The Lost Cruise Ship
One of the most haunting photo ops in the world is the old German-built cruiseship MS World Discoverer. Built in 1974 for BEWA Cruises of Denmark she was originally to be called the BEWA Discoverer. She was ice-hardened for that survice and had an exceptionally long (8000mile) cruising range on her diesel engines. Well things went sideways for European cruiselines in the late 1970s and by 1976 she was being operated by Adventurer Cruises out of Singapore, flying flags of convience as the MS World Discoverer. Not a huge ship, she was only 287-feet OAL and but 3700-tons.
Roughly the size of a modern naval frigate.
She specialized in Antarctic/Arctic and nature cruises that her slow speed (16-knots) and high crew-to-passenger ration (80 crew to 137 passengers at maximum booking) allowed. It was a niche market, but lets be honest, she was a niche ship.
Well on Sunday April 30, 2000, at 4 p.m. local time (0500 GMT), the ship struck a large uncharted rock or reef in the Sandfly Passage, Solomon Islands. Her passengers and crew made an orderly getaway with no deaths. However, the local Civil War in the Solomans prevented salvage operations. So she sits today in Roderick Bay on Nggela Island with a 46-degree list. She has been looted thoroughly by locals and passing souvenir hunters over the past dozen years. That, coupled with the fact that she had been too long abandoned, will prevent any future salvage even though the Australian military has since intervened and smothered the war in the Solomans.
But she does still make a great photo op.
