clelia ii antarctic cruise ship

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Storm-Battered Antarctic Cruise Ship Limps Home

December 8, 2010 / 11:06 AM EST / CBS/AP

An Antarctic cruise ship that broke down during a rough storm was slowly returning to its home port in Argentina Wednesday with 160 people on board.

High seas knocked out an engine on the Clelia II Tuesday, reports CBS News Correspondent Elizabeth Palmer .

The captain said that, in nearly 160 trips to the Antarctic peninsula, he had never seen such weather.

The ship declared an emergency when it lost power and communications after a 30-foot wave washed over the deck and took out windows on the bridge in 55 mph winds.

None of the passengers, all of them American, was injured.

The ship was sailing from the Antarctic peninsula back to Argentina through the Drake Passage, one of the roughest stretches of water in the world.

Video of the Clelia II bobbing in high waves was filmed from another ship, the National Geographic Explorer, which saw the Clelia II in distress and stopped to monitor the situation. Crew members were able to rig a line to send a satellite phone over to the crippled ship.

The Clelia II was heading for home on reduced engine power.

The ship is operated by Polar Cruises of Bend, Oregon.

It was going to the port of Ushuia at the extreme south of Argentina at about 5 mph and was accompanied by a naval vessel, the Argentine Navy said.

The ship set out from Ushuaia on Nov. 30 and was scheduled to return on Wednesday.

To see the video shot by the other ship, click below:

More from CBS News

Visiting the last place on earth

The clelia ii’s recent troubles in antarctic waters bring up questions about tourism regulation in the antarctic, mary beth griggs • december 22, 2010, the antarctica strain, adam t. hadhazy • november 28, 2007, one meter or two—ask an ice shelf, molika ashford • may 30, 2008, how rapidly can sea level rise, emily elert • april 14, 2010.

On December 7, 2010, the cruise ship Clelia II had begun the final crossing of its weeklong Antarctic cruise. All that remained of the journey was the notoriously dangerous Drake Passage between Antarctica and South America. And that day, the ship was hit by a massive wave that shattered one of its bridge windows and damaged the Clelia ‘s navigational equipment.

Its 88 passengers were primarily American retirees, many of whom had paid more than $9,000 for their Antarctic adventure, and whose day-long stranding in the rough waters of the Drake Passage was the most dangerous thing that happened on their adventure south. Luckily for them—and the surrounding ecosystem—the ship was quickly fixed, averting a tragedy the humans on board and the surrounding wildlife that would have been affected if the ship had sunk and/or spilled fuel. 

Antarctica, long ruled by penguins and seals, has now become a popular destination for thousands of moderately affluent tourists annually: More than 35,000 scientists, workers and leisure travelers visited the continent during the last Antarctic summer, which stretches from November to March. Some tourists go to witness the amazing landscape and unique flora and fauna, while others, seeking to capture the adventurous spirit of long-dead explorers, will climb mountains or run marathons on the ice. But all these adventurers travel there on cruise ships or airplanes carrying large amounts of fuel that could unleash an environmental disaster if spilled. And in the event of a crash, the limited resources available in the Antarctic would impede a full-scale cleanup. Equipment and crew to address a disaster would also have to be flown and shipped in from thousands of miles away.

Preserving Antarctica’s icy environs is a concern for environmentalists who are sorely disappointed with how humans have cared for the biodiversity on Earth’s other six continents. Tourism detractors also point out the huge expense and risk associated with rescue missions in the frigid Antarctic. Supporters of Antarctic travel maintain that tourists become eco-ambassadors for the frozen continent. They say visitors can share accounts of its beauty and raise money and awareness of how climate change might affect its environment.

“[Antarctic] tourism as it is today developed organically, on its own,” says Ricardo Roura of the Antarctic and Southern Ocean Coalition , an environmental organization. “It was not something that was planned in any way.” The coalition is wary of the impact that the sheer volume of unplanned-for tourists could have on wildlife, potentially disrupting animals’ behavior or changing their habitats. Added to these concerns are worries about the damage that could occur should an accident happen.

And accidents do happen. In addition to the Clelia ‘s incident in early December, its propeller was severely damaged a year ago when it struck rocks below the waterline. Fortunately, this incident resulted in no known environmental impact. However, in 2007, the Explorer , a ship with an excellent safety record in Antarctic waters, struck an iceberg and sank. All 154 people on board were rescued by a nearby research vessel and a Norwegian cruise ship. It lies now under 3,280 feet of water, but in the days after the incident an oil slick covering 1 square nautical mile appeared at the site, and ships in the area reported seeing life vests and other flotsam floating nearby. To this day, no one knows the full extent of environmental damage due to the sinking of the Explorer . “We know that there was [oil] spillage, but we don’t know the consequences,” Roura says.

“Tourism is certainly one of the most important policy issues in Antarctica today,” says Evan Bloom, head of the United States’ delegation to the Antarctic Treaty .

A self-regulating community

The issue of environmental regulation on Earth’s southern-most continent is complicated by the fact that Antarctica has no government, no police and no military; instead, it is governed through the cooperation of countries that have agreed to the Antarctic Treaty. Signed in 1959 by 12 nations, the treaty was a product of the Cold War. Its primary goal was to prevent nuclear testing and the militarization of the continent. It set aside Antarctica as a place for peace and science to flourish. None of the original signatories could have dreamed that the treaty would grow to have 43 member countries, or that Antarctica would one day become a tourist destination.

The treaty recognized that scientists would make visits to the icy continent, but didn’t anticipate sightseeing expeditions. “I’ve been on the program for 20 years, and back then tourism was only for the wealthy,” says Polly Penhale a member of the U.S. Delegation to the Antarctic Treaty, and an environmental officer with the National Science Foundation . That changed dramatically in the years after the Soviet Union broke up, when former Soviet icebreakers were reborn as passenger vessels. Suddenly, traffic to the last place on Earth increased from well under 5,000 visitors annually to numbers in the tens of thousands.

In the absence of regulation by a single government, private organizations have been tackling environmental issues through self-regulation.  The primary private regulating force in Antarctic tourism is the International Association of Antarctic Tour Operators ( IAATO ), which has provided environmental and safety guidelines to its memberss since 1991. IAATO’s membership consists of tourism companies that have signed on to IAATO’s environmental and safety guidelines. It has also provided the Antarctic Treaty with sample environmental guidelines and much of the data that the treaty uses in its attempts to create a cohesive set of legally binding tourism regulations.

One of IAATO’s major achievements was preventing the introduction of invasive species to Antarctica by enforcing a bootwashing and clothing decontamination policy for all ship passengers who disembark on the continent. The procedure has been so effective that even scientists that live and work in the Antarctic have adopted it. “We want to do everything right so we can continue to take people down there,” says Steve Wellmeier, executive director of IAATO. .

