Maasdam incident on St Lawrence River 5/22/09

Does anyone know what happened on the Maasdam about 9:45 PM, May 22, 2009?

We were on the St Lawrence seaway and the ship tilted sharply to the Starboard side. Things in my stateroom slid and crashed. I understand the china and glasses in the dining room ended up on the floor (just as they were serving the baked alaska).

Because we disembarked the next morning, I know only rumors...that the ship hit a sandbar....and another, that we swerved to avoid hitting a small boat.

I would appreciate knowing what really happened.

Interesting but you may never know. The cruise line is unlikely to disclose it; just bad PR.

Sounds like something that happened on another HAL ship - one of the stabilizers gave way and tilted the ship sharply to one side - just before the chocolate extravaganza - which ended up on the floor.

though I can't see why they would be using stabilizers in the St. Lawrence seaway.

Would be interesting to know what happened.

Does anyone know what happened on the Maasdam about 9:45 PM, May 22, 2009?

 

We were on the St Lawrence seaway and the ship tilted sharply to the Starboard side. Things in my stateroom slid and crashed. I understand the china and glasses in the dining room ended up on the floor (just as they were serving the baked alaska).

 

Because we disembarked the next morning, I know only rumors...that the ship hit a sandbar....and another, that we swerved to avoid hitting a small boat.

 

I would appreciate knowing what really happened.

Gosh, I would not know. Did you think to perhaps ask one of the officers onboard for a possible answer?

I'll never forget our first cruise on Princess...we were in St. Thomas, having lunch in town, and started chit chatting with some couples from a Celebrity cruise, also docked in port. They told us the same thing had happened to them the night before, and the rumor was the ship ran over a sailboat! Sounds far fetched, but that's what they swore up and down happened!

DW and I were on the ship that evening and spent some time with an officer when he got the call. His department was heavily damaged and he had to depart to make reports. He said it was caused by the pilot error and the captain was on the bridge at the time and took command of his ship. The captain saw a sand bar coming on the sonar and took action to avoid a mishap. We saw much damage in the dining room and heard the bars had some damage. I hear a bill will be sent to the pilot and hope they have good insurance. Now a few minutes later we did pass by a cargo ship very closely and wonder who was driving that evening on the river. Interesting that we spent 15 days at sea/ports and the roughest seas happened on the river. The open Atlantic was smooth for the most part all the way from Florida. Colakid.

Hope no one was in jured.

As far as I heard no major injuries. We did have an incident just as we left the ship in debarkation of a lady who fell backwards down the up escalator. Many crew came by and helped. I know a couple who knew the lady and hope to hear a report today or soon. We did lose one person to death,one stroke and one broken wrist that I heard about over the 15 days. Our average age was 69 years old. We had no official children on board and there were 750 passengers between the ages of 75 and 94. Colakid.

...We had no official children on board and there were 750 passengers between the ages of 75 and 94. Colakid.

Does that mean there were unofficial children?

Does that mean there were unofficial children?

Colakid, thank you for the explanation of what happened.

Hah! I wondered the same thing!