Goodbye Explorer
November 24th, 2007 | 
Author: 
So for one last trip from port I’ll ship
but next time back I’m swearing
I’ll settle down in my hometown
and go no more seafaring.
Of course we were all happy to hear the crew and passengers aboard the M/S Explorer are back on land and in good spirits. Hearing stories of a passenger ship hitting an Iceberg in cold waters can’t help but remind us of past disasters. Of course the Explorer was a unique “cruise” ship in that it took more adventurous types to places that most people would not normally want to go. From what I’ve read her passengers were particularly capable of riding out a 4 hour wait in the life boats and spoke well of the Captain and his crew.
For a seemingly unremarkable, little red passenger ship, the Explorer had quite an interesting history. The Explorer was the first passenger ship to cross the fabled northwest passage in 1984 and they did it again in 1988. She was also the first passenger ship to circumnavigate James Clark Ross Island (that’s the dinosaur Island, not the other “Ross Island”) in Antarctica in 1997. Interestingly she was first to travel up the Amazon river and beyond its confluence of the Ucayali and Marañon Rivers which lies 80 miles above Iquitos, Peru. Since then this has become a popular tour run by a variety of companies.
There is something sad and foreboding in the loss of an ocean vessel. You just sense a certain loneliness in the thought of an empty ship listing in a cold sea as it slowly fills with water. Suddenly it reaches the tipping point where there is no longer enough air in the hull to keep it afloat. In a sudden din of rushing water and groaning steal, it slips below the surface and drops into the icy darkness. In moments the water again becomes calm and quiet as if the ship were never there. Suddenly something so big and so seemingly permanent is simply, erased.
*photo from Eagle-Eye Tours
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Phew, for a second, when I saw the headline, I thought you meant your NDK Explorer. Now that’s a relief… Josh
I did too.
Would that not SUCK to have your ship sink out from under you? How eerie, that still ocean slipping shut sealing the tomb. Until the bits start floating up.
Listening to my 10 y.o. son in the kitchen making lunch telling his cousin, who is a very picky eater, “This turkey, it has a little spice to it, tastes kinda like chicken fil a…”
good stuff.
anyway, whatever. I’ve just shaped a seeqqortarfik. I’m a bit high on cedar dust.
laters
It was amazing that they were picked up withing 6 hours by a Norwegian (I think) cruise ship. It shows the popularity of Antarctica. Since we’re bound to screw this place up eventually it might be a good idea to buy some coastal property there. Maybe a marina and a MacDonalds. Get in before Club Med.
Here’s a twist. My in-laws were ’ship-wrecked’ on the Explorer years ago when she ran aground in the Antarctic. It was owned by Lindblad at that time. They were ‘rescued’ by the Chilian navy and all managed to get home safely. The ship was eventually pulled off the rock it had hit and managed to go on many other adventures though the years afterwards, but it appears she wanted her final resting ground to be in the southern ocean. A sad loss, but better than rotting at the dock! A lesson for us all…