MV Akademik Shokalskiy

Expedition cruising is often considered “adventure travel” as it involves smaller ships and often more exotic destinations.  The scientists and passengers on the current cruise on the ice-strengthened expedition cruise ship, MV Akademik Shokalskiy, appear to be having more of an adventure than they had bargained for. The Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) received a distress call on Christmas morning, indicating that the ship was stuck in Antarctic ice around 1,500 nautical miles south of Hobart in Tasmania.  Three ice breakers are on their way to break the ship free.  The The 166m-long Chinese icebreaker, Xue Long, which translates as Snow Dragon, is expected to arrive on Friday.

The ship, with 48 passengers and 20 crew members aboard, left New Zealand on Dec. 8, intending to follow in the footsteps of the great Antarctic explorer and scientist Douglas Mawson.  Apparently roughly half the passengers are scientists and half are tourists.  The ship had been following the course of the of Mawson’s  Australasian Antarctic Expedition (AAE) of 1911, when it became stuck in the ice.