This happens to the best of us, but most of us don’t run aground while at the helm of a brand-new, five-deck, 269-foot riverboat with 174 people on board.
But the American Cruise Line riverboat named American Jazz did run aground last week after it strayed from the channel and got stuck on a sandbar in Lake Barkley on the Cumberland River near Canton, Kentucky. The ship was near mile marker 62 on the river.
The Coast Guard received a call of the grounding from the company and sent a 29-foot shallow-water response boat from Paducah with a marine investigator. After two nights on the sandbar, all 120 passengers and six crew were carried ashore on pontoon boats, while 48 crew remained on board, presumably to help with getting the boat floating again.
More crew were taken off the boat a few days later, and the company brought water and supplies for the 32 still on board. The company arranged for buses to carry the passengers on to Nashville, while divers and tugs tried to free the boat.
So far, there has been no explanation for how the ship ran aground. An investigation is pending. No one was hurt in the grounding and no fuel leaked as a result. But refloating the riverboat was taking longer than had been expected. Indeed, the boat was still stuck more than a week after it ran aground.
The American Jazz was on seven-night Music Cities Cruise from Memphis to Nashville when it hit the sandbar. On its website, the company promoted this cruise, saying “Experience a relaxing day of cruising the idyllic Lake Barkley and Cumberland River as you admire the rolling river landscapes from the sun deck or on your private balcony.”
American Jazz was built by Chesapeake Shipbuilding in Salisbury, Maryland, at a cost of $45 million, and was launched earlier this year. It has a 59-foot beam and displacement of 2,800 gross tons. It cruises at 12 knots.
All of the 102 cabins have balconies; the Grand Suites on 3 Deck have 900 square feet, two walls of floor-to-ceiling windows, separate bedroom and seating areas, and marble baths. The ship itself has five lounges, a gym, a putting green and two elevators connecting all the decks.
The next Music Cities Cruise for the boat was scheduled to start on July 19, with cabins starting at $4,295 per person. Read more:
https://gcaptain.com/american-cruise-lines-river-cruise-aground-in-kentucky/
