‘No power, no water, no toilets, no cooking’: ship drifts off Australian coast after power ‘blackout’

‘It’s like a ghost ship,’ says passenger

CMV's Vasco da Gama vessel (Flickr/Roderick Eime)

A cruise ship was left “drifting” off the coast of Adelaide, Australia early this morning after the power was shut off.

Cruise & Maritime Voyages’ (CMV) MV Vasco da Gama ship was on a 58-night tour finishing in south-eastern Australia when the captain initiated a “precautionary blackout”.

It left the liner with “no power, no water, no toilets, no cooking, nothing", for a number of hours, one passenger told Sydney-based station 2GB Radio.

He called conditions onboard “horrific” and said the ship was “drifting” and being “blown around by light breezes”.

He added: “They’ve got auxiliary power to light the corridors but that is it.

“It’s like a ghost ship.”

According to CMV, the decision was made to initiate a “controlled precautionary blackout” at around 5.45am after an alarm light went on in the engine control room.

It described the blackout as a “precaution” against damage to systems onboard, and as a means to investigate the alarm.

“All precautionary post-incidents checks were completed with no causes for concern identified,” said CMV in a statement. “Power was fully restored later that morning and the vessel resumed sailing towards the port of Adelaide per its scheduled itinerary.”

The Vasco da Gama had 828 passengers onboard when the incident occurred, having departed London Tilbury on 9 October.

Local authorities were notified of the incident as a precaution by the ship’s captain.

“The ship has an excellent record of reliability and all passengers on board were kept informed of the technical problem experienced,” said CMV.

The cruise line did not shed light on what the problem had been.

It follows a cruise ship deck becoming awash with water in November – though this did nothing to dampen passengers’ spirits.

Passengers on a P&O cruise were filmed calmly sitting and drinking onboard while water gushed across the deck, flowing over their feet as a storm raged around the boat.

The current was strong enough that a small table can be seen dragged from one side of the ship to the other – but many of the passengers appear completely unperturbed.

Calum Lawson, a marine engineer who works onboard the ship, shared the video on Twitter, along with the caption: “Best part of this video is the amount of typical Brits are so un-phased by any danger that occurs because ‘they’re on their jollies’ n nothing can spoil that... b*****d ships flooding man”.