Today. the Caribbean Princess lost power off the Irish coast, according to several passengers on Twitter. One passenger tweeted: “what an exciting day stuck off the Irish coast with engine troubles and missing port of Dublin but quiet and sunny.”

The editor of Lloyd’s casualty services tweeted “#CaribbeanPrincess with 4464 POB heading WNW towards #Irish coast at 3 knots after #fuel pump issues.”

Princess Cruises confirmed the lower loss, again via Twitter, stating that The “Caribbean Princess lost propulsion approximately 25 nautical miles southeast of Dublin in the Irish Sea. The ship has electrical power and is operating full ship/hotel services, inc. air conditioning, galleys, lighting & toilets.”

Princess later said: Our Fleet Technical experts, working in collaboration w/ the Captain and Chief Engineer aboard the ship, have successfully . . . restored propulsion.”

One of the passengers, who initially tweeted about the problem, added: “#CaribbeanPrincess -Helicopters circling and tug from Anglesey and 9 hours later we’re off again!”

The Caribbean Princess is the fifth cruise ship to experience power loss and the sixth cruise ship to experience engine problems in the last nine weeks. Carnival-owned Fathom’s Adonia temporarily lost all power leaving the port of Miami two 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. Last week, the Thomson Celebration suffered engine failure in Malta while leaving the port of Valletta and had to drop anchor to avoid hitting the breakwater.

August 4 2016 Update: The Irish Times writes that It is understood the incident was initially treated as a potential security alert,due to fears of a terrorist incident at sea. However, Princess Cruises, the US company that runs the vessel, said it was ‘never considered to be anything other than a technical glitch.’

August 15 2016 Update: The Irish Times reports today in an article titled Inquiry into why cruise ship lost power with almost 4,500 on board in Irish Sea that Bermuda will be investigating why the Caribbean Princess lost power earlier this month.

Photo credit: By Yankeesman312 – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0.