But not all tourism operators do the right thing. “There are entities that do things the right way, and those that don’t,” says Penhale,  “Not all tourists that go to Antarctica [travel with] IAATO members.”

And although ship-based tourism companies have been the major drivers of environmental and safety guidelines, there are other ways to get to Antarctica. People can elect to fly in, landing at remote camping outposts run by adventure tourism companies that contend with the hazard of fierce winds instead of ice.  These land-based tourism operations only appeared recently, long after the tourism boom of the 1990s, and little data as to their environmental impact or safety record exists, even less in fact, than the scant amount of data that exists for ship-based Antarctic tourism.

Others, wealthy enough to own a private yacht, may travel to the continent on a whim without any experience in navigating Antarctic waters. Wellmeier refers to these private yachts that ignore Antarctic and environmental guidelines as “small vagabonds” that may endanger the environment or the lives of others through their ignorance of the area. The waters surrounding Antarctica are extremely hazardous to anyone unfamiliar with the frequent high winds and rough seas.

Environmental measures in place

The picture isn’t all bleak. Of the tourists who traveled to Antarctica last season, many went on small cruise ships carrying fewer than 500 passengers. Ships carrying more than 500 passengers are not permitted by the treaty to disembark anywhere in Antarctica, though some do cruise along the coast and are counted in the total tourism numbers. Those that do land follow environmental guidelines specific to each landing spot, taking care not to disturb penguin breeding grounds, avoiding cliffs and keeping on paths so as not to trample moss and lichens.

And some environmental concerns about oil spills are also being addressed. The International Maritime Organization has enacted a ban on any heavy-fuel oil in the Southern Ocean, preventing very large cruise ships that use the oil from entering Antarctic waters.

It may even turn out that Antarctic tourism is the lesser of two environmental evils. Ron Naveen, the founder of Oceanites —a group that closely monitors the effect of tourism on wildlife at popular Antarctic landing spots—says he’s found that climate change is having a far more dramatic effect on penguin populations than anything tourists could do.

A former tourism expedition leader, Naveen became concerned about the effects that thousands of tourists could have on the Antarctic landscape, and began the painstaking process of gathering scientific data on the subject. He eventually created a Compendium of Antarctic Visitor Sites , documenting the effects of tourism on land-dwelling flora and fauna, but found little to suggest that tourists were the central cause of population problems.  “It doesn’t make sense to us as scientists that a wayward tourist is the cause of declines in species,” he says, but notes that precautions can still be taken by visitors to avoid disrupting habitats.

So far, he has found tourism operators very willing to adapt to and enforce the site guidelines that he drew up to help preserve the environment at each landing site. Naveen explained that many Antarctic tourism companies feel an imperative to be environmentally conscious. “They would be the first to make necessary changes, because they rely on a pristine environment. If the penguins aren’t there, then they’re out of business”

About the Author

Mary Beth Griggs

Mary Beth is a native of Charlotte, North Carolina and has a B.S. in Geology and Archaeology from Tufts University. As a direct result of her undergraduate majors, she has an unhealthy interest in old rocks and natural hazards. She has a blog on those subjects at www.therocksknow.com.

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December 22, 2010

Clean Getaway?: Antarctica Tourism Snowballs, but Is It Helping or Harming "the Last Place on Earth?"

The Clelia II 's cruise ship's recent troubles in Southern Ocean waters resurfaces questions about tourism regulation in the Antarctic

By Mary Beth Griggs

On December 7, 2010, the cruise ship Clelia II had begun the final crossing of its weeklong Antarctic cruise. What remained of the journey was the notoriously dangerous Drake Passage between Antarctica and South America. And that day the ship was hit by a massive wave that shattered one of its bridge windows and damaged the Clelia 'snavigational equipment.

Its 88 passengers were primarily American retirees, many of whom had paid more than $9,000 for their Antarctic adventure, and whose daylong stranding in the rough waters of the Drake Passage was the most dangerous thing that happened on their adventure in the Southern Ocean. Luckily for them—and the surrounding ecosystem—the ship was quickly repaired, averting a tragedy the humans on board and the surrounding wildlife that would have been affected if the ship had sunk and/or spilled fuel.

Antarctica, long ruled by penguins and seals, has now become a popular destination for thousands of moderately affluent tourists annually: More than 35,000 scientists, workers and leisure travelers visited the continent during the last Antarctic summer, which stretches from November to March. Some tourists go to witness the amazing landscape and unique flora and fauna, whereas others, seeking to capture the adventurous spirit of long-dead explorers, will climb mountains or run marathons on the ice. But all these adventurers travel there on cruise ships or airplanes carrying large amounts of fuel that could unleash an environmental disaster if spilled. And in the event of a crash, the limited resources available in the Antarctic would impede a full-scale cleanup. Equipment and crew to address a disaster would also have to be flown and shipped in from thousands of miles away.

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Preserving Antarctica’s icy environs is a concern for environmentalists who are sorely disappointed with how humans have cared for the biodiversity on Earth's other six continents. Tourism detractors also point out the huge expense and risk associated with rescue missions in the frigid Antarctic. Supporters of Antarctic travel maintain that tourists become eco-ambassadors for the frozen continent. They say visitors can share accounts of its beauty and raise money and awareness of how climate change might affect its environment.

"[Antarctic] tourism as it is today developed organically, on its own," says Ricardo Roura of the Antarctic and Southern Ocean Coalition , an environmental organization. "It was not something that was planned in any way." The coalition is wary of the impact that the sheer volume of unplanned-for tourists could have on wildlife, potentially disrupting animal behavior or changing habitats. Added to these concerns are worries about the damage that could occur should an accident happen.

And accidents do happen: In addition to the Clelia 's incident in early December, its propeller was severely damaged a year ago when it struck rocks below the waterline. Fortunately, this incident resulted in no known environmental impact or casualties. In 2007, however, the Explorer , a ship with an excellent safety record in Antarctic waters, struck an iceberg and sank. All 154 people on board were rescued by a nearby research vessel and a Norwegian cruise ship. It lies now under 1,000 meters of water, but in the days after the incident an oil slick covering 3.5 square kilometers appeared at the site, and ships in the area reported seeing life vests and other flotsam floating nearby. To this day, no one knows the full extent of environmental damage due to the sinking of the Explorer . "We know that there was [oil] spillage, but we don't know the consequences," Roura says.

"Tourism is certainly one of the most important policy issues in Antarctica today," says Evan Bloom, head of the U.S. delegation to the Antarctic Treaty .

