''Wind Song'' was a 4-masted motor sailing yacht used as a

cruise ship Cruise ships are large passenger ships used mainly for vacationing. Unlike ocean liners, which are used for transport, cruise ships typically embark on round-trip voyages to various ports of call, where passengers may go on Tourism, tours k ...

Windstar Cruises Windstar Cruises is a cruise line that operates a fleet of small luxury cruise ships. Its six yachts carry just 148 to 310 guests and cruise to 50 nations, calling at 150 ports throughout Europe, the South Pacific, the Caribbean, and Central Amer ...

from 1987 until 2002, when the ship suffered an engine room fire. ''Wind Song'' was one of an unusual class of only three vessels (, and ''Wind Song''), designed as a modern cruise ship but carrying an elaborate system of computer-controlled

sail A sail is a tensile structure, which is made from fabric or other membrane materials, that uses wind power to propel sailing craft, including sailing ships, sailboats, windsurfers, ice boats, and even sail-powered land vehicles. Sails may b ...

s on four

mast Mast, MAST or MASt may refer to: Engineering * Mast (sailing), a vertical spar on a sailing ship * Flagmast, a pole for flying a flag * Guyed mast, a structure supported by guy-wires * Mooring mast, a structure for docking an airship * Radio mas ...

s. The ship's usual itinerary was an inter-island cruise in

French Polynesia French Polynesia ( ; ; ) is an overseas collectivity of France and its sole #Governance, overseas country. It comprises 121 geographically dispersed islands and atolls stretching over more than in the Pacific Ocean, South Pacific Ocean. The t ...

and in the

Bahamas The Bahamas, officially the Commonwealth of The Bahamas, is an archipelagic and island country within the Lucayan Archipelago of the Atlantic Ocean. It contains 97 per cent of the archipelago's land area and 88 per cent of its population. ...

Fire

On December 1, 2002, according to a first-hand passenger account, an

engine room On a ship, the engine room (ER) is the Compartment (ship), compartment where the machinery for marine propulsion is located. The engine room is generally the largest physical compartment of the machinery space. It houses the vessel's prime move ...

fire forced passengers into lifeboats at 3:15 a.m. where they'd hoped to stay only until the fire was under control. At 5:04 a.m. a small explosion was heard from the front of the ship and the captain gave the order to abandon ship. All 127 passengers and 92 crew members were evacuated safely. Passengers were transported by fast ferry to Raiatea, a nearby island where they arrived at approx 8 a.m. Over the course of that day, they were flown on scheduled and charter Air Tahiti flights to Papeete. Windsong fire

The

French Navy The French Navy (, , ), informally (, ), is the Navy, maritime arm of the French Armed Forces and one of the four military service branches of History of France, France. It is among the largest and most powerful List of navies, naval forces i ...

put out the fire and towed the ship to

Papeete Papeete (Tahitian language, Tahitian: ''Papeʻetē'', pronounced ; old name: ''Vaiʻetē''Personal communication with Michael Koch in ) is the capital city of French Polynesia, an overseas collectivity of the France, French Republic in the Pacific ...

, where examination showed extensive damage to engineering spaces, although the passenger areas were mostly intact. Subsequently the Navy demanded compensation for its services, and French Polynesian government seized the ''Wind Song''. However, both

Holland America Line Holland America Line N.V. (HAL) is an American cruise line operating as a subsidiary of Carnival Corporation & plc. Founded in 1873 in Rotterdam, Netherlands as the Netherlands-America Steamship Company (NASM), the company operated regular trans ...

(owner of Windstar Cruises at the time, itself a subsidiary of

Carnival Corporation & plc Carnival Corporation & plc is a British and American cruise operator with a combined fleet of over ninety vessels across eight cruise line brands. A dual-listed company, Carnival is composed of the Panama-incorporated, US-headquartered Carnival ...

) and

was unwilling to pay the costs involved, and even scrapping was uneconomical, because of the ship's small size and remoteness from

shipbreaker Ship breaking (also known as ship recycling, ship demolition, ship scrapping, ship dismantling, or ship cracking) is a type of ship disposal involving the breaking up of ships either as a source of parts, which can be sold for re-use, or for t ...

s in India, China, and elsewhere. On January 22, 2003, with the agreement of Holland America and Carnival, the President of the Territorial Government of French Polynesia,

Gaston Flosse Gaston Flosse (born 24 June 1931) is a French Polynesian politician who has been President of French Polynesia on five separate occasions. He is currently a member of the Senate of France and has been a French junior minister under Jacques Chirac ...

, ordered the

scuttling Scuttling is the act of deliberately sinking a ship by allowing water to flow into the hull, typically by its crew opening holes in its hull. Scuttling may be performed to dispose of an abandoned, old, or captured vessel; to prevent the vessel ...

of the ''Wind Song''. That night the ship was towed into the Sea of the Moon between

Tahiti Tahiti (; Tahitian language, Tahitian , ; ) is the largest island of the Windward Islands (Society Islands), Windward group of the Society Islands in French Polynesia, an overseas collectivity of France. It is located in the central part of t ...

and Moorea and sunk in 9,843 feet of water, at latitude 17.45S, longitude 149.48W.

References

External links

First-hand Passenger account of fire and evacuation, 2003
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wind Song Wind Song Ship fires Maritime incidents in 2002 Four-masted ships Cruise ships Lost sailing vessels 1986 ships