‘Overloaded’ cruise ship held

The irregularity of internet access while on board ship in the Norwegian fjords can be frustrating at times. Especially when, as happened yesterday, I was unable to react to an early tip-off about a rare event in cruising.
A friend at CruiseBite.com alerted me to the news that the Silverseas expedition ship, Prince Albert II, had been impounded in Portsmouth by the Maritime and Coastguard Agency.
Remarkably for such an up-market operation, there were concerns that the vessel was overloaded, and that senior officers were over-worked and not getting the amount of rest required by law.
Prince Albert II was eventually allowed to sail at midnight – four hours later than scheduled. Excess provisions were off-loaded, and an investigation established that poor book-keeping was responsible for incomplete records being kept of the officers’ rest.
A spokesman for the ship’s operators said: “The vessel had just stopped in Portsmouth to take on fresh supplies but was found to be over her load line so some of those supplies were removed.
“The other issue was the record of working hours – and it appears that those were mistakenly recorded. ”
The 132-passenger ship is currently on a series of round-Britain cruises, and is scheduled to dock in Leith, Scotland, on May 21, and will dock at Tower Bridge in London on June 5 before setting off for a number of cruises around Svalbard, in the Arctic Circle.
No doubt the MCA will be keeping an eye on her during the next few weeks.