The Sinking of the M.S. <i>Explorer</i>: Implications for Cruise Tourism in Arctic Canada

BUILT IN 1969, AND AFFECTIONATELY KNOWN as “the little red ship,” the MS Explorer was the first vessel specifically designed for transport of passengers in the polar regions (Fig. 1). Under the name Lindblad Explorer, she took passengers to Antarctica in the 1969–70 austral summer (Splettstoesser, 2000), and in 1984 she was the first ship to take visitors through the Northwest Passage in the Canadian Arctic. These achievements earned the Explorer an esteemed reputation in the niche polar travel sector. Ironically, however, the Explorer was also the first cruise ship to sink in polar waters, off the coast of the Antarctic Peninsula, in November 2007 (see Fig. 2). This incident is a sad tribute to the veteran polar cruise ship and a concern for all who support responsible tourism in Antarctica and who care about the conservation of the Antarctic environment. A major incident involving a cruise vessel, such as this, came as little surprise; it was an accident some observers had predicted was waiting to happen (Stewart and Draper, 2006). This prediction was premised on the facts that the number of cruise vessels operating in both the Arctic and Antarctic had been increasing and that, since 2000, large cruise liners that were not ice-strengthened had entered the Antarctic cruise market. What came as a surprise was that the first sinking was of a veteran ice-strengthened vessel designed and purposely outfitted for polar travel. Even more surprising was that, at the time of the incident, the cruise ship was operating in seemingly benign ice and calm weather conditions. This essay provides an overview of polar cruise tourism trends, highlighting the important role played by the ill-fated Explorer and describing briefly what happened to her in Antarctica, and comments on the implications of the incident for cruise tourism in light of climate warming in the Arctic.