NOVEMBER 23, 2008 - AN AUSPICIOUS ANTARCTIC ANNIVERSARY

One year ago today, November 23, 2007, the very first Antarctic tourist ship - the Explorer - allegedly hit ice, ripped a gash through its hull and quickly sank, one hundred miles off the tip of the Antarctic Peninsula.

	November 23, 2007 DISTRESS SIGNALS  I was awakened at three thirty and told that we were changing course... PLAY AUDIO VIDEO: Explorer in distress

The Explorer's 154 passengers and crew were afloat in four lifeboats for six hours before being rescued. They were very lucky: Three of the lifeboats engines failed to start and the boats were so crowded the oars could not be used. They were lucky too, because by Antarctic standards the weather was amazingly good - neither rain nor big winds. I was aboard the National Geographic Endeavour that early morning, one of two passenger ships to reach the site of the sinking and help rescue the floating passengers, and witnessed first hand the exhilaration of passengers and crew as they were lifted out of the lifeboats. It's a day I have recalled often during the past year, as both one of the more surreal and simultaneously eye opening of my life. Surreal because of the quiet of a scene that could have been far more severe (we fully expected to find 154 passengers floating - dead - on the Southern Ocean when we arrived); eye-opening because it reminded us that accidents happen. (The sinking was not the only accident last season: The Norwegian-owned Fram lost power near Browns Bluff in early January, collided with a glacier and limped back to port in Argentina.) Today the Explorer lies on the ocean floor, 4,200 feet below sea level; it was found by sonar in January by a British Navy ship, marked by a small oil slick on the surface. A year has passed and details of why it sank remain a mystery. Flagged in Liberia, that country's Maritime Bureau is still "investigating" the accident. Insurance companies, the ship's owners and its passengers and crew are among the still interested in its findings. Among Antarctica's sailing cognoscenti, it's still hard to believe that ice alone felled the ship, which was constructed forty years before to deal with exactly the conditions in which it foundered. It is believed by many that the ship had been improperly vetted during its last inspections, was not in superb condition and simply fell apart. It's captain, an experienced Antarctica sailor, is not talking. Last austral season, December to February, was a record-breaker: More than 46,000 tourists visited Antarctica, most by cruise boat, almost all along the Antarctic Peninsula. The 2008-2009, just beginning, is expected to set another record. Might there be another accident this year? It's impossible to predict; hopefully not. Yet statistically, with more and more boats prowling the coast of the Peninsula each year, it grows ever more likely. Antarctica has been successfully governed by international treaty since 1959. Though well meaning, its signators have a hard time amending the complex document. At its annual meeting in Kiev this past June representatives of the treaty nations talked about what might be done to better monitor the tourism boom, perhaps prevent future accidents. In April, near Montevideo, Uruguay, the voluntary group that watches over Antarctic tour operators (IAATO - the International Association of Antarctic Tour Operators) met, discussed some of the same issues and wrote papers. Eliminating Antarctic tourism is impossible; even imposing stricter limits is difficult. Preventing accidents from meeting rooms far from the ice is tricky. Everyone has agreed to more communications among the thirty-five-plus ships that will work along the Peninsula this season. And everyone will be keeping his/her fingers crossed. The company that owned the Explorer at the time of its sinking? G.A.P. Adventures, the Canadian-based travel company, is headed back to Antarctica. It quickly spent $15 million retrofitting a Scandinavian car-ferry, the Alandsfarjan, and renamed it the M/S Expedition. Its brochures do not mention the loss of the Explorer, only that the company has "relaunched" its Antarctic enterprise. ---photos Fiona Stewart

NEWS LINKS The historic cruise ship EXPLORER sinks after hitting an iceberg. Jon reports from the scene: news.nationalgeographic.com - read Jon's written account. Special Reprt: M/S Explorer - National Geographic Adventure Magazine The New York Times, November 24, 2007 ABC News National Public Radio

_____________________________________________

VIDEO TRAILER: WATCH THIS SNEAK PEEK AT OUR UPCOMING ANTARCTIC FILM!

_____________________________________________

ON THE NEWSSTAND THIS MONTH National Geographic Adventure, November 2008: The White Continent Heats Up