Arctic Sunrise

The Arctic Sunrise was a Sunrise class cruise liner for Frigid Lines from 1975 to 1988.

Before the Accident
The Arctic Sunrise hull was laid down on December 5th 1973 as the second ship in the Sunshine Class of cruise liner for Reykjavik based cruise company, Frigid Lines, The ship was launched and christened on February 1st 1975 followed by its maiden cruise from Iceland to the southern tip of Greenland on February 3rd 1975. The vessel would continue operating this and many other routes for the next 13 years until the 9th of Janurary in 1988.

The Accident
The Arctic Sunrise left for another cruise around Greenland on Janurary 9th 1988, The vessel was captained by the experienced Captain Lawrence Morgan, There were a total of 125 Passengers and 25 Crew on board the cruise liner, After a stop in Ólafsvík the ship was off the coast of Greenland when the crew were beginning to make a turn back toward Iceland at 9:52 PM when they heard a crashing noise and what sounded like water splashing, The Arctic Sunrise had hit something underwater soon realizing that it crashed into one of the many small icebergs along the coastline, The noise woke up some passengers but most went back to sleep while the crew were rushing to the engine room to assess the damage, but unfortunatley the water was rushing into the room to quickly and the gash soon expanded due to the force of the water, At 9:55 PM the Captain and crew ordered every passenger to the lifeboats which resulted in some panic but was mostly controlled, By 9:57 PM, everyone had been successfully evacuated via lifeboat from the Arctic Sunrise which proceeded to mostly submerge barring the tip of the bow and the radar mast poking out of the water, Rescue vessels soon arrived to carry the passengers back to Iceland.

Afterward
The Arctic Sunrise would remain sunk due to the expense of refloating the entire vessel and refurbishing it was to high for what the cruise line was willing to pay and the Arctic Sunrise still remains off the coast of Greenland.