Explore passengers on stricken ship

UK adventure operator Explore has revealed that it had 14 passengers on board the MS Explorer which hit ice in the Antarctic and sunk.

They were travelling on a Spirit of Shackleton tour and were part of a group of  100 passengers and crew who were evacuated from the ship (see previous TravelMole story).

The company said weather conditions were calm with a slight wind at the time – nothing to adversely affect the group.

Passengers were transferred from lifeboats to larger passenger vessels in the area that have come to assist, according to the operator.

Most of the passengers were flown to the southern tip of Chile. The remainder were taken to King George Island to wait for flights to the mainland.

Some of the shipwrecked holidaymakers, still clutching lifejackets, boarded a military aircraft during the weekend, and left Antarctica to begin long journeys home.

“I thought the ship was going down,” Eli Charne, 38, of California, recalled of the moments after he felt the ship hit the ice. “We were on the lowest deck of the ship, so we rushed out of the room and pressed the emergency button as water rushed in.”

Explore set up a hotline for concerned relatives of affected passengers on: 01252 391 124.

The company’s managing director Ashley Toft said: “Our major concern at this point is, of course, with our passengers.

“While such incidents are very rare, they are nevertheless shocking when they occur.

“We are doing all we can to provide assistance to the group and are closely monitoring the situation with our agents on the ground.”

The 100-passenger vessel, owned by Canadian operator G.A.P. Adventures, was holed after hitting ice.

G.A.P Adventure confirmed that all 100 passengers plus crew on board the M/S Explorer when it hit ice in the Strait off King George Island, Antarctica at 05.24 GMT on Friday were safe and uninjured.

“Standard procedures were followed by the crew with passengers calmly evacuated to the ship’s life rafts and then transferred to The NordNorge which was in the area,” a statement said.

On board The M/S Explorer were 24 British nationals, 2 Argentines, 10 Australians, 2 Belgians, 12 Canadians, 1 Chinese national, 3 Danes, 17 Dutch, 1 French, 1 German, 2 from Hong Kong, 4 Irish, 1 Japanese, 4 Swiss, 14 Americans, 1 Colombian and 1 Swede.

“The families of those passengers are now being telephoned by G.A.P Adventures to advise them of the safety of their loved ones,” the company said.

by Phil Davies