A self-regulating community The issue of environmental regulation on Earth's southernmost continent is complicated by the fact that Antarctica has no government, no police and no military; instead it is governed through the cooperation of countries that have agreed to the Antarctic Treaty. Signed in 1959 by 12 nations, the treaty was a product of the Cold War. Its primary goal was to prevent nuclear testing and the militarization of the continent. It set aside Antarctica as an international territory where peace and science could flourish. None of the original signatories could have dreamed that the treaty would grow to 43 member countries, or that Antarctica would one day become a tourist destination.

The treaty recognized that scientists would make visits to the icy continent, but didn’t anticipate sightseeing expeditions. "I've been on the program for 20 years, and back then tourism was only for the wealthy," says Polly Penhale, a member of the U.S. Delegation to the treaty and an environmental officer with the National Science Foundation . That changed dramatically in the years after the Soviet Union broke up, when former Soviet icebreakers were reborn as passenger vessels. Suddenly, traffic to the last place on Earth increased from well under 5,000 visitors annually to numbers in the tens of thousands.

In the absence of regulation by a single government private organizations have been tackling environmental issues through self-regulation. The primary private regulating force in Antarctic tourism is the International Association of Antarctic Tour Operators ( IAATO ), which has provided environmental and safety guidelines to its members since 1991. IAATO's membership consists of tourism companies that have signed on to IAATO's environmental and safety guidelines. It has also provided the Antarctic Treaty with sample environmental guidelines and much of the data that the treaty uses in its attempts to create a cohesive set of legally binding tourism regulations.

One of IAATO's major achievements was preventing the introduction of invasive species to Antarctica by enforcing a boot washing and clothing decontamination policy (pdf) for all ship passengers who disembark on the continent. The procedure has been so effective that even scientists that live and work in the Antarctic have adopted it. "We want to do everything right so we can continue to take people down there," says Steve Wellmeier, executive director of IAATO.

But not all tourism operators do the right thing. "There are entities that do things the right way, and those that don't," Penhale says. "Not all tourists that go to Antarctica [travel with] IAATO members."

And although ship-based tourism companies have been the major drivers of environmental and safety guidelines, there are other ways to get to Antarctica. People can elect to fly in, landing at remote camping outposts run by adventure tourism companies that contend with the hazard of fierce winds instead of ice. These land-based tourism operations only appeared recently, long after the tourism boom of the 1990s, and little data as to their environmental impact or safety record exists—even less, in fact, than the scant amount of data that exists for ship-based Antarctic tourism.

Others, wealthy enough to own a private yacht, may travel to the continent on a whim without any experience in navigating Antarctic waters. Wellmeier refers to these private yachts that ignore Antarctic and environmental guidelines as "small vagabonds" that may endanger the environment or the lives of others through their ignorance of the area. The waters surrounding Antarctica are extremely hazardous to anyone unfamiliar with the frequent high winds and rough seas.

Environmental measures in place The picture isn't all bleak. Of the tourists who traveled to Antarctica last season, many went on small cruise ships carrying fewer than 500 passengers. Ships carrying more than 500 passengers are not permitted by the treaty to disembark anywhere in Antarctica, although some do cruise along the coast and are counted in the total tourism numbers. Those that do land follow environmental guidelines specific to each landing spot, taking care not to disturb penguin breeding grounds, avoiding cliffs, and keeping on paths so as not to trample moss and lichens.

And some environmental concerns about oil spills are also being addressed. The International Maritime Organization has enacted a ban on any heavy-fuel oil in the Southern Ocean, preventing very large cruise ships that use the oil from entering Antarctic waters.

It may even turn out that Antarctic tourism is the lesser of two environmental evils. Ron Naveen, the founder of Oceanites —a group that closely monitors the effect of tourism on wildlife at popular Antarctic landing spots—says he has found that climate change is having a far more dramatic effect on penguin populations than anything tourists could do. A former tourism expedition leader, Naveen became concerned about the effects that thousands of tourists could have on the Antarctic landscape, and began the painstaking process of gathering scientific data on the subject. He eventually created a Compendium of Antarctic Visitor Sites , documenting the effects of tourism on land-dwelling flora and fauna, but found little to suggest that tourists were the central cause of population problems. "It doesn't make sense to us as scientists that a wayward tourist is the cause of declines in species," he says, but notes that precautions can still be taken by visitors to avoid disrupting habitats.

So far, he has found tourism operators very willing to adapt to and enforce the guidelines specific to each landing site that he drew up to help preserve the environment there. Naveen explained that many Antarctic tourism companies feel an imperative to be environmentally conscious: "They would be the first to make necessary changes, because they rely on a pristine environment. If the penguins aren't there, then they're out of business." This article is provided by Scienceline , a project of New York University's Science, Health and Environmental Reporting Program.

Passengers Aboard Cleilia II Describe Chaotic Journey

Waves launched passengers out of bed, flipped them in their chairs.

Dec. 10, 2010 — -- The Antarctic cruise ship forced to declare an emergency earlier this week after being slammed by 30-foot waves limped into port in Argentina overnight.

The 165 people on board the Cleilia II appeared relieved and smiling.

"They treated us well … so we're lucky to be here … happy to be here," one passenger said.

"We'll go home with a great story," another passenger said.

Linda and Ken Mates said that they were told to expect a rough journey from the moment the ship set sail Nov. 30 from Ushuaia, Argentina .

"We had rough seas going down, they were probably 30-foot waves. ... We spent three days going down and then when we came back, we got into some heavier stuff and that's when the captain idled out," Lisa Mates said.

On Dec. 7, while returning from the Antarctic, 30- to 40-foot waves pounded the ship as it passed through the Drake Passage , an area known for its rough seas. The waves knocked out communications on the ship and partially disabled the ship's engine.

Passengers said that the rough seas created chaos inside the ship, with garbage cans rolling down halls, men and women flipping over in their chairs and some were even launched out of bed.

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"The ship rolled and the next thing you know you saw peoples' feet going over even though they were sitting down … the chairs just plain tipped over," one passenger said.

The Mates couple said that despite the rough seas, none of the 88 American passengers were injured and only one of the 77 crew members was hurt.

"The staff was there to help people maneuver around so that no one would get hurt," Linda Mates said.

The kitchen continued to operate throughout most of the ordeal providing meals to the passengers, she said.

"Only one lunch the kitchen could not function and they came out with little finger sandwiches for us," Linda Mates said.

This isn't the first time the Cleila II has been in trouble. Last year, the same ship ran aground with a different captain. The cruise company, Travel Dynamics International, said that the captain of the ship for this journey was heroic, staying on the bridge for four days straight.

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Damaged antarctic cruise ship resumes journey.

