Viking SeaThis evening, I received word from a passenger on board the Viking Sea that the ship had lost power in Malta.  

The passenger stated: 

"Viking Sea broken down in Malta today August 11th. We were due to sail at 6pm but we are now waiting on a technician who will not arrive until 0200hrs. We are due to sail to Athens and fly back from there this is causing major issues already as flights to the US will be missed and we don’t know when we will leave and when we are due to arrive. The problem is the Starboard propulsion sounds similar to the Star issue."

In November of last year, we reported that the Viking Star cruise ship had lost power in port in Tallinn, Estonia.

AIS sites showed the Viking Sea had left port in Valletta slightly after 2:00 A.M. local time in Malta, heading for Piraeus, Greece, approximately eigth hours late.  

The Viking Sea is a small ship built by Fincantieri and christened for Viking Ocean Cruises earlier this year, carrying around 930 passengers with a crew of around 550.

The Thomson Celebration lost power in Malta while attemtping to leave the port of Valletta two weeks ago.  

This is the sixth time a cruise ship lost power and the seventh time a cruise ship experienced engine troubles in just the last two and one-half months. In addition to the Thomson Celebration, the Carnival-owned Fathom’s Adonia temporarily lost all power leaving the port of Miami two and one-half months ago. The Carnival Elation drifted for an hour in the dark after the cruise ship lost power as it was heading back to port in Jacksonville. The expedition cruise ship Ortelius lost power in June and had to be towed to port. Later in June, Royal Caribbean’s Empress of the Seas experienced engine problems. As mentioned, the Thomson Celebration suffered engine failure in Malta while leaving the port of Valletta and had to drop anchor to avoid hitting the breakwater. Last week, the Caribbean Princess lost power off the Irish coast for 12 hours.    

Photo credit: By Pjotr Mahhonin – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0.