By Louise Rasmussen
COPENHAGEN (Reuters) – Norwegian cruise ship MS Maud is still in the North Sea after a rogue wave and hurricane-force winds shattered windows on the bridge, causing a power outage late on Thursday, Danish authorities said on Friday.
The ship’s 266 passengers and 131 crew members were safe, a spokesperson for the Danish Joint Rescue Coordination Centre (DJRC) told Reuters, adding that two towage vessels from civil rescue firm Esvagt were helping to keep it stable.
“They just need to calmly get through the storm, and they do this by sailing upwind,” the spokesperson added.
The vessel was sailing some 200 kilometres (120 miles) off Denmark’s west coast and about 330 km off Britain’s east coast when water entered the bridge, resulting in a power outage.
The vessel’s main engine was still functioning, enabling the ship to be steered manually from the engine room.
Data from the shipping trafficking website Vesselfinder.com showed on Friday that MS Maud had barely moved since Thursday night. It was not immediately clear where the vessel would go next.
MS Maud, which belongs to cruise company HX, a unit of Norway’s Hurtigruten Group, left Floroe in Norway on Thursday and was due to arrive in Tilbury in Britain on Friday.
Hurtigruten was not immediately available to comment on the fate of the ship. On Thursday, the company said the Maud had suffered “a temporary loss of power” and that the crew and passengers were safe.
(Reporting by Louise Breusch Rasmussen, editing by Terje Solsvik and Miral Fahmy)
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