Cruise Ship Suffers Engine Failure, Starts Drifting With Passengers

A cruise ship belonging to P&O Cruises reported an engine problem Sunday and started drifting. It issued a mayday after discovering the loss of propulsion power and tugs were deployed to ferry it back to safety.

The ship, P&O Ventura cruise was on a 12-day cruise out of Southampton, in the United Kingdom when it suffered engine failure. The distress call mayday came on Sunday evening.

It was all well until the large vessel departed from the port visit at Santa Cruz de Tenerife in the Canary Islands. The propulsion problems came a few hours later.

P&O Cruises is owned by the American cruise line Carnival Cruise.

According to cruise news, the ship was sailing to the next port of call of Arrecife, when the engine issue erupted. The ship started drifting towards the northeast of Tenerife island.

According to cruise sources, the guests under cruise deals of the ship are safe. Sources said two tug boats have been hired to tow the cruise ship back to Santa Cruz de Tenerife overnight, reported Cruisehive.

The latest update has said P&O Ventura returned to Tenerife aided by the tugs and the ship will stay there.

The cruise line has launched an investigation to find out the cause of the propulsion failure. Guests will be updated on the situation, per the ship’s captain.

He said the problem emanated from condensation which malfunctioned the electricals and knocked the propulsion systems.

However, the ship has bow thrusters to take care of emergencies.

The ship is now berthed in Santa Cruz. As a result, the proposed visit to Arrecife on December 8 was canceled.

Under the modified itinerary, the ship will sail to Lisbon and reach the Portuguese port on December 10 at 8:00 AM. It will go to homeport in Southampton on December 13.

Mayday and pan-pan are distress signals used by passenger ships to keep the crew on high alert.

The new ship of Princess Cruises unveiled

Meanwhile, premium cruise line Princess Cruises has named its newest ship as Sky Princess marking a tribute to the pioneering women part of the U.S. Space Program.

Under the theme “Reach for the Sky” the cruise line honored two women of NASA for their achievements in the U.S. space program, per a press release.

Captain Hire was a mechanical systems engineer with NASA and was part of the back end in 40 space missions. She also spent 700 hours in space and orbited the earth 475 times.

Poppy Northcutt has been the first female mission control engineer when NASA and her team’s intervention in solving Apollo 13 technical issues earned her a Presidential Medal too.

Captain Kay Hire and engineer Poppy Northcutt have been honored as the godmothers of Sky Princess.