Video: Odyssey of the Seas Cruise Ship Rescues 77 Migrants off Greec

Cruise ship's tender attempted to tow the stranded lifeboat (aileencd on TikTok)

Published Aug 6, 2024 1:15 PM by The Maritime Executive

 

Passengers sailing on a 7-day Greek Island cruise aboard Royal Caribbean International’s cruise ship Odyssey of the Seas witnessed a rescue at sea overnight. Videos are being posted online with the Hellenic Coast Guard confirming that 77 migrants were taken aboard the cruise ship and were transported to a Greek port. Greece and Turkey have ongoing confrontations over the tide of migrants with each country accusing the other of failing to properly manage the situation.

The Hellenic Coast Guard reported that an unnamed Maltese-flagged cargo ship saw a large sailboat that it believed was in distress late on Monday, August 5, and reported the situation. The sailboat appeared to be overloaded and was not making headway. It was in a position 112 nautical miles southwest of Pylos in southwestern Greece on the Ionian Sea.

The Royal Caribbean International vessel Odyssey of the Seas, introduced in 2021 is 167,700 gross tons with a double occupancy capacity of 4,198 passengers. The ship, which is 1,138 feet in length (347 meters) had departed the Italian port of Civitavecchia and was sailing to the Greek island of Santorini.

 

 

The Hellenic Coast Guard requested the assistance of the cruise ship to change course to proceed to the sailboat. Passengers said they were given little information with various rumors circulating on the cruise ship when it reached the scene early Tuesday morning. 

The cruise ship initially sent one of its tenders and later also deployed a smaller launch. Video posted by the passengers shows the tender towing the sailboat toward the cruise ship and either the line was released or parted. 

The Odyssey of the Seas took aboard 77 people whom the captain informed the cruise passengers this morning were stranded migrants. The Hellenic Coast Guard reports they were being transported to the southern Greek port town of Kalamata.

The cruise ship was forced to cancel its scheduled port call at Santorini and is now proceeding to Kusadasi, Turkey to resume its schedule on Wednesday.

Cruise ship rescues 77 migrants in sailing boat found southwest of Greece

 August 6, 2024

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — A cruise ship rescued 77 migrants found overnight in a sailboat in distress far off the southwestern coast of Greece and was transporting them to the nearest major port, Greek authorities said Tuesday.

A passing Maltese-flagged cargo ship found the boat 112 nautical miles (129 miles, 207 kilometers) southwest of the town of Pylos in the early hours of Tuesday, the coast guard said. In an operation coordinated by Greece’s search and rescue authority, all those on board were picked up by a cruise ship sailing in the area and were being transported to the southern Greek port town of Kalamata, authorities said.

There were no reports of any people missing. No information was immediately available on the nationalities of those on the sailboat or where they had set out from.

Greece lies on one of the most popular migration routes for people fleeing conflict and poverty in the Middle East, Africa and Asia, and seeking to enter the European Union.

Many attempt to make the short crossing from the Turkish coast to nearby eastern Greek islands in small dinghies. But with a crackdown on attempts to enter the country illegally, some prefer to skirt around Greece altogether and head directly to Italy in larger boats such as sailing or fishing boats, starting out either from southern Turkey or from north Africa.


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Last year, a massively overcrowded fishing trawler carrying an estimated 500-750 people sank off the coast of Pylos as it headed from Libya to Italy, in one of the Mediterranean’s deadliest migrant shipwrecks. Only 104 people survived the sinking of the Adriana, and just over 80 bodies were recovered. The rest went down with the trawler in one of the deepest parts of the Mediterranean, making recovery efforts essentially impossible.

The Greek coast guard came under intense criticism for its actions concerning the Adriana, which had been sailing in international waters but within Greece’s area of responsibility for search and rescue operations. A coast guard patrol boat and several merchant ships had been shadowing the Adriana for hours when it sank, but were unable to evacuate the passengers and prevent the massive loss of life. Survivors have said the Adriana went down during a botched coast guard attempt to tow it, which Greek officials strongly deny.