In an instant, passengers aboard The Crown Princess cruise ship went from sunbathing to clutching whatever they could as the massive ship rolled heavily to its side, throwing everything not nailed down against the deck and walls.
"Another 20 degrees and I would have been in the water," said Alfred Caproni, of North Adams, Mass., who was on his balcony on the ninth deck. "All the water from the pools was coming right over the edge. It was like Niagara Falls. There were dozens of people with bleeding noses."
The Crown Princess was 11 1/2 miles southeast of Port Canaveral en route to New York late Tuesday afternoon when its crew reported problems with the steering equipment and the 113,000-ton ship listed hard to one side, Coast Guard Petty Officer James Judge said.
It slowly came back up, leaving a scene of terrified passengers scattered across its decks, halls and casino, then headed for the port.
Gerald Brock, a surgeon from Ontario, Canada, said Wednesday he assisted ship doctors in the triage room treating "dozens of passengers" with injuries ranging from fractures and dislocated joints to elderly people suffering shortness of breath and chest pains.
All 3,100 passengers and 1,200 crew members were accounted for, the Coast Guard said. But at least 20 people suffered serious injuries, including a child and an adult with injuries considered critical, said Stan Payne, CEO of the Canaveral Port Authority. About 70 others had lesser injuries.
Bookmarks