“Big explosions” rocked a passenger cruise ship, sending passengers into a panic yesterday amid calls for “mayday, mayday,” witnesses aboard the damaged vessel said.
Flames broke out on the Royal Caribbean’s Grandeur of the Seas at about 2:50 a.m. yesterday, as it sailed from Baltimore to CocoCay, Bahamas.
“I heard these big explosions and saw the fire jump out of the ship,” passenger Dan McTigue told ABC News.
“We couldn’t get to the muster station because it was on fire.”
Another passenger, 20-year-old Luke Sluscher, was jarred awake by the panicked crew rushing to put out flames.
He stepped outside his room and “heard crew yelling mayday, mayday, as they ran to put out the fire.”
The ship never lost power and pulled into Freeport, Bahamas yesterday afternoon where Royal Caribbean scrambled to make travel arrangements for 2,224 stranded passengers.
Passenger Mark J. Ormesher recalled smelling smoke early yesterday monring as a ship attendant knocked on his door, telling he and his girlfriend to grab their flotation gear.
It was not a drill.
“This encouraged calm amongst the passengers,” said the 25-year-old Ormesher, who lives in Manassas, Va. “Passengers were required to remain at their [muster] stations for four hours.”
Cruise operators said all passengers and 796 crew were safe and accounted for.
They will be taken home on 11 different charter flights. Each traveler will receive full refunds.
On the Royal Caribbean Web site, the cruise said it is “deeply sorry for this unexpected development in our guests’ vacation. We understand that this may have been a very stressful time for them. We appreciate their patience and cooperation in dealing with this unfortunate situation.”
Photos of the damaged ship reveealed a huge chunk of the stern burned on several decks. The fire also destroyed a dining area and a bar.
Even amid the chaos of yesterday morning, Royal Caribbean staffers were still concerned about PR.
Passenger Carrie McTigue told ABC News that “even when people put their cameras up to photograph the sunrise, they were told, ‘no photos.'”
McTigue’s granddaughter, Sophia, said she was in full panic mode during the fire: “I started crying. I thought we were going to die.”
It’s the second major incident aboard an American cruise ship in less than four months.
Carnival’s Triumph was disabled during a February journey by an engine room fire in the Gulf of Mexico, knocking out power and water.
Triumph limped into Mobile, Ala., freeing passengers from days of cold food and unsanitary conditions aboard the crippled vessel.
With AP