183 Rescued After Cruise Ship Hits Reef

A cruise ship with 143 passengers and 60 crew members aboard ran aground in Alaska’s scenic Inside Passage on Friday and began to list after taking on water, the Coast Guard said.

All the passengers and 40 of the crew members were evacuated to the nearby Indian village of Klawock by local fishermen and no injuries were reported, officials said.

State Fish and Game personnel also helped evacuate the passengers, a spokesman said.

The Bahamian-registered North Star, a 307-foot cruise ship, ran aground on a reef about a mile east of Point Polocano on San Fernando Island, said Coast Guard spokesman Glenn Rosenholm. Observers said it appeared that the ship passed on the wrong side of a warning buoy.

By Friday evening, the ship had developed a 17-degree list, and water was still flowing into it.

“The tide has gone out, and the ship is resting more and more on its hull,” Rosenholm said.

Two tugboats and a Coast Guard cutter were nearby, and Rosenholm said they would keep an eye on the vessel. The remaining crew members were to be taken off the ship if the list increased to 20 degrees, Rosenholm said.

The vessel was en route from Juneau to Klawock, on Prince of Wales Island in extreme southeast Alaska, Coast Guard spokesman Lance Jones said.

In Klawock, the passengers were fed and entertained by the Klawock Heenya Indian dancers. The passengers then climbed into float planes for the trip to Ketchikan, about 40 miles east.

The passengers, from all over the United States, were to be flown today from Ketchikan to Vancouver, British Columbia.

The vessel is owned by the Norwegian firm of Fearnley & Eger and operated by the Seattle-based Exploration Cruise Lines, a ship agent in Alaska said. The vessel’s home port is Nassau.

In Seattle, Bob Giersdorf, president of Exploration Cruise Lines, said there was a single gash in the vessel’s hull, one foot long and 1 1/2 inches wide. The crew hopes to seal off the area of the leak, refloat at high tide and proceed to dry dock, he said.