# Cruise ship Athena hit by hurricanes



## rushie (Jul 5, 2005)

From the BBC - 

_Cruise in hurricanes 'nightmare' 

Athena bosses say the ship followed correct safety procedures 
A cruise ship has docked in Falmouth carrying passengers - many from the South West - who say their trip of a lifetime became a nightmare. 
Passengers endured two hurricanes and threatened a mutiny on board the MV Athena on its way to north America. 

A 70-year-old man, thought to be from Sark in the Channel Islands, died after falling down steps during a storm. 

Cruise firm Travelscope said that the ship had suffered an "unfortunate chain of events". 

'Absolutely diabolical' 

Mike Woodthorp, from Cornwall, said the ship was hit by bad weather two days after leaving Falmouth on 10 September. 

The ship was heading to St John's, Newfoundland, in Canada on a 24-day Atlantic cruise. 

He said: "The hurricane carried on for two days - abating slightly on Wednesday 13th - and we caught up with another hurricane on Thursday 14th. 

"There were a lot of people ill and there was one gentleman, a 70-year-old man, who fell off steps between decks and died." 

Following the death, the ship went straight to Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, therefore missing the second scheduled destination, Sydney in Nova Scotia. 

They were also delayed by local authorities at Bar Harbour, Maine, USA, and refused entry in Boston before getting to New York earlier than planned. 

Graham Arthurs, from St Austell, Cornwall, said the cruise had been a present from his children to celebrate his 30th wedding anniversary. 

There were extremely unusual weather conditions for this time of year 

Richard Ford, Travelscope 
"I'm so disappointed - it's been absolutely diabolical," he said. 

Richard Ford, managing director of cruise firm Travelscope, said: "The chain of events is unfortunate and obviously there was a very tragic incident that occurred. 

"But there were extremely unusual weather conditions for this time of year. They were well away from the hurricane, the ship had slowed down for the comfort and safety of passengers and lots of announcements were made on board. 

"Passengers were asked not to move around the vessel unless they really had to and stay seated where possible and the gentleman who died didn't do that. 

"When the vessel got to Halifax the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and the local coroner came on board and they were very happy with all the safety announcements and procedures that had taken place with this particular incident."_ 

Turns out it was the weather...not health problems this time...although the local press are playing on that issue too.!

Rushie


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## Paul Liu (Aug 19, 2006)

This article did not identify the hurricane, it's probably hurricane Gordon. Hurricane Helene followed a similar track but was a few days later. Actually this has been an unusually light hurricane season in Atlantic. Still with two hurricanes that tracked to North Atlantic, tragic incident occurred.

Paul


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## fred henderson (Jun 13, 2005)

*Athena*

Athena is the oldest conventional cruise ship in operation today. Only the US river boat Delta Queen and the sail vessel Sea Cloud are older. She was built in 1948 as Stockholm and is now 16,144 grt, carrying 492 lower berth passengers. There are a number of photos in the gallery showing her strange stern appendage needed to comply with modern stability regulations. 
I would not care to travel anywhere on her, let alone across the Atlantic in September, but a lot of members seem to like her. As Stockholm she survived ramming Andrea Doria.

Fred


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## Keltic Star (Jan 21, 2006)

It just seems odd to me that she was bucking the norm. The big boy's dont do Transat cruises in the middle of the hurricane season. Those doing the US eastern seaboard and Maritime Canada have enough alyernate ports up their sleeves in case a hooligan threatens.
As far as I know, it didn't even make our local press here in Halifax. Glad to see the RCMP were impressed with the safety announcements, a lot they would know but suppose they need all the good press they can get considering that their credibilty is at a low ebb right now.


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## KenLin39 (Apr 30, 2005)

*Athena.*

Hi. Hurricane Florence outbound, Hurricane Gordon homebound, so missing Azores visit. Ken. (my neighbour was passenger)


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## stevevincent1974 (Dec 8, 2005)

Despite her small size this ship handled 2 large hurricanes well,a credit to those who deigned and built her.


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## fred henderson (Jun 13, 2005)

Perhaps, Steve, but if the reports are to be believed, her conversion into a cruise ship was not so good. There are press reports of cabin furniture and fittings breaking adrift and general internal damage.
Hurricanes are usually at their worst in the Caribbean and dozens of cruise ships move out of their path without drama. Why did Athena twice come to such grief in the Atlantic?