• The Clelia II is returning on its own power to Argentina
• A large wave doused electrical circuitry and broke a bridge window
• The ship's engines remained operational but speed was reduced

(CNN) -- An Antarctic cruise ship was under way again Wednesday after spending a day slowed by electrical malfunctions in rough weather and crashing cold waves, the organization that promotes the southernmost cruises said.

The MV Clelia II was making its way northbound back to Argentina Tuesday when a large wave crashed over the 290-foot ship, "breaking the starboard bridge window and dousing some electrical circuitry," the International Association of Antarctica Tour Operators said.

"This caused a temporary loss of communications and affected engine performance," the organization said. "Both engines remained operational and speed was reduced."

No passengers were injured, but a member of the crew suffered minor injuries, the group said.

Another Antarctic cruise ship, the National Geographic Explorer, stayed with the Clelia II while repairs were made, and the ship resumed its journey across the Drake Passage when the repairs were complete.

The association said all 88 of the Clelia's passengers were Americans and that most of the ship's 77 crew members were Filipinos.

The Clelia II is expected to join with an Argentine channel pilot Thursday evening and arrive in Ushuaia, Argentina, early Friday.

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Surviving 'the Drake Shake': Riding out an Antarctic-cruise nightmare

THE STORM STRUCK in turbulent Drake Passage south of Cape Horn when we were returning on the Clelia II from our exploration of the seals and sea birds and penguin rookeries of Antarctica.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Retired Daily News reporter Frank Dougherty, who for many years wrote the popular "Phantom Rider" column focusing on SEPTA , rode out a near-disaster Dec. 6 and 7 when wild waves struck the cruise ship he was on in the dangerous passage between Cape Horn and Antarctica.  This is his account of the adventure.

We were sailing north through the passage toward Ushuaia in southern Argentina, the southernmost city in the world and the embarkation point and port of return for 90 percent of all Antarctic expeditions.

The Drake Passage is 1,000 kilometers of storm-prone open water separating Cape Horn from Antarctica. Old salts and sea hands at the bottom of the world call it "The Drake Shake." It's one of the most turbulent bodies of water in the world.

The constant low-pressure systems that circulate around Antarctica and the Drake Passage generate winds with the force of driving pistons, creating waves that frequently crest from 30 to 40 feet high.

Clelia II Captain Idar Petersen, a skilled and taciturn skipper, employed a technique worthy of Chuck Yeager to reassure his 77 crew members and 88 American tourists while battling the elements for control of his ship.

During this horrible ordeal, the soft-spoken Danish national never raised his voice or expressed uncertainty. Idar Petersen had the "right stuff."

The Clelia was thrashing about in the high seas. The cresting waves smacked the vessel as if it were a shuttlecock. Then one wave leaped to the fifth deck and ripped away the handrail, flinging it against the pilot's compartment windshield.

It broke the window, and seawater roared into the compartment, knocking out our communications, including radar. In a matter of seconds we went "blind" in a raging storm hundreds of miles from shore.

The National Geographic Society Explorer, another nature-tour boat in the passage, responded to our distress signal.

Explorer crew members fired a contraption that lobbed electronic communication devices attached to ropes across the raging waters to the upper deck of the Clelia II. Later I was told the devices were global satellite telephones.

For a couple of anxious hours, I feared that the ship would go down. Passengers were being thrown out of beds and flung across cabins. We were being rattled like dice in a casino. Other than bumps and bruises, however, there were no critical injuries.

A rescue at sea was out of the equation. There was no chance of lifeboats being launched in a sea so turbulent. And forget life jackets! Death from hypothermia was a given in these frigid waters.

The ship shrieked and moaned with the violent twisting as we were buffeted by winds gusting from 50 to 70 knots per hour, and waves three to four stories high.

The creaking created by the constant battering was the cry of a ship in pain. It sounded like a death rattle. I thought it was just a matter of time.

But Petersen remained undeterred. "We have steering and our engines," he announced. "We are pointing the front section of Clelia, its front, its strongest feature, directly into the wind at 2 to 3 knots per hour, to ride out the storm."

About 20 anxious hours later, we did.

A scheduled voyage of two days turned into one of almost five days as we limped into Ushuaia on a Thursday night.

Digital video of the storm went around the world. The ferocity of the disturbance and the vividness of the images commanded international attention.

Back on land, Captain Petersen displayed the right stuff one more time. "That wasn't so bad," he said of the storm. "I saw worse when I sailed between Greenland and Iceland!"

A couple of days later, while waiting for a plane to Buenos Aires, I came across a quote attributed to Sir Francis Drake, the British adventurer whom the passage honors. It was drafted in 1587:

"There must be a beginning of any great matter, but the continuing unto the end until it be thoroughly finished yields the true glory."

I continue to wonder if this observation is in fact a warning to global vagabonds bound for Antarctica who challenge this infamous passage that bears his name when sailing to that strikingly beautiful frozen wilderness unlike any other place on earth.

If returning intact from such an extraordinary experience is "the continuing unto the end until it be thoroughly finished," I believe that I, too, have achieved this "true glory" that Drake so eloquently celebrated four centuries ago.

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Damaged Antarctic cruise ship in Argentine port

Dec. 9: Greek-owned cruise ship 'Clelia II' is towed to the port of the town of Ushuaia, in Tierra de Fuego, Argentina. (AP)

BUENOS AIRES – A damaged cruise ship reached Argentina's southernmost port early Friday with its 88 American passengers and 77 crew members safe after a large wave broke its bridge window and cut off its communications and radar.

The Clelia II was to stay four days in Antarctica but had to sail back to its scheduled port of Ushuaia after only two days because of the incident on Tuesday, according to passengers.

It was a very slow trip in heavy weather, said passenger Denis Smyth, a 68-year-old U.S. Navy veteran from Rockville Point, New York.

"I am an ex-Navy person, so I was used to it, but it was very rough. There were a lot of days when people were too sick to eat," he told the Associated Press by telephone from Ushuaia.

Smyth said a large wave broke loose a a railing that smashed through the window of the bridge. Water then poured in, short-circuiting the communications and radar.

"About five or six fell and several had black eyes and bruises," Smyth said. "When the ship lurched, several people went flying across the lounge."

At another point, a half-dozen people fell off their chairs during a wildlife lecture, but no one was seriously injured, he said.

The Clelia II declared an emergency on Tuesday when it was northeast of the South Shetland Islands and about 500 miles (845 kilometers) from Ushuaia, the Argentine Navy said in a statement.

The International Association of Antarctica Tour Operators said in a statement there were "no injuries to passengers, although one member of the crew sustained minor injuries."

Smyth said "the only concern I had was when we lost all communications and radar. We were basically blind out there."

