BREMERHAVEN, Germany -- The Pride of America was refloated and
towed to a drydock at the Lloyd Werft shipyard here, about a month
after Norwegian Cruise Line's 2,200-passenger vessel sank in its
berth during a storm.
Now that the Pride of America has been lifted from the bottom of
its berth, NCL said a "thorough survey of the damaged equipment and
internal areas" has been launched.
The Lloyd Werft yard, NCL and insurers are involved in producing
a new plan for the repair and replacement of equipment and
interiors that were submerged for the past month -- and for the
completion of the ship, the line said.
The Pride of America's three lowest decks have been under water
since the ship listed about 14 degrees and sank.
Lloyd Werft's managing director, Werner Lueken, said the
vessel's hull was not damaged in the shipyard incident.
In a statement from NCL, Lueken said the ship "is in drydock and
will be completed."
A new timetable for completing the Pride of America, however,
has not been finalized. NCL said the damage assessment should take
the next few weeks, "at which time Lloyd Werft and NCL should be in
a position to conclude their ongoing discussions regarding
completion of the ship."
The yard, which specializes in ship conversions and repairs,
declared itself insolvent earlier this month.
The salvage company that handled the operations, Rotterdam,
Netherlands-based SMIT Salvage, said the refloating operation took
"several weeks" of preparations, including connecting a submersible
barge to the ship's side to stabilize it and then pumping out the
ship's submerged interiors.
The actual refloating process took about 20 hours, according to
SMIT.
To contact reporter Rebecca Tobin, send e-mail to [email protected].