QE2 Reaches Boston Harbor for Repairs

The Queen Elizabeth 2 limped into Boston Harbor on Monday on its way to a dry dock as U.S. officials went in search of the underwater obstacle that the luxury ocean liner rammed into off Cape Cod.

Limited to a mere 5 knots, a fraction of its 30-knot top speed, the ship headed for a city-owned dry dock recently refurbished to repair a Navy supply ship.

Six gashes, the largest 74 feet long, were opened in the 963-foot ship’s hull when it ran over an underwater obstacle about three miles off Cuttyhunk Island on the southeastern coast of Massachusetts.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration dispatched a boat to the site of the accident. It was surveying the ocean floor with sonar to see whether an uncharted object might have caused the accident, NOAA Lt. Cmdr. John Wilder said.

The Coast Guard said a formal investigation into the accident, which caused no injuries, would begin Wednesday. A final report is expected within nine months.

The British Transportation Department investigation has already begun, and the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board is conducting a third probe.

Leon Katcharian, investigator-in-charge for the NTSB, said he had heard no reports that ship equipment had malfunctioned. He said his five-member team would look closely at whether human error caused the accident.

At a dockside news conference, Coast Guard Capt. Eric Williams III said he did not have results of drug and alcohol tests on coastal pilot John Hadley of Newport, R.I.

Navin Sawhney, a spokesman for Cunard Line, which owns the QE2, disputed remarks by another company official Saturday suggesting the pilot, brought aboard to navigate local waters, was responsible for the accident.

“I don’t think we are assessing blame on the pilot or anyone else,” Sawhney said, adding that the QE2 is tentatively scheduled for a transatlantic voyage Aug. 18 but may still be under repair.