Cruise ship with 3,143 passengers, 1086 crew members adrift: No pirates

After a cruise ship’s engine fire, 3,143 passengers and 1086 crew members are adrift in the Gulf of Mexico about 150 miles off the Yucatan Peninsula. The cruise ship’s engine fire had started in the aft engine room but automatic fire extinguishers put out the fire before it could spread to other areas on the cruise ship, reported the Christian Science Monitor on Feb. 11, 2013. None of the cruise ship’s passengers or crew members were injured.

According to Carnival Corp, the company that owns the stranded cruise ship, the cruise ship is without propulsion and operating only on emergency generator power. The passengers and crew members have limited power and water but are receiving food and beverage provisions by another cruise ship that arrived at the scene.

The Carnival Triumph had set sail from Galveston, Texas, on Thursday. The Carnival Triumph was scheduled for another cruise ship voyage on Feb. 16, 2013, but the cruise has been canceled.

The Carnival Triumph is one of the cruise ships operated under the Carnival Cruise Lines brand.

According to Carnival Corp’s website,

“Carnival Corporation & plc is a global cruise company and one of the largest vacation companies in the world. Our portfolio of leading cruise brands includes Carnival Cruise Lines, Holland America Line, Princess Cruises and Seabourn in North America; P&O Cruises (UK), and Cunard in the United Kingdom; AIDA Cruises in Germany; Costa Cruises in Southern Europe; Iberocruceros in Spain; and P&O Cruises (Australia) in Australia.”

According to the Christian Science Monitor report, “In January last year, the Costa Concordia, a 114,500 tonne luxury cruise ship operated by the Carnival Corp-owned Costa Cruises, capsized and sank off the Tuscan island of Giglio in Italy, killing 32 people.”

As the above video shows, six weeks after the Costa Concordia wrecked near the Italian coast, another Costa cruise ship was adrift in the Indian Ocean after an engine fire. While the cruise ship was stranded in the Indian Ocean, authorities feared a potential attack by pirates.

The U.S. Coast Guard is monitoring the cruise ship that is adrift in the Mexican Gulf. The 3,143 cruise ship guests and 1,086 crew members are waiting for a tugboat to drag the Carnival Triumph to the Mexican port of Progreso where the cruise ship was originally expected to arrive on Wednesday afternoon.

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