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Silversea Shadow Collides with Container Ship – Updates

4:45pm UPDATE: Check out these new photos from Andrew Lock, who was a passenger on board the Silver Shadow…

3:20pm UPDATE: The Silversea Shadow is docked in Ha Long Bay, Vietnam. The line reports that the Shadow only sustained minor damage. Silversea has now opened a full investigation into the accident.

-Andrew Lock

12:00PM UPDATE:  Silversea has released an official statement regarding the previously reported crash of the Silver Shadow with a local cargo ship in Vietnam:

“Silver Shadow was involved in a minor incident on March 16, 2012 at around 4:20 GMT as it was approaching the pilot station in Ha Long Bay, Vietnam. There was contact between Silver Shadow and a local commercial vessel.

“Silver Shadow incurred limited minor dents and guests’ safety was never compromised. The ship was fully operational and continued on its course to Ha Long Bay where all shore tours operated normally. Silversea will carry out a full investigation into the incident.”

This statement contrasts with the passenger account of the situation, in that it only mentions dents to the ship, rather than a hole.  It also doesn’t address the damage to the commercial vessel, which the passenger described as “severely damaged” with “crew hurt”.  We will stay on top of this breaking story, as always and report any further developments.

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7:00 am: We have just received word that the luxury cruise ship Silversea Shadow has collided with a container ship in Vietnam. The following is a transcript from a passenger on board the cruise ship, sent from his cell phone.

Silversea Cruises SILVER SHADOW
Silversea Cruises SILVER SHADOW (Photo credit: steamboatsorg)

We’re on Silversea silver shadow cruise ship and we just collided with a Vietnamese container ship near Halong bay, Vietnam.  We slammed into the side of it, in thick fog

The other ship was severely damaged, and crew hurt, damage to our ship is being assessed in hong kong.  Passengers were called to muster stations.

Our ship has a hole in the bow, it was struck in two places – their bridge, and we ripped a large tear in the side too.

I have more pics of the damage, sending this from my cellphone.

Many Brits and U.S. on board

Cruiseline is down playing incident but its serious.

– Andrew lock

I will do my best to update this story as it develops today.

Header image: myitchytravelfeet.wordpress.com

Comments

comments

By Mike Faust

Mike Faust is an avid world traveler, often found traversing city streets in Asia and Europe rather than his home city of Boca Raton. Mike has touched down in 39 countries, set sail on 35 cruises, and flown over 400,000 lifetime miles.

17 replies on “Silversea Shadow Collides with Container Ship – Updates”

Why wasn’t the other vessel detected by Radar? Who was at the Helm? Were they blowing theit Fog Horn continuously to alert other vessels in the area? Too many questions unanswered.

Incredible…. How did this happen? I have been boating for decades, and I have owned 5 ocean going pleasure vessels, the largest 48′ and the smallest 25′. Never even came close !!! Don’t the Italians believe in RADAR, or KEEPING A WATCH??? Someone should loose their license over this, at the least…

You do hype things up a little don’t you? How much money have you received for this story? Superficial damage was caused, hence the ship was allowed to sail. You jump on the band wagon, shame on you.

Thanks for the pictures. Glad to see that Silverseas are telling the truth and it does appear to be minor damage. The container ship appears to have ignored a basic rule of the road at sea ‘ if to your starboard red appear it is your duty to keep clear’

Dear Well Informed Person,

Though I don’t know when you saw this article and posted your comment (perhaps it was before the updates) no “hype” by Mikey appears either in the headline or body of the article. The only mention of the collision being serious and having “major damage” was in a clearly labelled passenger statement during the original news release.

Thanks, Mikey! Keep up the good work!

We asked 2 officers how it could be possible that a Silver Seas ship could hit a 250+ foot freighter – their straight faced answer was “we had the right of way”. Amazing that ‘their’ right of way supercedes the safety of passengers, crew and the people of the freighter!

I was on the silver shadow and saw the container ship a split second after the impact we rammed it at midship and pushed it sideways I thought we was going to sink it and us as well. i did not stop to wach but run to my cabin to get wife and life Jacket. I think the Silver Shadow was extreamly lucky.
and if it was a minor incident the the sinking of the Concordia must be an average incident.

We were also passengers on the Silver Shadow. While we agree with much of the above, we would like to correct 2 statements: 1) There was NO mass panic – passengers and crew reacted quietly and efficiently in collecting life jackets and getting themselves to Muster Statiions; 2) It was not a case of SOME passengers going to Muster Stations – ALL passengers and ALL crew were required to be at their assigned Muster Stations, where they awaited further instructions.

Silver Shadow is certainly fitted with all modern navigational aids, including radar. It is assumed the ship with which we collided did NOT have radar and by the time it saw us in the dense fog, it was too late for either ship to avert the collision. It has to be agreed however, that the SIlver Shadow could have changed its course once they realised the radar showed the approaching vessel was not reacting to the situation.

M & S (safely back in NZ)

It seems like neither crew nor passengers have much understanding of the international regulations for preventing collisions at sea. There is no such thing as having right of way in dense fog. There is no excuse for a collision. It is often human errors that cause these incidents and a vessel like Silver Shadow could easily have avoided a collision using their electronic equipment correctly… It is all about good or bad seamanship. It takes two to make such mess; it is not the Vietnamese vessel alone…
Klaus

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