The Nation : Cruise Ship Trapped by Ice Near Alaska

A cruise ship plying Arctic waters has been trapped by ice, and a Coast Guard icebreaker was dispatched to rescue the ship carrying 158 people. “The ship is facing a very heavy ice barrier,” said Peter Cox, director of operations for Society Expeditions of Seattle, which specializes in adventure cruises. The Coast Guard icebreaker Polar Star was expected to reach the cruise ship Society Explorer, trapped 50 miles northeast of Point Barrow, Alaska, Saturday night. There the Coast Guard hopes to break a path through the ice that has blocked the 236-foot ship since Wednesday. The Society Explorer has 98 passengers and an international crew of 60, and carries sufficient food for a month. The Society Explorer left Dutch Harbor in the Aleutian Islands on Aug. 19 and sailed across the Bering Sea to the Soviet port of Provideniya, becoming the first commercial passenger ship to enter that port in decades.