(9/14/12 4:00pm) Earlier today the Norwegian Star broke free of her mooring lines at Heritage Wharf, Dockyard in Bermuda.
The Norwegian Star broke free around 1:30pm after strong westerly winds forced the ship away from her dock, snapping her mooring lines. As soon as the ship broke away, the Bridge contacted the port authority for immediate assistance. The port of authority sent two tugs, the Faithful and the Powerful, to help bring the Star back into her dock. When the tugs arrived, the Star had deployed both of her anchors to keep her in place to stop further drifting.
At the time of the incident, the Norwegian Star was docked next to Royal Caribbean’s Explorer od the Seas at the time. It is believed that the Norwegian Star did have a minor collision with the Explorer of the Seas. It appears that the Norwegian Star does have a minor dent in her lower right hull, which would have been caused by the impact with the Explorer of the Seas. The port authority has opened an investigation, to see if both ships did in fact have a minor collision.
9/19 update:Â A video from a passenger onbaord Royal Caribbean’s Explorer of the Seas shows the Norwegian Star drifting away from the pier and making a small impact with the Explorer. The actual video starts around 50 seconds in.
9/17 5:15pm update: I have just recived the following statement from Norwegian Cruise Line…
At approximately 1:30 pm ET today, a high wind squall caused Norwegian Starâs aft mooring lines to break while the ship was docked in Bermuda. There were no injuries, and after a short time of being at anchor, the ship re-docked alongside at the pier.
Norwegian Star is on a seven-day cruise to Bermuda that departed New York on Sunday, September 9. At this time, the ship is expected to depart Bermuda as scheduled today.
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I have reached out to Norwegian’s PR department to obtain a statement regarding the instance, but as of 4:00pm, I have not received a response. As soon as Norwegian provides a statement, I will update this article with the new information.
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Header image: Wikipedia
One reply on “Norwegian Star Breaks Free of Mooring Lines, Small Collision with Explorer of the Seas”
Mikey, I was on the Royal Caribbeanâs Explorer of the Seas on Friday when the NCL Star broke loose and collided with our ship. The storm came up quickly with straight-line winds and lots of rain. Since both ships were schedule to depart that afternoon, there were many passengers coming back to the dock, battling the rain and winds. When my husband and I got on-board, we felt a slight movement, and wondered what it could be since we were docked. After drying off and going to deck 11 for lunch, all passengers there were glued to the windows, watching the NCL Star drifting from the dock. What we heard from Explorer staff members was that one rope from the Star had broken and they opted to free the others so the ship wouldn’t swing out (90 or 180 degrees) from the remaining lines. It’s possible they also had to bring the anchor up so they wouldn’t cross over the line and possibly break it (causing expensive delays), so they floated freely into the Explorer. There were many tug boats out, and the Star eventually started the engines to navigate back to the dock. The poor passengers from the Star were huddling on the dock in the rain and winds just watching their ship drift away! It was big drama for maybe 60-90 minutes. The Captain of the Explorer apparently ordered triple mooring lines when the squall started, where the Star didn’t do any extra preparation and the single lines couldn’t hold the ship in the high winds.