1st cruise ship set for Northwest Passage clears Alaskan inspection

The U.S.Coast Guard is gearing up for theinaugural voyage of a luxury cruise ship through the NorthwestPassage and said Thursday the Crystal Serenity easily passed aroutine inspection.

"Everything was in fairly good working order," said Lt. Comm.Nicholas Neely.

The 253-metreship will depart Aug. 16 from Seward, Alaska,for the 32-daytrip to New York City, travelling from the Pacific Ocean to theAtlantic by way of the Arctic Ocean. It will carry more than 1,700passengers and crew.

It will cross the Gulf of Alaska, travel north through the BeringSea and reach Nome on Aug. 21. The luxury cruise ship will continuethrough the Bering Strait into the Chukchi and Beaufort seas beforecrossing into Canadian waters. Stops in Greenland are scheduledbefore the ship turns south and reaches New York on Sept. 17.

The voyage is of high interest to Coast Guard officials inAlaska, who until a few years ago were not overly concerned withArctic waters because they were mostly frozen and free of shiptraffic.

"I'm pretty sure that since this is an inaugural trip, there'sgoing to be a lot of people checking its progress daily to make sureit doesn't run into any problems," Neely said.

'Abandon ship' drill a success

Inspectors in Juneau over five hours Wednesday watched crewmembers simulate an "abandon ship" order. They demonstrated theirability to direct passengers and load and lower lifeboats within 30minutes. Part of the drill is making sure people who speak differentlanguages are understood.

"There are some standard hand signals that can be used to directpassengers," he said.

Another drill simulated a ship fire.

"We watched their fire crews respond to a fire in an engineeringspace," Neely said. "They got suited up in their protective suits,took out fire hoses, actually tested their installed firefightingsystem. Everything was great on that front too."

The Crystal Serenity was built with an ice-strengthened hullthat's one level below an icebreaker, Neely said.

The cruise ship expects to move in ice-free water and will carrymarine pilots who can navigate through ice. Crystal Cruisesspokesman Paul Garcia said the ship will be accompanied by an escortvessel with ice-breaking capability and helicopters that can scoutfor ice.

The cruise line is taking reservations for a 2017 NorthwestPassage trip, Garcia said.