Fred


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## Keltic Star (Jan 21, 2006)

fred henderson said:


> Perhaps, Steve, but if the reports are to be believed, her conversion into a cruise ship was not so good. There are press reports of cabin furniture and fittings breaking adrift and general internal damage.
> Hurricanes are usually at their worst in the Caribbean and dozens of cruise ships move out of their path without drama. Why did Athena twice come to such grief in the Atlantic?
> 
> Fred


Fred:
Hurricanes are not always at their worst in the Caribbean. They gain more attention there because of the devastation to life and property but a good percentage do a clockwise rotation in the North Atlantic and cause havoc to shipping. I was in two in mid-Atlantic and don't want to go through another.
Cabin furniture and fittings will certainly break adrift and internal damage can and does occur, lost a lifeboat in one and part of the funnel in the other.

It's no picnic ashore either, was in Tortola in Hugo in 1989 and Halifax during Juan in 2003 and Halifax isn't anywhere near the Caribbean. Bermuda is well away from the Caribbean and receives regular visits from life taking hurricanes. Here in Halifax we don't take too many direct hits but at least two near misses per year is not out of the unusual, enough to spend a night hoping the roof is going to stand up and the electricity stay on.

My earlier post queries the schedule of the Athena to go looking for trouble, by running a pleasure junket across the Atlantic during hurricane season. Sure the good old liners between Europe and New York did it, but not without damage, delays and injuries and in considerably lesser worn ships.

The hurricane tracking info and track predictability is less precise in mid Atlantic than closer to the North American Continent because it requires longer more expensive reconnasence flights, therefore less of them, does not have the advantage of land reports as the storm passes over known positions nor the vast amount of water temperature reporting buoys and ships closer to the shore.

The precision reporting of the Miami and Halifax Hurricane Centres are what help the big cruise ships deviate to clear the storm, this info is far less accurate mid-ocean, but I don't see Carnival sending their ships into known danger.


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## Pompeyfan (Aug 9, 2005)

I think the fact that she survived these storms despite internal damage proves that despite her size she like many other smaller passenger liners built for the trans-Atlantic, can cope with such occasions. She may have been converted to a cruise ship, but surely that is changes on board rather than her overall design affecting her seaworthyness?.

I have always said that the former Arcadia, built for the same heavy seas as a liner was a better seaworthy ship than the giant cruise cruise ships three times bigger that I have been on recently. I know nothing about design, but I know the difference between a good seaworthy ship and one which is not simply by sailing on them in similar conditions. If my Arcadia had been around today, and setting off across the Atlantic the same time as her new namesake with the possibilty of hurricanes I know which ship I would chose because I have been aboard Arcadia in hurricane force winds, and in the Cyclone that destroyed Darwin. She ploughed through both like the grand old lady she was. David


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## Tony Breach (Jun 15, 2005)

A lot of conjecture here, gentlemen. Seems that the only first hand information is the vociferous action of the ex-pax who apparently want their money back & the fierce rebuttal of the operators spokesman - all of which I observed on the local TV station. However, the death of anyone on board a ship is serious & must be deplored if death was as a consequence of the conduct of the voyage being mishandled.

The ship was in no way designed for cruising but for regular cargo-passenger liner service on the more northerly North Atlantic routes although the appearance of her after her several re-builds would indicate a probable tendency to roll very heavily particularly in a big quarterly swell or sea due to the addition of sponsons around the stern runs.

Does anyone have information on the routeing of the vessel together with an abstract of her voyage including daily positions, courses & speeds plus a charting of the two 'hurricanes' & their regular forecasting. (It is possible that some pax may have noted abstract information down in their diary as taken from the daily noon run which is normally posted for them - or have lawyers already forbidden this?). If we are to be able to have access to the abstract we could then compare it to the historical records of the storms.

Another question is what sort of inquiry may be made by flag-state which is Madeira with Portuguese flag - is this an EU constituent or similar to the UK off-shore flags? Did/could/will the MAIB become involved? - as I understand it, the vessel took more pax from Falmouth for a subsequent cruise. Surely if there was a problem with the ship she should have been detained.


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## Pompeyfan (Aug 9, 2005)

I had overlooked the fact that a passenger died. I wonder if we will get to hear if this death was as a result of falling down steps, or natural causes?. David


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## rushie (Jul 5, 2005)

Pompeyfan said:


> I had overlooked the fact that a passenger died. I wonder if we will get to hear if this death was as a result of falling down steps, or natural causes?. David


Seems to be faling down steps from what is reported, here and elsewhere...

Rushie


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