Cruise ship freed from Bermuda waters

FILE - In this Sept. 1, 2004, file photo, the cruise ship Norwegian Dawn heads out into the Atlantic Ocean from the southern tip of Miami Beach, Fla. An official with Bermuda's Rescue Coordination Center says the ship Norwegian Dawn hit the reef near Bermuda's North Channel, Tuesday, May 19, 2015. The official said the ship is in a stable position. Norwegian Cruise Line said in a brief statement that the ship temporarily lost power and its propulsion was affected but that everyone aboard is safe and that the ship has full power. (AP Photo/Bill Cooke, File)

A Norwegian Cruise Line ship with nearly 3,500 passengers and crew has been freed, six hours after it ran aground while leaving Bermuda.

Small boats, divers and tug boats circled the liner Norwegian Dawn for hours before high tide helped push it off the reef and into deeper water, where the ship dropped anchor for the night, the company said in a statement.

“All guests and crew are safe and there were absolutely no injuries,” cruise officials said.

The ship ran aground on Tuesday after a temporary malfunction in its steering system forced it slightly off course, the company said.

It added that a team of experts would inspect the ship before it set off again for Boston.

Cruise ship passenger Rachel Hansen, from New Hampshire, said the ship was about three miles from Bermuda when it ran aground.

“We definitely felt it,” she told spoke the Associated Press by phone.

“We were in the middle of eating dinner … There was a shudder for maybe 30 seconds to a minute and then there was a sudden stop.”

Hansen said she and her family gathered essential belongings and joined other people who went to the top of the ship to see what had happened.

“We had crew members running around in a panic, and we felt like we had to panic,” she said, adding that overall, the majority of crew members reacted calmly and quickly.

As the hours went by, she said passengers settled into their evening routine and the ship still held entertainment shows as planned.

The Norwegian Dawn was on a seven-day, round-trip cruise to Bermuda, where it spent three days in port.

The situation raised concern among those scheduled to travel from Boston to Bermuda aboard the Norwegian Dawn on Friday, including Nicole Boucher from Massachusetts.

She said she had plans to travel with her mother and young daughter to celebrate their birthdays, but Norwegian cruise officials told her they didn’t know yet if the ship will available.

“It was a girls’ trip,” she said.

“My mom actually let me know through Facebook and said, ‘Oh, this is our luck.”‘

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