"But I don't think we ever were totally in fear of our lives," he added.

Another ship, the National Geographic Explorer, accompanied the Clelia II most of the time day and then sailed alongside it in support.

Smyth said the passengers, aged between 50 and 85, paid upwards of $9,000 a person for their berths.

The 77 crew members were 44 from the Philippines and the rest from Greece, Bulgaria, Argentina, Austria, Brazil, Chile, Croatia, France, Denmark, Hungary, Indonesia, Ukraine, Romania, Britain and the United States.

The ship had set out from Ushuaia on Nov. 30. It is operated by Travel Dynamics International of New York and owned by Helios Shipping of Piraeus, Greece.

Despite the accident and having had to cut his Antarctic tour short, Smyth said "everybody enjoyed the experience overall" because they were able to see penguins, sea lions and lots of birds.

"I am very satisfied. I saw what I came down to see," he said.

(This version CORRECTS wording of some quotes.)

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Massive Waves Rock Cruise Ship In Antarctica (VIDEO)

The Clelia II cruise ship was in the Drake Passage in the Antarctic when it was was hit by a 30 foot wave, which knocked out one of the ship's engines, disabled the ship's communication system and shattered windows, stranding the 160 passengers on-board, according to CBS News .

Luckily, a National Geographic ship came to its aid and both are now making their way back to its port in Argentina.

None of the passengers were harmed.

WATCH the insane waves below.

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In-Depth Analysis of a Criminal Organization Targeting WordPress Websites

Today we are posting an in-depth analysis of a prolific brute force attacker. We show that their motives are financial and are based on a wide-spread campaign to market counterfeit sports apparel websites. We describe the threat actor’s tactics, techniques and procedures. Finally, we follow a financial trail to uncover individuals who are behind the campaign and prove that they are connected to each other and are likely part of a criminal organization. We have code-named this organization JerseyShore .

Introduction

The number of brute force attacks that we see each month targeting WordPress is incredibly high. Last Month Wordfence blocked an average of 25 million brute force attacks per day as you can see in our January WordPress Attack Activity Report :

Late this month (February) we noticed a new surge in attacks. One IP address that we noticed is 91.200.12.103. Wordfence blocked 1.7 million attacks from this IP targeting over 22,000 websites from February 21st until February 28th.

We decided to take a closer look at what kind of activity this IP is engaging in and we ended up uncovering a vast network of attack sites, what their tactics, techniques and procedures are (TTPs) and who is behind them.

Analyzing the IP and who hosts it

The IP address  91.200.12.103 is owned by an organization called “ PP SKS-LUGAN” (PSL) which we have written about previously . In December of last year, we noted that most of the brute force attacks we were seeing during a December spike were originating from PSL.

The following shows the top IP addresses at PSL for a single day in December and how many attacks they generated in just 24 hours. 

Multiple complaints to PSL have resulted in no change in this behavior and PSL IP addresses are continuing to engage in a large number of brute force attacks.

When analyzing  91.200.12.103  we looked at it in various dimensions:

Based on the open ports, the server appears to be a Windows machine. It seems to be associated with a domain called heilink which, based on archive.org, belongs to someone who was selling World of Warcraft gear and the site is now down. That is probably the previous owner of that IP address.

Based on the number of attacks we’re seeing coming from PSL’s netblock, we think that they are a “ bullet proof hosting provider “. In other words, they are providing hosting for individuals and organizations who are engaged in activity that is clearly malicious and PSL will not respond or react to complaints about customers, but will allow the customer to continue using their services to engage in illegal activity.

What else comes from 91.200.12.103?

One of our customer sites that is participating in the Wordfence security network was hit by a defacement attack from 91.200.12.103. This is a departure from the standard brute-force-attacks we normally see from this IP address.

We grabbed the sample and it contained the following:

As you can see the spam contains a number of domains that are marketing sports apparel. So in addition to brute force hacking, this IP is also engaging in website defacement attacks with the same aim.

A Network of Counterfeit Sports Apparel Sites

We used the list of domains we found in the spam above to find out what other defacement attacks the Wordfence firewall has blocked that contain those domains. We discovered a range of IP addresses that are engaging in this defacement campaign and which are promoting a list of websites that are all selling counterfeit sports apparel.

The table below shows a list of the websites that we encountered that are part of this campaign. Out of the 24 websites that are being actively marketed, 19 of them, or 80%, are still up and running and have not been taken down due to trademark infringement. (see below for details)

We profiled a handful of these sites and established a link between 91.200.12.103 and other sites in the spam network, through the domains that they are promoting:

The above image shows 6 IP addresses that are part of this campaign. We show what attack or spam methods they are using and similarities in behavior between IPs. We also show which sites each IP is promoting and how there is cross promotion between IPs.

As you can see in the above image, 91.200.12.103 is engaging in high frequency brute force attacks. It is also spamming a range of domains. One of those domains is bizcheapjerseyswholesalechina.com which is linked to two other IP addresses in the spam network.

One of those linked IPs is engaging in the same kind of comment spam as an additional two IPs in the network. Or in tactical terms, it is using the same TTPs (tactics, techniques and procedures). Furthermore, one of the IPs we linked via TTPs is also spamming the Simple Ajax Chat plugin, which yet another IP address in the list is also doing.

The above is a very basic analysis of just 5 IP addresses that are related to 91.200.12.103. We have high confidence that other IP addresses in the spam network can be linked to 91.200.12.103 in the same way.

A long list of lawsuits

Many of the websites that are engaged in this spam campaign have been taken down by a law firm representing the NFL, MLB, NHL and the NBA. Once a site is taken down, a notice appears on the site similar to the image on the left.

The procedure for these takedowns is to file a complaint, then apply for a temporary restraining order (TRO) against the site. In the case of the site on the left, the TRO was applied for the following day, December 7th, 2016.

Then the law firm files for a preliminary injunction about a week later. One month later the law firm files a motion for default judgement.

The owners of these sites don’t show up to defend themselves, and so this legal process proceeds unattended by the site owners until a default judgment is issued in the trademark owners favor.

This process allows the trademark owners to take control of the website and take it down. Once the website is taken down, a notice like the one on the left is placed on the website.

Following the Money

The sites we analyzed that are selling counterfeit sports apparel prefer to get paid via either Western Union Money Transfer or MoneyGram. The checkout on one of these sites looks like this:

In every case, the payment recipients are based in China. Across the range of sites we analyzed, we found the following recipients:

• Yanxing Chen
• HuangMin Lai
• YouZhong Zeng
• LingKun Gong
• YuanLe Duan

As you can see in the screenshot above, there are different payment recipients for Western Union vs MoneyGram. To illustrate that these individuals are connected to each other, we have created the following analysis of four individuals in this network:

As you can see in the diagram above, each individual is connected to every other individual via the sites that they receive payments for. The payment recipients are probably low ranking individuals in, what is clearly, a criminal organization.

