Chaos was the word of the day in Italy last Monday, when the Norwegian Epic cruise ship broke loose from its moorings while docked in Catania. The unexpected event caused the ship’s gangway to collapse, resulting in a passenger falling into the water.
The 4,100-passenger ship was on a 10-night round-trip voyage that departed from Civitavecchia on May 24.
Reports on social media say that the event happened just after 1 p.m. local time on Monday, May 30th. As the ropes broke, witnesses reported hearing loud cracks. You can see a video of the event on this Facebook page – the ropes break at the 00:18 mark.
One guest wrote on Facebook, “We heard this loud bang… the ropes were pulling out of the ground and went flying into the ship. The boat kept moving backwards. A woman was walking up to go into the boat and fell into the water.”
The woman’s spouse reportedly jumped into the water to assist their wife. However, emergency services quickly arrived to save the couple. Norwegian Cruise Line confirmed that the husband and wife sustained minor injuries and were transported to a local hospital for further treatment.
Meanwhile, the ropes caused some large dings in the ship’s hull that were quickly patched.
Photo of damaged ship captured by a passenger of the Norwegian Epic
What caused the ropes to break?
Welp, earlier in the day, wind gusts in the area had reached 57mph. With that, the Italian Meteorological Service had issued a moderate wind warning. Early indications suggest an unfortunate combo of mechanical strain from the ship shifting in the high winds, on top of the failure of the dock infrastructure.
Anyway, after the ropes gave way, the ship (all 155,873 tons of her) drifted into the harbor before regaining control and returning to port. However, not surprisingly, port authorities paused reboarding until the winds calmed down.
Passengers reported chaos at the port, with little information being given by the cruise line. Summertime heat, and limited seating for elderly passengers were also reportedly problematic. One passenger who was waiting to re-board the ship said, “Everyone is stuck at the port, very little information from NCL, some of us have been waiting here since noon. Very little water, older folks are hot, there is not enough water or seats.”
Norwegian Cruise Line later stated:
During this interruption, our crew were actively attending to our guests until they were able to re-embark the ship. As always, the safety of our guests and crew is our top priority.
After a 6-hour delay, Norwegian Epic allowed its remaining passengers to board the ship at approximately 7:15 p.m., and the boat continued on to its next port.
Both the Cruise and Catania authorities are continuing to investigate the full circumstances surrounding what could have been a disastrous incident.
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