, so it would normally only be "dents" if one vessel hit another.
Rgds. Arnes

[meli]

So I guess agents don't tell the truth. Page & Moy cancelled the rest of their cruise and immediateley flew all of their customers home. They told us it will take 3 days to repair the damge sustained to 2 sets of lifeboat davits one of which was bent at right angles. One lifeboat whic was attached to the ship was destroyed. I'm now at home instead of cruising in Iceland !

[passenger]

Yes, you have to have been there to know more or less what happened. Two cruise ships; both "anchored"; er...wind blows. Crunch. One lifeboat squashed; several bent davits; minor damage to at least two cabins. Seriously embarrassed captains (or at least they should be, unless they are still asleep).
Page & Moy cancel rest of cruise and get all passengers off asap - after all, we don't want them to talk to each other and find out what really happened, do we?  
And then Page & Moy offer seriously inadequate compensation to passengers who have lost five of their nine days cruising. This one will run and run.

[Guest]

Hey if you want to know more about it then check
http://www.splashvision.com

You will find more information from this site I had seen videos of  Thomson Spirit and Ocean Majesty both cruise.

There are also lots of vodeos of laxurious cruise,yacht, fishing,boating,beaches,water sports,Military, Marinas, Sea Animals and more