Cruise Ship Loses Electricity off Oregon Coast With 1,700 Aboard

The Associated Press

ASTORIA, Ore. (AP) - A cruise ship with 1,700 people aboard lost electricity about 20 miles off the Oregon coast early Tuesday but did not appear to be in danger, the Coast Guard said.

Shipboard engineers were working to repair the main electric generator while the 55,000-ton luxury liner Veendam remained on course for San Diego, the Coast Guard said.

The ship-to-shore communications were not affected by the outage, and the Coast Guard was maintaining contact with the 720-foot Holland America Line ship at 15-minute intervals as a precaution.

"There's no distress and the ship's not in any kind of trouble," said Coast Guard Ensign Monty Nijjar. Lois Kubal, a retired Atlanta Journal newspaper reporter aboard the Veendam, said by cellular telephone that power was lost about 1 a.m. The ship was left without electricity for heating, cooling, ventilation, lighting or running water.

"It's cold in here," she said.

An auxiliary power source was being used for navigation and a few other basic functions, said Kubal. She was with a group of 50 that visited Banff National Park in the Canadian Rockies, then boarded the ship in Vancouver, British Columbia.

The Veendam, built in 1946 and used on cruises to Alaska in the summer, left Portland late Monday after a scheduled stop, she said.

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-- Carl Jenkins (Somewherepress@aol.com), October 03, 2000