Watch CBS News
"Boom. The whole ship shakes": Cruise ship that hit iceberg in Alaska arrives in Seattle for repairs
July 1, 2022 / 5:58 AM EDT / CBS/AP
A cruise ship that struck an iceberg in Alaska has docked in Seattle for repairs.
The Norwegian Cruise Line ship Norwegian Sun arrived Thursday. It hit part of an iceberg Saturday near Hubbard Glacier in Alaska.
The ship was turned around to Juneau, where it underwent inspection. It was cleared by authorities to travel at lower speeds to Seattle.
CBS Seattle affiliate KIRO-TV reports that the ship can hold 2,000 passengers.
A Nevada family who was onboard says the impact sounded like a loud door being slammed.
Benjamin Talbott was hanging out with his family when his brother, Anthony Romo, noticed something in the water and told him to take out his phone. Talbott recorded as the cruise ship struck the big chunk of iceberg.
"Then all sudden, boom, the whole ship shakes. And I'm like, 'Well, what's going on?' And then I had to start recording and I looked at the front of the ship and all I see is this ... iceberg just turning over and coming down. And I was like, 'Oh my God, we hit an iceberg,'" he said.
Dave Morgan, a passenger on the ship, told KIRO a repair person at the shipyard told him the damage was 14 inches by 10 feet and the plan was to bring in a welder to put a piece of metal over the damage.
Morgan said passengers weren't allowed to leave the ship during the inspection in Juneau.
"The whole boat came to a complete stop from the impact," passenger Alicia Amador told the Juneau Empire . "It was a scary experience."
A Norwegian Cruise Line spokesperson told KIRO the ship's next cruise was canceled, and "All guests currently onboard will disembark in Seattle as originally planned."
More from CBS News
U.S. regulators open probe into reports of Jeep SUVs, pickups catching fire
Classes canceled, people urged to lock doors amid search for shooting suspect
Will Jennings, Oscar-winning co-writer of "My Heart Will Go On," dies at 80
Democratic House campaigns urge emphasis on message of "freedom"
Norwegian cruise hits iceberg near Alaska, no injuries reported
The ship will return to Seattle on Thursday.
A Norwegian cruise ship has canceled its nine-night Alaskan trip after the ship crashed into an iceberg off of the Alaskan coast on Saturday.
While there were no injuries and patrons and staff made it to Alaskan docks safely, the cruise line has canceled the rest of the scheduled trip and will return to Seattle Thursday morning.
The Norwegian Sun was transitioning to Hubbard Glacier in Alaska when the ship made contact with a growler, the cruise line told ABC News.
A growler is a small iceberg that has less than 3.3 feet of ice showing above the water, and is under 6.6 feet in width, the National Snow & Ice Data Center reports.
After impact, the ship changed course to dock in Juneau, Alaska, for further assessment. There, the company decided the cruise would be shortened and future trips canceled.
"The ship was given clearance by the United States Coast Guard and other local maritime authorities to return to Seattle at reduced speed," a spokesperson for Norwegian Cruise Line said. "All guests currently onboard will disembark in Seattle as originally planned."
MORE: Cruise prices remain low as summer travel costs skyrocket
A Norwegian Cruise Line spokesperson told Cruise Hive the ship was "engulfed by dense fog, limiting visibility and resulting in the ship making contact with a growler."
MORE: Fully vaccinated ship docks in San Francisco with multiple COVID cases aboard
Stewart Chiron, a cruise industry expert known as The Cruise Guy, told ABC News that growlers are very common when passing through areas with glaciers.
Chiron said ships do not usually get within 1,000 feet of the glaciers themselves, and commonly have impact with small pieces of ice that have broken off and floated away from the glaciers.
While impact with these pieces is common in the area, it is uncommon for a cruise to change its scheduled trip due to such an impact, Chiron said.
Chiron believes that Norwegian acted with "an abundance of caution" when it decided to start its voyage back to Seattle after assessing damages.
MORE: Norwegian Cruise Line CEO says requiring vaccines is 'safest way to travel'
He said the ship was "obviously safe enough" since passengers were allowed to stay on the ship to return to Seattle.
Chiron does not think the patrons should worry because ship captains are used to these waters and will continue to sail there without issue.
