Norwegian cruise ship MS Maud is being towed to Bremerhafen in Germany after a violent North Sea storm shattered home windows on the bridge, inflicting an influence outage late on Thursday, Danish authorities stated on Friday.
The ship’s 266 passengers and 131 crew members have been protected, a spokesperson for the Danish Joint Rescue Coordination Centre (DJRC) instructed Reuters, including {that a} vessel from civil rescue agency Esvagt had managed to attach a tow line to the cruise ship.
“An Esvagt ship is towing it slowly in direction of Bremerhafen in Germany at round 8-9 knots,” the spokesperson stated.
The vessel was crusing some 260 kilometres (162 miles) off Denmark’s west coast and about 350 kilometres off Britain’s east coast when water entered the bridge, leading to an influence outage.
The vessel’s essential engine was nonetheless functioning, enabling the ship to be steered manually from the engine room.
MS Maud, which belongs to cruise firm HX, a unit of Norway’s Hurtigruten Group, left Floroe in Norway on Thursday and was as a consequence of arrive in Tilbury in Britain on Friday.
Hurtigruten confirmed in an announcement on Friday that the vessel was heading to Bremerhafen for disembarkation.
The corporate stated the Maud had suffered “a short lived lack of energy after encountering a rogue wave” and that the crew and passengers have been protected.
(Reuters – Reporting by Louise Breusch Rasmussen; Enhancing by Miral Fahmy and Mark Potter)
