Waterway reopened after debris that damaged Seattle-owned cruise ship is removed
VIRGINIA BEACH - The Intracoastal Waterway is clear today and officials have begun probing how a huge piece of debris ended up in the channel and damaged a Seattle-owned cruise ship.
The debris is believed to have gashed the hull of the cruise ship Spirit of Nantucket, forcing its captain to beach the vessel to keep it from sinking in the Thursday incident. The 102-passenger ship is owned by Seattle-based Cruise West.
The Coast Guard had restricted usage of the busy waterway, which runs for more than 1,000 miles from Norfolk, Virginia, to Miami, until the debris was hauled out on the weekend.
Terry A. McCann, a Corps of Engineers spokesman, said the debris is about 40 feet long and 14 feet wide and is “believed to be either a bulkhead or part of a barge.”
It’s unclear how long the debris had been in the waterway. But given its size and location, authorities have said they believe it fell there recently - possibly within the past week - because it would have been hard for it to not have been struck by some craft such as the Nantucket.
The ship has been moved to a Norfolk shipyard for repair of the foot-long, two-inch-wide gash in its hull. None of the 66 passengers or crew aboard was hurt in the incident which occurred as the vessel was on a 10-day cruise from Virginia to Charleston, S.C.