Norwegian Cruise Line said guests on the canceled cruise would receive a full refund, plus an additional future cruise credit valued at 100% of the original voyage fare paid. Travelers on the canceled cruise scheduled for June 30 will also receive a full refund, a future cruise credit valued at 50% of the original voyage fare, plus up to $300 per person for any airline cancelation/change fees.
Related Topics
Popular reads.
Suspect at large in freeway shooting
- Sep 8, 11:18 PM
How to watch the Harris-Trump ABC News debate
- Sep 9, 9:01 AM
Neighbor arrested in death of missing nurse
- Sep 7, 6:59 PM
Cheney: Trump is an 'unrecoverable catastrophe'
- Sep 8, 3:33 PM
4 dead in shooting at Georgia high school
- Sep 4, 10:47 PM
ABC News Live
24/7 coverage of breaking news and live events
- ABC7 Bay Area 24/7 live stream Watch Now
- Watch the latest ABC7 newscast here Full Story
- ABC7 proud new home of SF Chinese New Year Parade Full Story
- Track wildfires across CA with this interactive map Full Story
Norwegian Cruise Line
Cruise ship hits iceberg in alaska, returns to seattle for repairs.
SEATTLE -- A cruise ship that struck an iceberg in Alaska has docked in Seattle for repairs.
Video shows the moment the ship hit the iceberg on Saturday.
The ship was turned around to Juneau, where it underwent inspection. It was cleared to travel at lower speeds to Seattle by authorities.
The Norwegian Sun arrived in Seattle Thursday. It hit part of the iceberg near Hubbard Glacier in Alaska.
Passengers said the impact was so hard that it caused some of them to fall over.
A Nevada family who was onboard says the impact sounded like a loud door being slammed.
Benjamin Talbott was hanging out with family when his brother, Anthony Romo, noticed something in the water and told him to take out his phone. Talbott recorded as the cruise ship struck the big chunk of iceberg.
"Then all sudden, boom, the whole ship shakes. And I'm like, 'Well, what's going on?' And then I had to start recording and I looked at the front of the ship and all I see is this an iceberg just turning over and coming down. And I was like, Oh my God, we hit an iceberg," he said.
The voyage was cut short and guests disembarked in Seattle due to necessary repairs for the ship, a spokesperson for Norwegian Cruise Line said.
No injuries were reported.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Related Topics
- BOATING SAFETY
- NORWEGIAN CRUISE LINE
- CRUISE SHIP
- NORWEGIAN CRUISE LINES
- BOAT ACCIDENT
How these cruise passengers missed boarding, got stranded
Record-setting year for cruising out of SF predicted
CA passengers quarantining in FL after getting COVID on cruise
Cruise ship sailing ban extended through end of October
Top stories.
49ers' Christian McCaffrey out for season opener vs. Jets
CA woman charged in international terrorism probe: DOJ
- 31 minutes ago
Countdown to MNF: Fans ready for game between 49ers, Jets
James Earl Jones, the voice of Darth Vader, has died
- 3 hours ago
Harris, Trump prepare for presidential debate in vastly different ways
- 2 hours ago
Johnny Gaudreau's widow announces pregnancy at memorial service
Masked men arrested for allegedly burglarizing Antioch Halloween store
What the polls say ahead of the Harris-Trump presidential debate
The trip will not go on: Ship hits iceberg in Alaska, derails cruise for thousands of travelers
As icebergs go, it wasn't all that big. But it was big enough to ruin the vacation plans for thousands of would-be Alaska tourgoers.
Norwegian Cruise Line on Tuesday canceled the next Alaska sailing of its 1,976-passenger Norwegian Sun, citing damage to the ship sustained over the weekend when it hit a small iceberg near Alaska's Hubbard Glacier.
The line also is ending the vessel's current sailing early.
Norwegian Sun was sailing toward Hubbard Glacier on Saturday in foggy conditions when it plowed into the low-lying chunk of ice, which Norwegian has characterized as a growler.
A growler is a type of very small iceberg that only rises a meter or less above the waterline and is often difficult to see from the bridge of a ship.
From video of the incident posted by passengers on Twitter, the ice chunk appeared to be about the size of a bus with most of its body underwater.
