MARITIME

14 September Alpefjord, Greenland

The cruise ship MV Ocean Explorer was pulled free three days after running aground in Greenland. The cruise ship ran aground above the Arctic Circle in Alpefjord in Northeast Greenland National Park, the northernmost national park in the world. The ship had 206 people on board at the time of the incident, according to authorities and the ship’s owner. A fisheries research was able to pull the vessel at high tide, pulling it free, said SunStone Ships, the Copenhagen-based owner of the cruise ship. The Joint Arctic Command coordinated the operation. “There have not been any injuries to anybody on board, no pollution of the environment and no breach of the hull,” SunStone Ships said in a statement. The research vessel which pulled the cruise ship belongs to the Greenland Institute of Natural Resources, a government agency, it said. Those aboard were taken to a location and were flown home. The Danish Maritime Authority asked police in Greenland to investigate the reason the ship ran aground and whether any laws had been violated, a police statement said. No one has been charged or arrested. An officer has been on board the ship to carry out “initial investigative steps, which, among other things, involve questioning the crew and other relevant persons on board,” the statement said.