Wrapping it Up

What we have shown here is that a criminal organization selling counterfeit sports apparel is engaging in spam to promote their retail websites. In addition to spam, we have shown that they are also using brute force attacks, targeting WordPress websites, from one of their spam servers which is hosted at a well known bullet proof host, Pp Sks Lugan, based in Ukraine.

US based law firms are engaged in an ongoing campaign to take down these counterfeit apparel retailers based on trademark infringement lawsuits, TROs and default judgements. The battle between the trademark infringers and the law firms representing the trademark owners appears to be ongoing.

This analysis should help you understand what the motive is behind some of the brute force attacks that target your WordPress website. The motive in this case is financial and the attackers are using compromised WordPress websites to sell and market counterfeit sports apparel.

Credits:  Authored by Robert McMahon and Mark Maunder with assistance from Panagiotis Vagenas. Thank you to Dan Moen for editing.

Did you enjoy this post? Share it!

Should I panic if I'm using Wordfence Free?

Not at all. Wordfence free blocks brute force attacks and the attack that was non-brute force that we saw from this campaign. You're all set.

Does Wordfence automatically block domains like this, or do I need to manually add them to the plugin parameters?

We automatically block all attacks we have seen from this campaign.

This is amazing. Nice job. Vindication for those of us who country block Ukraine, and yes we know country blocking can be bypassed... but blocking Ukraine works to reduce bandwidth taken by these monsters.

If my site has been hacked and I'm still not aware of it, how would these illegitimate marketing pages show up in my site? Are they just additional pages that I can see in the WordPress admin panel or are they 'hidden' in some way?

Wordfence does a great job of detecting a hack, so make sure you have regularly scheduled scans running.

If you are somehow hit by a defacement campaign (Wordfence protects against those too, and various types) then you'll see it in your content.

Great job of investigating, analyzing, and reporting. I'll send all of my clients a link to this article to help them better understand why hackers target them. I'm a huge Wordfence fan and have come to rely on you for critical protection and up-to-date information. Thank you for everything you do.

Thanks Kimberly!

I work in IT and I've been in the industry for 15 years. I am just now however, taking a very keen interest in Cybersecurity so I read this blog quite often. It seems as if the majority of cyber crime actors are outside of the continental U.S. and I've always wondered why? Is it that individuals overseas are more adept at cyber activity than individuals in the states? Or as you put it in the article, a more clear motive of "money" exists overseas as perhaps these individuals feel it is easier to launch successful attacks from there?

I'm also curious Mark as to how all of your research and blogging on this topic prevents your companies technology infrastructure from being a desirable attack target? As much as your company exposes on these subjects I wonder how much of an effort is given to taking down Wordfence and how well does your staff aid in mitigating threats?

Ukraine specialises in PhP programming, has lax laws and a population hungry to earn.

Russians specialise in servers. Look on freelancer websites to determine specialities.

China has a lot of cheap labour, Triads and a lot of black market economy money and makes the items for sale.

Personally, I think this is the new reality because Brexit, Middle East conflict etc. leaves a huge population who are anti 'rules' and keen to do anything to make money. For example - the Somali pirates a few years ago was a symptom of the USA/UK/Germany dumping medical and radioactive waste in their fishing waters, killing their food source. So piracy syndicates earned money to 'compensate'. You can't expect people to just sit there and take it. Given the ease, anonymity and low risk of computing based 'revenge' (Versus bank robbery) I am sure you can foretell the future.

The one I worry about is the Swift banking system. Parts run on OS2 and the ATM's on XP.Can't update because of risk and can't run a trial version to test, so the banks sit in fear. Only a spelling mistake saved them from a multi billion loss in India last year. How long before the hackers succeed?

Offshore attacks mean legal protections and headaches for those who have been victimized, Dean. It would be quite difficult for the US to get somebody in China extradited for trial. Nor would a victim have much luck recovering damages in a civil suit.

Just speculating now, but I see to immediate factors that can explain that.

1. Most people don't engage in cyber crime if you can have a well paid job with the skills you've got. This is easier in the US and other rich countries than in other countries.

2. US is probably the preferred target, considering market size and language. This counts for every hacker in the world. If, just for the sake of the discussion, the US would have the same number of hackers per capita as the rest of the world, it would still only count for about 4% of the world's hackers since it only has about 4% of the world's population.

We perform regular red-team exercises on ourselves where we pretend to be hackers and essentially hack ourselves. We also perform regular scans and audits to protect our own infrastructure. And we also delete as much data as we can so that there simply isn't anything interesting to go after if someone attacked us.

I think malicious actors are world-wide, the USA isn't immune. However I do think there are higher concentrations in some geographic areas.

AFAIK greed knows no bounds. And it isn't really related to "oppressed people."

Just for example, consider the criminals taking down all kinds of high end sites, through massive DDOS attacks. Attacks so huge, security expert Schneier stated they must be by state-level actors. https://krebsonsecurity.com/2016/09/the-democratization-of-censorship/

Not at all, in fact. Turns out all of this is done by teenage college students with lots of skill and no moral compass. https://krebsonsecurity.com/2017/01/who-is-anna-senpai-the-mirai-worm-author/#more-37412

I personally think that if someone tried running a major attack from within the US, they would eventually get prosecuted to the full extent of the Federal/State law. I would also speculate that bullet proof hosts are much more difficult to find in the US, compared to some less developed countries.

So even if you tried running an attack network from within the US, then either 1) your hosting provider would pull the plug on you and close your accounts, or 2) you'd get a court order. I'm guessing that most people that engage in illegal activity from within the US, use servers that are out of US jurisdiction.

Is there no method to legally go after hosting providers like "PP SKS-LUGAN" who seem to be clearly hosting malicious sites, to take down the provider itself, under some law or other against illegal activities or knowingly hosting the same (ignoring legit inquiries / notifications that sites they're hosting are engaged in illegal activities)?

Seems like one should be going after the source(s). If they're in the "criminal activity" or "shielding / accessory to criminal activity" business, surely there is some method to shut them down and/or prosecute them?

Just wondering...

I'm sure laws in different countries differ, and folks probably make use of haven countries where laws are more lax or haven't kept up with technological advances... But, surely, there must be some way to cut things off at the source?

In some countries, Police have not been paid for months. When paid, it's $30 a month. The elites rape the economy doing side deals. So, the population finds ways to get a pay increase using the same tactics as the rich. Every one for themselves.

