Cruise ship Nordlys on a regular Hurtigruten scenic Norwegian coastal passage from Bergen to far-North Kirkenes with 262 passengers and crew on board, reported fire in the engine room last Thursday morning, 15, September not far (fortunately) from scheduled first port of call Ålesund, Norway, where she limped in to dock with smoke billowing from the funnel.

Cruise Ship Nordlys About to Enter Ålesund: Photo credit – Olav Helge Matvik/Norwegian Coastal Administration

Olav Fjell  CEO of Hurtigruten described the fire as a tragedy (the chief engineer and a young assistant engineer were killed and a dozen or so injured). Which clearly it was, although had this major fire occurred later in the voyage, say with the ship beyond North Cape, a far greater disaster might have ensued. At all events, the fire raged on dockside in Ålesund until it was extinguished mid-afternoon, leaving the flooded hull with a threatening 22 degree list and shore pumps working at full stretch. The actual cause of the fire must remain the subject of speculation as will be seen, but first a brief outline of the ship’s construction and the machinery in the devastated engine room,

Nordlys  Main Particulars

Nordlys, with a LOA of 121.8 m is a 11,204 gt passenger and car ferry constructed under the supervision of DNV in the Stralsund shipyard of Volksverft GmbH and delivered in 1994. Main propulsion is by  2 x 6-cylinder MAK 6M552 four-stroke diesel engines producing 12,240 BHP to drive twin KAMEWA CP propellors, and also in the engine room are 2 x  KRG-8 type diesel generators by BMV.

A well-found ship, Norway’s Westcon Power and Automation AS  say the vessel was dry-docked in their shipyard for successful classification surveys and routine repairs earlier in the year.

The Cause of the Fire – Conflicting Reports

There are conflicting reports on the immediate cause of the fire. Norway International Network and other news media reported that Ålesund police suspected there had been an explosion in the engine room (which was borne out by a crew member) although they thought it not to have been caused by sabotage or a terrorist attack.

On the other hand, according to The Norway Post Online (when by Saturday afternoon rescue experts declared that its was safe to enter the vessel) Norway’s Naval Investigations Board began their first inspection onboard Nordlys.  The leader, Elisabeth Juel Ramos reportedly said there was no sign of an explosion in the engine room, but that it appeared that a fierce fire had started around the main starboard engine. A complete investigation is to be made when the ship is docked, in the nearby Fiskarstrand Yard.