I have never heard of this River Cruise Line

http://www.cruisecritic.co.uk/news/news.cfm?ID=5888

Nearly 200 Evacuated from River Cruise Ship due to 'Leak': (10 AM, EDT) -- A river cruise ship in the eastern Netherlands had to be evacuated early Sunday morning (June 22) after springing a leak late Saturday (June 21). The 360-foot (110 meter) Britannia was carrying 154 passengers and 40 crew when it began to take on water around 10 PM GMT. There were no injuries during the evacuation. A statement on the Zutphen city council website -- the municipality nearest to where the incident occurred -- said passengers were taken to a nightclub before being sheltered overnight in a large event building in Zutphen. The municipality's statement said Britannia has been "drained" and will be "stabilized" tomorrow (June 23). The cause of the leak is not yet known. Dutch emergency services spokesman Robert Spijkerman told AFP that the emergency services team on site had to furiously "pump out water to prevent [the boat] from sinking." Spijkerman said Britannia had "a large hole near the stern," which would be investigated by a team of divers. The cruise ship has been moored in Zutphen on the IJssel River -- an important tributary of the Rhine -- several miles east of Amsterdam. Operated by Nicko Tours, Britannia was making its way from Deventer, The Netherlands, to Cologne, Germany, with a group of mostly German and Austrian passengers when the incident occurred. Cruise Critic has contacted the line for further details about the incident and will update this story with any information we receive.

That´s because it´s a river cruise company which is only operating on the German speaking market.

steamboats

That makes sense. ;)

Hello Di Princess,

as steamboats has already mentioned the company - Nicko Tours, based in Stuttgart - only operates on the German-speaking market. There are several cruise lines like that. There are some more that only do the Dutch/Flemish market.

Nicko Tours is regarded as sort of mid-range price and comfort level. They charter and sail, sometimes, with older ships. Those have been refurbished and up-dated.

Update on the incident: the Britannia - an older ship - has been stabilized and is being towed to Amsterdam for further inspection and repairs. The cause of the accident was - yesterday - still unknown. It has been reported by people on board that they heard a bumping noise and movement like you would in a lock or when docking. When water appeared on the lower deck, the ship was evacuated. Nobody was hurt. All passengers were bussed to Cologne for their respective journeys home.

According to a company spokeswoman, the Britannia had had a full (safety) inspection over the last winter.

notamermaid

notamermaid,

Thanks for translating my news report ;)! That´s been the lasted information I´ve received from nicko tours.

steamboats

Hello steamboats,

you find me slightly confused. I know you write German articles. I cannot recall reading yours though. I combined the info from several sites. You know how sometimes one reads the same or similar news feed on different sites...and gets confused. :o

Anyway, I hope the Britannia will be running again soon. She is almost a grand old lady compared to those Viking babies. I am sure not many crusiers know that she used to sail for (and be owned by) Viking!

notamermaid

notamermaid,

I didn´t want to confuse you. But your translation was pretty close to what I wrote and I changed the text several times after getting more and more information by nicko.

steamboats

Thank you so much, Steamboats and Notamermaid.

I always learn so much from all your posts. I lived in Pirmasens (south of Kaiserslautern) for 2-1/2 years, 58 years ago.

Cruising the Rhine next year will be very nostalgic on the Viking Var. Thanks for all your help to all the Cruise Critters. ;)

Donna