By John O'Callaghan

DOVER, England (Reuters) - Passengers told of surviving an ''earthquake'' Tuesday when their cruise liner and a cargo ship collided in the dead of night in the English Channel.

``I'm from Los Angeles and I can only compare it to a 7.5 Richter scale earthquake. It was that violent,'' said Edna Mae Glikmann.

Only three holiday-makers on the Bahamas-registered Norwegian Dream were injured in the collision which left the container ship adrift and ablaze in the Channel, one of the world's busiest shipping lanes.

The Norwegian Dream, carrying about 2,400 mainly British and American passengers, limped into the English port of Dover about six hours after the impact that spilled four large containers onto to the liner's deck.

The passengers were just seven hours away from ending a 12-day European cruise when the ships collided at 1.15 a.m. (0015 GMT) about 32 km (20 miles) northwest of the English coastal town of Margate.

``We really thought we were going to capsize because it keeled over horribly to the side,'' Glikmann said.

Passengers said television sets and other articles were flung across their cabins by the collision.

``We were on our way to bed and we just felt this really sharp turn. We were sent up to get our life jackets,'' said Katie Trella from the U.S. state of New Jersey.

``It was as clear as can be. I don't understand how it can possibly have happened,'' Glikmann said.

Helicopters, tugs, lifeboats, five merchant ships and the German frigate Augsburg stood by to assist the 17 crew still battling the fire on the Panama-registered Ever Decent.

``A noxious cloud of smoke is coming from the vessel and all ships are being warned to keep clear of the area.'' a spokesman for Dover coastguards said.

``The container ship is now upright after listing at about 40 degrees, but it is seriously damaged,'' said the spokesman.

The Norwegian Dream's bridge was badly damaged and its bow caved in near the waterline.

The spokesman said there were few details on how the collision occurred but the fire broke out after the collision.

``The winds were light...and visibility good,'' he said, adding that the contents of the containers had not yet been established.

Lloyds shipping service said the 52,090 gross ton Ever Decent was built in 1997 and was owned by the Evergreen Marine Corp in Taipei.

The 50,764 gross ton Norwegian Dream was built in 1992 and is owned by Norwegian Cruise Line, based in Hamilton, Bermuda.

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-- justme (justme@justme.net), August 24, 1999

Answers

Probably not GPS error but the more common variety -> human error. Think of all the groundings and collisions that occur in the various shipping lanes and ports...Will not rule out possible GPS error but could just be its time of occurrance thats raising such a stink. Regards,

-- paul dirac (pdirac@hotmail.com), August 24, 1999.

That's a valid question, although some no doubt will call you names for even asking. I don't think we will get the details on this one. I suspect the story will fade away, because there were no casualties. Sad but true, not enough carnage to compete for precious news time.

-- CygnusXI (noburnt@toast.net), August 24, 1999.

Cygnus - I was thinking much the same thing: No death; no detail.

-- M.C. Hicks (mhicks@greenwich.com), August 24, 1999.

also see previous thread...

Boats go bump in the night

...........

-- try this (giving hotlinks @ try.here), August 24, 1999.

"It was as clear as can be. I don't understand how it can possibly have happened," Glikmann said.

Don't worry Edna Mae...navigation systems are all compliant. The GPS is no problem. We have the luxury of modern technology. It's a big sea. There's a big sky. Planes don't fall from it. Boats don't collide. It's all coincidence.

And it just so happens the Norwigian Dream was built in 1992...before new GPS units were being manufactured that would handle the GPS roll over correctly.

We can always go manual. Time to break out the binoculars and the crows nest again..."iceberg, right ahead!"

Mike

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-- Michael Taylor (mtdesign3@aol.com), August 24, 1999.

GPS tells you where you are - it says nothing about everyone else! And these ships were on courses that crossed in the middle of some of the busiest shipping lanes in the world (and in the right place with respect to those lanes).

So, not a navigation error of any sort. Someone either wasn't watching, or at the most charitable mis-read what he saw on the radar and/or out of the windows.

-- Nigel Arnot (nra@maxwell.ph.kcl.ac.uk), August 25, 1999.