In the wake of the incident, the vessel skipped its Saturday visit to Hubbard Glacier and a subsequent Sunday call scheduled for Skagway, Alaska, and sailed directly to nearby Juneau, Alaska, for an assessment of damage to the exterior of the vessel.
After the assessment, the line concluded the ship would need to undergo repairs at its home port of Seattle before continuing its summer schedule of Alaska cruises.
A spokesperson for Norwegian wouldn't comment on the extent of the damage to the ship or the repairs that were needed. But authorities have certified that the vessel is seaworthy. It departed Juneau late Monday for Seattle, where it is due back on Thursday.
"The ship was given clearance by the United States Coast Guard and other local maritime authorities to return to Seattle at reduced speed," Norwegian said Tuesday in a statement sent to TPG. "All guests currently onboard will disembark in Seattle as originally planned."
No one was injured during the incident, a spokesperson told TPG.
Cruise ships are equipped with radar designed to detect floating objects in the water that could be a hazard, and the bridges on cruise ships are staffed around-the-clock with crew members tasked with scanning the horizon for obstacles.
But growlers and other small icebergs known as "bergy bits" (the latter a tad bigger than growlers) can be difficult to detect by radar due to their small size.
Norwegian didn't respond to questions from TPG about why Norwegian Sun hit the iceberg.
Related: The ultimate guide to cruising in Alaska
Cruise ships are designed to withstand damage from colliding with ice at sea, even in cases where the ice pierces the hull of the vessel and allows water to enter. All cruise ships in the modern era have been built with multiple compartments that can be sealed off using watertight doors, allowing a vessel to stay afloat even when taking on water.
Some cruise ships, particularly those designed to operate in the polar regions , are built with extra-tough hulls that allow them to regularly bump through floating ice and even run up onto ice sheets. Some of the hardiest cruise vessels, known as expedition cruise vessels, are able to break through floating ice.
Related: This cruise vessel is so tough it can beach itself on floating ice
Ship collisions with growlers and other small icebergs are not uncommon and usually don't result in major damage to a vessel. The chunk of ice that Norwegian Sun hit over the weekend was, notably, almost imperceptibly small when compared to the icebergs that have sunk vessels in the past.
The iceberg that sank the Titanic in 1912, for instance, is estimated to have stood 100 feet above the water line and have been 400 feet long. That would make it a couple hundred times bigger than the piece of ice that Norwegian Sun hit over the weekend.
Serious ship accidents involving icebergs have been very rare in the modern era. It's been 63 years since a passenger on a ship has died after a collision with an iceberg. The last known passenger ship sunk by an iceberg with casualties was the Hans Hedtoft, in 1959. All 95 passengers and crew on the Danish cargo and passenger vessel perished after it hit an iceberg on its maiden voyage off the coast of Western Greenland.
Norwegian Sun was on a nine-night sailing to Alaska out of Seattle that began on Tuesday when it collided with the ice chunk. The trip was scheduled to include calls at the Alaskan towns of Sitka, Skagway, Juneau and Ketchikan; Alaska's Icy Straight Point; and Victoria, British Columbia, in addition to a visit to Hubbard Glacier.
Passengers only had the chance to visit Sitka and Icy Strait Point before the trip was cut short.
Norwegian said passengers on the current sailing of the vessel will receive a full refund of their fare plus a future cruise credit in the amount of 100% of what they paid.
Passengers on the ship's next sailing, which was scheduled to begin June 30, will receive a full refund plus a future cruise credit in the amount of 50% of what they paid, as well as up to $300 per person in reimbursements for any airline cancellation or change fees they incur.
Built in 2001, Norwegian Sun is one of Norwegian's oldest and smallest vessels . It's one of five Norwegian ships currently assigned to Alaska sailings for the summer.
Planning a cruise? Start with these stories:
- The 5 most desirable cabin locations on any cruise ship
- The 8 worst cabin locations on any cruise ship
- A quick guide to the most popular cruise lines
- 21 tips and tricks that will make your cruise go smoothly
- 15 ways cruisers waste money
- 12 best cruises for people who never want to grow up
- What to pack for your first cruise
IMAGES