Cruise Ship Breaks Free From Moorings and Hits Quay in Strong Winds
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Time to read 4 min
Photo By: Philippe Alès, CC BY-SA 4.0 , via Wikimedia Commons
Watch: AIDAperla drifts across the harbour after breaking free from its moorings in Le Havre. Video shared by Ingo Zwank on Facebook.
Passengers aboard a cruise ship in France had a rather more eventful port day than expected this week when their ship broke free from its moorings, drifted across the harbour and struck a quay wall.
AIDA Cruises' AIDAperla was docked in Le Havre on Tuesday, 8 September when strong winds swept through the port.
At around 4pm, the almost 300-metre cruise ship was pushed away from the pier after its mooring arrangement failed, leaving the ship drifting through the harbour.
Video captured from another cruise ship nearby shows the enormous vessel moving backwards through the water before its stern makes contact with the concrete quay.
Thankfully, despite how dramatic the footage looks, no injuries were reported.
What happened to AIDAperla in Le Havre?
AIDAperla had arrived in Le Havre that morning as part of a seven-night cruise from Hamburg.
The itinerary had already visited Southampton and was due to continue to Zeebrugge and Rotterdam before returning to Hamburg.
AIDA Cruises subsequently told USA Today that an unexpected storm front with strong winds struck while the ship was docked. The cruise line confirmed that the ship broke free and made contact with the pier while manoeuvring.
AIDAperla is no small ship. It measures approximately 300 metres long, has 18 decks and 1,643 guest cabins.
Once the ship began moving away from the berth, tugboats were called in to assist.
Videos taken from nearby Mein Schiff 3 show AIDAperla drifting through the harbour before being pushed backwards towards the quay.
Two passenger gangways were also pulled away during the incident and ended up in the harbour.
Around 500 passengers were temporarily unable to return onboard
An added complication was that many AIDAperla passengers weren't actually on the ship when it happened.
Around 500 passengers who had been ashore on excursions were temporarily unable to reboard while the ship was being secured.
Tugboats eventually assisted AIDAperla back to the berth and passengers were able to return onboard safely.
No injuries were reported among passengers or crew.
Given what the footage looks like, that's probably the most important part of this story.
Watch: AIDAperla drifts across the harbour after breaking free from its moorings in Le Havre. Video shared by Matthias Morr on Facebook.
The ship required hull repairs
The contact with the quay wasn't simply a bump that could be inspected and forgotten about.
AIDA later confirmed that inspections identified repairs required to the ship's hull, resulting in an extended stay in Le Havre and changes to the remainder of the cruise.
AIDAperla remained in Le Havre until the morning of Friday, 11 September while those repairs were completed.
The ship eventually departed at around 6:45am and sailed directly towards Hamburg. Its scheduled calls at Zeebrugge and Rotterdam were cancelled.
The Port of Le Havre also issued a notice prohibiting ships from berthing along part of the affected Pierre Callet quay following damage there.
What about AIDAperla's next cruise?
The incident has also had a flow-on effect for passengers joining the ship in Hamburg on Saturday, 12 September.
AIDAperla was expected to arrive back in Hamburg at around 1pm rather than its originally scheduled morning arrival, with check-in for the following cruise pushed back to around 4pm.
Importantly, however, the next cruise has not been cancelled.
AIDA is currently advertising AIDAperla's 12–19 September Norway sailing from Hamburg, visiting Bergen, Nordfjordeid, Ålesund and Stavanger.
So despite the dramatic incident and several days of disruption, AIDAperla is expected to return to service.
The video puts the size of the incident into perspective
It's one thing to read that a cruise ship "broke its moorings".
It's another thing entirely to watch a 125,000-plus gross-tonne cruise ship drifting sideways through a harbour.
Footage taken from Mein Schiff 3 gives probably the best perspective of what happened, particularly as AIDAperla moves backwards towards the quay.
And considering the size of the ship, the nearby infrastructure and the number of people involved, the fact that nobody was injured is a very fortunate outcome.
Hi, I'm Kate!
I'm the creator of Voyage Ready and a BAS Agent and bookkeeper from regional NSW who loves cruising and travelling with my family (and occasionally working from a cruise ship somewhere in the middle of the ocean). I particularly love longer cruises with plenty of sea days, exploring new places at our own pace and finding practical ways to make family travel more affordable and less complicated.
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