Cruise ship bumps into ice near Hubbard Glacier

The 848-foot-long Norwegian Sun cruise ship bumped into a chunk of ice last Saturday while traveling to Hubbard Glacier, which drains into Yakutat Bay.

Norwegian Cruise Line confirmed on Monday that the ship canceled its port call in Skagway on Sunday and headed to Juneau to assess the damage, according to Juneau radio station KINY. Coast Guard divers in Juneau were assessing the damage on Monday.

According to the website Cruise Hive, the ship, with capacity for 2,400 passengers, was on a nine-evening itinerary from Seattle to Southeast.

“On June 25, while transiting to Hubbard Glacier, Norwegian Sun was engulfed by dense fog, limiting visibility and resulting in the ship making contact with a growler,” a Norwegian Cruise Line spokesperson reported. A growler is a small iceberg, about the size of a grand piano.

“The ship remains fully operational and is currently on its way to Juneau for assessment,” the company spokesperson reported Monday.

Petty Officer Lexi Preston with Coast Guard public affairs told Juneau radio station KTOO that after the assessment, it will be up to the company and its shore agent to determine what will happen next.

Passenger Jason Newman of Atlanta described the incident for KTOO: “The ship had a severe judder,” he said “You could feel the strike.” Newman said the ship limped out of the bay and all the way to Juneau at 10 mph — he tracked the speed using a phone app.

In addition to losing a stop by the Norwegian Sun, Skagway is missing out on other ship visits since an early morning rockslide last Thursday damaged part of the town’s largest cruise ship dock.

At least four ships had diverted their port calls from Skagway to Haines or Sitka as of Wednesday after the slide damaged part of the Railroad Dock. The dock is owned by the rail line that provides historic tours to the White Pass summit.

Cruise ships are either using other docks in town, when available, or taking passengers by tenders to the nearby boat harbor, Jacqueline Taylor-Rose, a spokesperson for the White Pass & Yukon Route Railroad, said in an email to The Associated Press.

There were no injuries in the slide, she said. A steep, rocky hillside towers over the dock.

Engineers are assessing the slide area. The dock remains closed to passenger and vehicle traffic.

After the hillside is evaluated, work will begin to repair damage to the pier.