Harbor Cruise Ship Strikes Three Boats

The U.S. Coast Guard is investigating an accident in Boston involving four passenger vessels. On Saturday, the Boston Harbor Cruises vessel Regency lost control of her starboard engine and failed to slow down during its approach to the dock. The ship struck three other vessels belonging to the same company – a water taxi, a smaller cruise boat and the passenger speedboat Codzilla. 

The ship's owner apologized to passengers affected by the incident, and said that it has "determined that an air control actuator in one of the vessel's four engines malfunctioned. This failure prevented the captain from disengaging forward propulsion on the outboard starboard engine during his approach to Long Wharf."

No injuries or pollution were reported, but the Codzilla and the Regency will need to be repaired. The Coast Guard continues its investigation. 

Boston Harbor Cruises was also the operator of the vessel that grounded near George's Island in late May.

In other cruise-related news, a Chinese tourist fell off the deck of a cruise ship off Shanghai last week; she survived the seven-story plunge and treaded water until she was rescued by a fishing boat – 38 hours after she went over the side.

The South China Morning Post reports that the woman, identified only as Fan, had just embarked on a trip from Shanghai to South Korea. Late on Wednesday night, she leaned against a rail and accidentally went over the side. No one saw her go over, nor did surveillance footage show the accident. She was on the cruise with her father, who reported her missing, and local SAR authorities were informed of a possible man overboard on Thursday. 

Fan said she was an experienced swimmer and stayed afloat by treading water; she told media that she kept going even when she began to drift off from exhaustion. She stayed afloat through Thursday night and was rescued by a fishing boat on Friday morning; against all odds, she had no serious injuries.