Philippines - head of justice in the senate arrested for funding and running a drug cartel.

So the poor man gets creative.

The whole 'system' gets in on the corruption and you have your answer.

As the old internet shorthand goes: IANAL (I am not a lawyer) and international cyber law is a complex topic. Our area of expertise is protecting the WordPress community and our Premium customers. So we try to focus on that and we share threat intelligence with the larger community where we can.

I'm curious is it possible just to blacklist (i.e. drop) this provider network segment on the internet backbone level.

That IP space has been already blocked some time ago by Spamhaus: https://www.spamhaus.org/sbl/query/SBL190623

So you can use their service not to route this traffic, or just add the spammer IP pool to you Wordfence advanced blocking setting.

The new JerseyShore: Gym, Tan, Money-Laundering. Thanks for sharing Mark! You guys have the coolest jobs around; this is all very fascinating to learn about.

Thanks Kyle. I wish I had a tan. Seattle doesn't have much sun! ;-)

This is such great detective work. Thanks for watching out for all the rest of us.

Thanks Marie. Glad you enjoyed it!!

Have you reported these findings to the FBI?

The cost of these attacks are borne by the general population so there is no 'reward or pay cheque' from protecting the population. Budgets are stretched to pay for 'higher priorities' and cyber security of your blog isn't on the list. FBI and others are busy promoting regime change for their paymasters, not protecting you, they are protecting the government and promoting the Government's priorities.

Sorry, but you are on your own and that's why you need Wordfence! :)

We don't currently report individual attacks. As I mentioned to another poster, we work with other industry partners to help protect the online community although we don't currently share threat data. The industry is moving towards getting better at threat sharing with standards like TAXII and STIX, but it's not quite there yet.

The idea is to not just share a single threat actor, but to provide an ongoing feed of threat intelligence to partners to help them better protect their customers or community.

Nice write up. Looks like you're using Maltego. Do you have any recommendations on how to do that style of analysis?

Yes Maltego is one of our tools. I would say it's valuable but not an end in itself. It's also really up to how good the analyst is who uses the tool. Maltego is great but it has some serious limitations in some areas. We use Maltego XL which is not cheap (about $2k per license) so that we can bring in more data. We work with a variety of other tools to try to get a complete picture of the threat landscape and to perform individual investigations like these.

Great work WordFence! Are there plans to get direct involvement with government officials to speed up the process at catching these criminals?

No plans currently although we have friends in government and a few of our team members have worked in government cyber security. There's an ongoing dialogue in our industry between government and private sector on how to better share threat intelligence e.g. which IPs are doing the hacking at any instant in time. The entire industry is working to improve threat sharing with standards like TAXII ad STIX. We have, for example, recently had a meeting with two major vendors in which we shared threat intelligence that helped one of them improve their firewall rules.

So the whole industry is really working towards doing a better job of protecting the online community.

So, are the attackers inserting pages into legitimate WP websites that brings a user to their site in order to purchase the counterfeit goods?

Often it's simply to have the search engines index that page and pass on pagerank to the counterfeit site they're trying to promote.

Would I be in the wrong to suggest the American Government apply targeted sanctions against these recipients?

Passing this data on to the relevant government entities is hard. Who would we try to contact? Gary Cohn? Grace Koh?

I'm not sure that would help. You might target a company or ISP and they would just change the name on the door and peer with other providers. It's a tough challenge. I don't want to see a regulated Internet, and so I'm not in favor of putting up borders in cyberspace. I think the way we're tackling the issue now is quite effective. We develop threat intelligence that allows us to put firewall rules in place to tightly target these threat actors and their TTPs and in this way we very effectively protect our customers (and our free community users too).

Thanks so much guys! Up to now I have just test-driven the free wordfence product on my test staging site, but info like this shows you guys really actually care. It's enough to make me consider using your premium product on my production site as well.

Loved the detail in your organization report. Keep up the good work!

Thanks James. We have some amazing analysts working for us and Rob is definitely one of them.

This is first rate analysis folks. Very very impressive stuff!

Thanks Rupert!

Thanks for this in depth analysis of these attacks. I have spent the week scrubbing 5 sites from a 1 page static HTML to a Joomla 2.5 site. Of course three Wordpress sites were in there. I always recommend your plugin first when it comes to a Wordpress site. Any chance you guys will develop a Joomla plugin?

No plans currently for a Joomla plugin. WordPress is really our 'wheelhouse'. For now. :)

Thank you so much for this article. My blog was hacked exactly as described. Last year I didn't really work on my blog, leaving it vulnerable as I did not keep up with wordpress/theme/plugin updates so I suspect that's how they found a way in mid-January 2017.

What finally tipped me off to look into it was I did a search from Google images by typing in my domain name. There were images of sports apparel linking from my site and redirecting to a sales page. Also, they created a directory under my public_html entitled "homefeatured" where all the images were housed and redirection scripts.

Since then, I have installed the free version of Wordfence and monitor daily, took extra steps with regards to Cloudbleed - and as soon as I have the funds, I will be upgrading to the premium version of Wordfence to block certain countries as that's what I'm noticing the influx of attacks are coming from (and they are still trying to access those apparel pages).

Thank you Wordfence for these informative updates and a great product!

Thanks for the kind feedback Cristina, glad to hear we helped.

Good article. Is there any possible way to stop these attacks ?

Yes. Install Wordfence. Even the free version blocks all attacks from this campaign.

Thank you mark, we get hit at least 300 times per week, one night, it was over 800 attempted attacks....NOPE...Wordfence kept the Goulies out . Larry... DieppaLaw.Com

This is an extremely well written article, as are all of the blogs you post. I am not only referring to the use of simple, clear and concise language to explain complex IT information but the grammar is superb. It's not something I normally experience from so-called computer 'nerds' but each exposé is like an exciting and enthralling detective novel, which could be the basis for a must-see TV program. I'm waiting for the sex, drugs and rock'n'roll to be included in the next blog! By the way, we deal a lot with China, with transactions paid through Western Union and recently we had these transactions queried by Western Union. I wondered at the time what it was all about but your explanation about the money trail seems to be a good reason for their diligence in checking that everything is legit. Keep up the good work wordfence team.

Thanks Bill. Much of the credit for grammar and style goes to Dan Moen, my colleague who edits man of the posts (and also contributes research etc). I'm still figuring out the difference between "its" and "it's" - my fingers seem to have memorized the wrong one for each occasion.

Eye opening! I heard about someone's site that got hacked and that prompted me to take action and I have installed Wordfence on my site and I am so glad I did after reading this article. This should be taken up on a high level with the Chinese authorities and get them to crack down on the hacking as well as the counterfeiting! Hopefully the publicity from this when it goes viral online will prompt action on the Chinese end. Thanks, Mark.

