Ship stranded off Latvia's coast

RIGA 's Headline news around the world today as a cruiseship carrying close to 1000 people was stranded off the coast of Latvia.

The passengers from the Bahamas-registered passenger shipMona Lisa, which ran aground off Latvia'snorthwest coast in the IrbeStrait on Sunday, will be transported by specialtrain from Ventspils to Rigaon Monday evening, Genadijs Pavlovs, the head of Ventspils brigade of LatvianState Fire and Rescue Service, told BNS.

The decision to transport passengers to rigacame as the ship destination was Riga, which iswhy all 650 tourists will not stay in Ventspils, and will be carried by trainespecially provided by the Latvian Transport Ministry and Latvijas Dzelzcelsrailway company as currently, there are no passenger trains from Ventspils to Riga.
Meanwhile 237 ship crew will most likely stay in Ventspils overnight. Yet,there is possibility that the crew will be transported to Riga by buses, which will be decided later,Pavlovs said, adding that several crew members will remain on the ship.

 

Latvian navy coastguard service head Hermanis Cernovs told BNS that a specialized company from Sweden will beinvolved in rescuing the ship at the request of the Lord Nelson Seereisenshipping company managing the stranded ship. The Swedish company possesses allequipment necessary for performing rescue operations.

On Monday afternoon, after several unsuccessful attempts to tow the stranded ship,the evacuation of the passengers from the ship began.
There are 747 passengers aboard the ship. The majority of them are elderlypeople from Germany.
The decision on evacuation of passengers and part of the crew was taken by theship captain following the warning of the increasing speed of the wind. Leavingpassengers aboard in such conditions would be unwise. The people are evacuatedby Latvian navy ships Virsaitis, Varonis, Kristaps, Gaisma and Latvian BorderGuard ships Tira and Randa, while Swedish coastguard ship KBV-201 is on standby.
After the evacuation of the people the attempts to tow the ship off the shelfwill be continued. The rescue works of the ship were under way the whole night,yet, they were unsuccessful.

At about midnight the fourth tow-boat arrived to the site of the accident andthe attempts to move the huge passenger ship continued until 5:00 a.m. MonaLisa is several hundreds of tons heavy ship which went several meters deep intothe shelf. The draught of the liner is nine meters, while the water is onlyfive meters deep in the place of the accident. 
Bahamas-registered passenger ship Mona Lisa with 972 on board ran aground offLatvian northwest coast in the IrbeStrait. The accidenthappened 18 kilometers off Latvia'scoast when the ship was looking for the route, shipping conditions had beenfavorable -- slow wind and low waves, so weather was not a factor.  The captain of the ship is from Greece and his assistants are from Ukraine.
 
 
The Bahamas-registered Mona Lisa, built in mid-1960s, belongs to Germanshipping company Lord Nelson Seereisen. It is 173 meterslong and has eight passenger decks. It can accommodate 782 passengers and 417crew members.