Travellers who departed from Vancouver on a one-week Alaskan cruise had a rocky docking in Ketchikan on Friday.
The Celebrity Infinity crashed into the City of Ketchikan Port and Harbors’ berth on June 3, causing one of the gangways to break off and puncture the ship’s hull. Witnesses said there were loud crashes, with the ripping and shearing of metal clearly audible.
The Infinity, a 965-foot, 91,000-ton ship that can hold 2,170 passengers, left Vancouver on May 29 and was heading back to Canada Place after stops at Icy Strait Point, Hubbard Glacier, and the Alaskan capital of Juneau.
“The angle of his bow was wrong,” said Jamison Mork, who was on a boat docked next to Berth 3 when the Infinity collided with the structure. “He was coming in, pointing at the pier too strongly…You could hear his bow thruster going to try and push his bow away, but the wind was pushing him into the pier.”
No one was injured and no pollution was reported as a result of the damage, which could be in excess of $3 million.
Alice Pennington, a cruise vacation consultant based out of Surrey, actually boarded the Celebrity Infinity for a tour and lunch while it was docked in Vancouver.
“It’s just a scratch,” said Alice Pennington. “If you were to look at it now, you wouldn’t even know it’s there.”
“I was told that the winds just kicked up all of a sudden and the ship was already so close to the dock it was too late to compensate.”
Officials with Celebrity Cruises have not responded to requests for comment. The boat arrived back at Canada Place in Vancouver at its scheduled time of 7 a.m. on June 5.
– With files from The Associated Press and John Hua