Sad. At least the Norwegian Liner got to it
The National Geographic Endeavour, another Antarctic cruise ship, was about 52 nautical miles away when it received the Explorer's distress call at 1:37 a.m. Friday. The captain of the Endeavour, Oliver Kruess, stayed in regular contact with the Explorer as he traveled at full speed toward the damaged ship.
At 2:50 a.m., the Explorer reported that it had lost propulsion and was drifting toward ice, Kruess wrote in an incident report filed Friday to Lindblad Expeditions, which owns the Endeavour. A 4 a.m. message said power had been restored, but the ship at 4:30 reported progressive flooding in its sanitary system and that passengers were in lifeboats.
Kruess was informed at 4:50 a.m. that the captain and the chief officer of the Explorer had abandoned ship. The engine no longer could be controlled and the ship was moving in tight circles.
After arriving at the scene at about 6:30 a.m. with the Norwegian ship, the Nordnorge, Kruess took stock of the Explorer. It "was listing heavily to starboard at an angle of possibly about 25 degrees," Kruess wrote. "The water level on her starboard side was reaching the restaurant window level.