Thanks Irene.

Good article, interesting read. We have seen this across our servers as well with actually a very large surge in the last 12 hours. Our ban list from mod_sec has grown more in the last 12 hours than in the last 15 days!

Thank You WordFence.!! You really have a great Team!

We have noticed an unusual number of hits to WordPress login pages the past month or two.

After reading this article I did a scan of our log files and found IPs in the 91.200.12 rang in the logs for many of the sites we host.

Your post was very informative. Thanks!

Nice job laying out the investigation tactics

Fascinating! Huge thanks Mark and team for sharing your knowledge and insights about current security issues. It is an amazing privilege to have Wordfence protecting my site AND also get access to your very well-written, up-to-date information!

Thank you for your extended sharing of information. It is really good that you decided to come fourth with actual hostnames, IPs, providers etc. It means you value your work! Thank you for your great plugin for WP. It's being a valuable tool to the security of our systems.

Very impressive and interesting article Mark! Thanks for the precious info.

Dear Mark, Congrats, great job. I have to say that I found your posts very informative. As an agency that sells wordpress websites you may understand how important for us is to offer security for our customers. So, thanks again for your efforts. Best regards from Italy!

Interesting Article, Thanks Mark for sharing info about their tactics.

I can't claim to really understand this, but I am very glad that you do. Keeping one step ahead of the problem makes you super heros! Thank you for educating us.

Guys - has it occurred to you that you have moved into a realm of significant international criminal activity and the possible consequences of this? I ask only because I am beginning to fear for your personal safety!

Thanks for being so awesome guys and providing such great protection and updates.

You guys are amazing! As I former web developer and of course a proud WF users I can't emphasize on the importance of having a plug in like Wordfence.

Thanks for all of this information and hard work. Keep up the fantastic work, we are in good hands!

Thanks Astrid.

This is a fantastic post. I really appreciate what you all are doing and especially enjoy reading articles like this which point out the forensic work you're doing. A fantastic read!!

As an aside, I took on a client w/ an out-dated, non-updated WP site who wanted to a redesign/rebuild. It got hacked right after I took over, but Word Fence's scan tool rescued me. I was able to save the site w/o grep'ing through the entire site to run down the malicious code. In fact, it was a similar type of operation (selling "Cuban" cigars rather than sports jerseys).

Ever since then, I won't install a WP site w/o Word Fence. Look forward to the days of bigger clients whom I might sell the premium version :)

Keep up the great work and the informative posts!! They're inspiring me to learn more CLI networking too!

Thanks James!

You guys are absolutely amazing. No organization like this out there for WP site admins. Thank you so much!

I sleep much better at night with Wordfence in place.

Your "live traffic" feature showed I was getting about 6 attempted hacks every 20 minutes. Wait, WHAT?!

Thank you for what you do -- I quite happily plunked down the dollars to buy your premium protection and recommend it to all my WP blogging friends.

I notice on the wordfence information that it lists all the attempted admin logins blocked as well as the successful logins when I login myself. If a hacker did get in, they would see the successful login to use wouldn't they under that section? Can this section be blocked to hackers who do get in?

You can't block anything to a hacker who 'gets in'. Once your site has been compromised, all bets are off.

I've noticed quite a number of these attacks recently, and recently had to counter spam registrations. Thank you for all that you do to keep my site safe! This information is much appreciated.

Breaking WordPress Security Research in your inbox as it happens.

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• Other Cruise Lines

By seagoingJLW , August 30, 2004 in Other Cruise Lines

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seagoingJLW

Does anyone know anything about this ship?

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Share on other sites.

dougnewmanatsea

She was originally Renaissance's RENAISSANCE IV, one of the original eight "yacht-sized" Renaissance ships built from 1989 through 1991 (not to be confused with the much larger R ships built from 1998 through 2000).

She is owned by the Haji-Ioannou family who bought her from Renaissance in 1996. She is used both as the family yacht as well as chartered to various companies for cruises.

Stelios Haji-Ioannou is famous for being the founder of easyJet and the other easy companies. These will soon include easyCruise - really more a foot-passenger-only ferry than an actual cruise product - which will ironically use the former RENAISSANCE II, sister to CLELIA II, though the easyCruise vessel will be refitted in a completely different style than CLELIA II which seems to be basically as she was when Renaissance used her in the 1990s.

Aside from her history and basic particulars I don't know all that much about her; as a small and relatively low-key vessel I haven't seen a tremendous lot written about her.

Hope this helps.

English Voyager

The 2003 edition of the Berlitz Guide to Ocean Cruising has a review of the Clelia 11.

Briefly,4007 tons,rated 4*,suites range from 210-538 sq.ft.,carries 84 passengers.

The 2003 edition of the Berlitz Guide to Ocean Cruising has a review of the Clelia 11. Briefly,4007 tons,rated 4*,suites range from 210-538 sq.ft.,carries 84 passengers.

Thanks for your info. Unfortunately I have the 2004 edition of Berlitz (I get it every other year.) The Clelia II is not in it.

I thought I recognised the name. it is a ship used by the travel company taking me to Antarctica this December: website with info on the ship is http://www.traveldynamicsinternational.com

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

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The Antarctica cruise was fantastic and the quality of the ship and staff exceeded my expectation. I was especially impressed by the experience and friendliness of the expedition staff.

This trip is unique—there is nothing comparable. The expedition director was superb, and the procedures for getting ashore were well organized. There was a rich variety of lectures that expanded the experience and our knowledge.

This trip is an adventure of a lifetime. The crew really knows what they are doing; their passion and dedication to the environment makes the experience fabulous. Everyone on the ship loves what they do and it shows—they really do care about your experience and want you to have the best trip possible. I would recommend this trip to anyone as my words and pictures can’t convey what a truly amazing experience I had. Every time I think of Antarctica, I smile!

Fantastic trip! From the moment we landed, the journey was seamless. Excellent attention to detail and warm, enthusiastic communication. The naturalist was best-in-class and really made the trip extra special!

This is the trip of a lifetime! For most of us, it is the only opportunity to be part of an expedition to one of the most remote places on the planet. The lectures were excellent and certainly enhanced the whole experience.

This was a fantastic experience for us and for the rest of the family. The crew was exemplary, and they made it a trip of a lifetime for all. We look forward to another similar trip, and we also look forward to several upcoming Wilderness Travel adventures.

Thank you, Wilderness Travel, for putting together this wonderful experience. Our Trip Leaders made every minute count. We appreciated all the planning it took to juggle the tides, the winds, and the calendar to make sure we immersed in as many habitats as possible.

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