Wind Song (ship): Difference between revisions

The ''Wind Song'' was one of an unusual class of only three vessels (msy ''Wind Star'', msy ''Wind Spirit'' and msy ''Wind Song''), designed as a modern cruise ship but carrying an elaborate system of computer-controlled [[sail]]s on four [[mast (sailing)|mast]]s. The ship's usual itinerary was an inter-island cruise in [[French Polynesia]] and in the [[Bahamas]].

On December 1, 2002, an [[engine room]] fire forced passengers into lifeboats at 3:15 &nbsp;a.m.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://sites.google.com/site/windsongfire|work=http://sites.google.com/site/windsongfire |title=First hand passenger account}}</ref> where they'd hoped to stay only until the fire was under control. At 5:04 &nbsp;a.m. a small explosion was heard from the front of the ship and the captain gave the order to abandon ship. All 127 passengers and 92 crew members were evacuated safely.

The [[French Navy]] put out the fire and towed the ship to [[Papeete]], where examination showed extensive damage to engineering spaces, although the passenger areas were mostly intact. Subsequently the Navy demanded compensation for its services, and French Polynesian government seized the ''Wind Song''. However, [[Holland America Line]] (owner of Windstar Cruises at the time, itself a subsidiary of [[Carnival Corporation & plc]]) was unwilling to pay the costs involved, and even scrapping was uneconomical, because of the ship's small size and remoteness from [[Ship breaking|shipbreaker]]s in India, China, and elsewhere.