Hundreds of tourists on ship adrift off Philippines

A luxury cruise ship with nearly 600 mostly American and European tourists was adrift in Philippine waters Saturday after an engine room fire that injured five crew, the coast guard said. The fire late Friday had been contained but it left the Azamara Quest without propulsion in calm waters in the Sulu Sea, the cruiseliner said. As a precaution, the captain had initially asked all passengers to prepare to leave the ship, but an evacuation was not necessary in the end, Azamara Club Cruises said on its website. "There were no injuries of guests reported and the atmosphere aboard is calm," it added. The crew later restored power to one of the ship's engines, allowing the vessel to resume air conditioning, running water, plumbing and refrigeration. Both the liner and the Philippine Coast Guard said the blaze caused smoke-related injuries to five crew members who were treated on board. Philippine Coast Guard spokesman Algier Ricafrente told AFP the vessel was carrying 590 mostly American and European passengers and was manned with a 411-member crew. Coast guard Ensign June Greanata told AFP by telephone from Puerto Princesa, the nearest Philippine port, that a Philippine Navy vessel had been sent to help the stricken vessel. Doctors had decided none of the five injured crew needed to be airlifted to hospital on land, she added. The nationalities of the injured crew members were not disclosed, although the Philippine transportation department said it was aware about 120 of them are Filipinos. Calls by AFP to the cruiseliner's Asia offices in Singapore were not returned. The Malta-flagged liner, described on its website as a 30,277-tonne vessel, said that due to the fire it would abort the voyage when it reaches the Malaysian port of Sandakan in Borneo. "Engineers onboard Azamara Quest continue to work on restoring propulsion to the ship. Once they have restored the ship's propulsion, Azamara Quest will sail directly to Sandakan," it added. The coast guard spokeswoman said its operators, Florida-based Royal Caribbean Cruises, also dispatched a salvage vessel to tow the stricken ship should its onboard engineers fail to get it up and running again. "It's still dead on the water near the Tubbataha Reefs," Greanata said. One option would be to tow the ship to the central Philippine port of Cebu for repairs, she added. The vessel left Hong Kong on Monday for a 17-night voyage. It left Manila, its first port call, on Wednesday and had also been due to make port calls on Balikpapan, Palapo, Benoa Bali, Semarang and Komodo in Indonesia before sailing to Singapore.