From the "Water: Why does it continue to hate us?" Dept. Edited for brevity.
A 50-foot Pacific wave temporarily disabled a "Semester at Sea" ship filled with hundreds of college students yesterday, injuring two crew members as it broke windows and damaged the vessel's controls, the Coast Guard said. Coast Guard vessels and aircraft from Alaska and Hawaii were dispatched to help the 591-foot Explorer, about 650 miles south of the Aleutian Islands and about 1,600 miles from Honolulu. The ship for a time operated on just one of its four engines and could do little more than keep the bow headed into heavy seas using emergency steering. By last night, a second engine had been started and the ship was making headway at a speed of about 10 knots, or about 11.5 mph, said Coast Guard spokesman Lt. Cmdr. Glynn Smith in Alameda, Calif. Jim Lawrence, a spokesman for V. Ships, the technical managers of the ship, said no one was critically hurt but he did not have details on injuries. He said the ship may head to Midway Island, about 800 miles away. The weather in the region has been unsettled recently, with winds gusting to 50 mph or more. |