Cruise Liner, Cargo Vessel Collide in English Channel; Experts Baffled

British maritime experts were at a loss Tuesday to explain how a cruise liner, carrying 2,400 people, and a cargo ship managed to collide in the English Channel in good weather.

Twenty-one passengers and eight crew members on the Norwegian Cruise Line ship suffered minor injuries in the crash with the Taiwanese cargo ship Ever Decent, which was registered in Panama.

The accident occurred about 1:15 a.m. Tuesday in a busy shipping lane off the coast of southeast England. Most of the 1,726 passengers on board were Americans.

“When I heard the bang, I really pictured another Titanic and started running to the deck,” said passenger Arielle Adelman, 16, from New York City. “It was really scary. . . . I was walking down the hall and fell over. The ship started shaking and things started falling.”

The impact caved in the bow of the Norwegian Dream cruise ship and ignited a fire that raged for hours on the cargo ship.

“There was absolutely no sign of trouble before the collision,” said Rod Johnson, commanding officer of the coast guard station at Dover.

Both ships were in a crossing point of the shipping lane, Johnson said. Strict separation rules are in effect for the area, and both ships were equipped with modern radar.

The Ever Decent was traveling from the Thames River to Zeebrugge in Belgium, while the Norwegian Dream was returning to port at Dover after a 13-day tour of Scandinavian capitals.

Firefighters and the 40 crew members of the Ever Decent battled a blaze that broke out on board after the accident and raged on into the afternoon.

The force of the crash threw three shipping containers from the deck of the Ever Decent onto the 41,000-ton cruise ship. Other containers fell in the water, while several more caught fire, the coast guard said.

Pollution experts also were on alert because 40 of the 3,092 containers were loaded with hazardous materials. However, the pollution risk was considered minimal, the coast guard said.

Other ships were warned to stay clear, and a temporary air exclusion zone was set up around the area as smoke hung over the cargo ship.

The Norwegian Dream continued on to Dover, 40 miles from the scene of the accident. The passengers had breakfast on board before disembarking to return home.

Cruise ship passenger Bob Gedan, 62, from Fort Lauderdale, Fla., said there were some anxious moments among passengers, but never any panic.

“Most people were asleep at the time. The TV fell off onto our bed and woke my wife up,” he said. “They had us in the emergency stations with our life jackets on at 1 in the morning.”

The crew remained calm and handled the situation “very, very well,” he said.

A Norwegian Dream cruise scheduled to leave Tuesday was canceled, and the cruise line announced that passengers who were due to set sail would receive refunds and a voucher for a free cruise.

The passengers on board the liner when it had the accident will receive vouchers worth $300, the company said.