Shades of the Titanic as cruise ship hits ice

More than a hundred passengers and crew who escaped from a sinking cruise liner in the Antarctic are on their way home. They spent several hours in lifeboats awaiting rescue after their ship, the Explorer, hit ice off King George Island and began taking on water.

The passengers, including a large number of Europeans, were eventually picked up by a Norwegian cruis ship and taken to a naval base in southern Chile.

The stricken vessel, owned by Canadian travel company Gap Adventures, had set sail from Argentina last week, and was heading south toward Antartica.

The MS Explorer is smaller than most cruise ships and is able to enter narrower bays off the continent.

It is not the first time the 40-year-old vessel has had problems in this region. In 1972 she ran aground near La Plaza Point in Antarctica during a storm.

The ship was again carrying around 100 passengers who all escaped safely.

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