MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency
When Amsterdam came to Stanley and stayed the night.
The 1,985 inhabitants of Stanley, the tiny capital of the Falkland Islands, like to pride themselves on their hospitality, but this reputation was put to the test and everyone came out to help in the “best Falkland Islands style”, when high winds and rough seas left 936 cruise ship passengers and 63 crew stranded there overnight.
The Dutch-flagged cruise ship Amsterdam, with 1,299 passengers aboard made her 5th Falklands visit of the 2004-2005 tourist season on Wednesday 2nd. February. It was a windy day, but not exceptionally so and though there was some delay in starting the shuttle service to and from the ship's position in Port William, Stanley's outer harbour, by 10 am tourists were beginning to step ashore from the tenders to take coach tours or to explore the town's neat, but windswept, streets on foot.
Because of the persistently high winds and the fear of more to come, by lunch time a majority of the passengers who had come ashore were heading for the landing stage to return to the ship, which was scheduled, in any case, to leave port at 5pm. Unfortunately, by this time, the wind speed was rising and by about 1pm, conditions in the outer harbour had deteriorated to the point where the ship could no longer safely off load passengers from its launches.
As the afternoon wore on, launch operations remained suspended. Instead of improving, as hoped, conditions deteriorated, with winds by now of gale force, whipping the foam like smoke from the white-topped waves. Gradually, as the realisation began to dawn that there was no further point in waiting for something that was not about to happen, the long queues for the tenders begin to break up and passengers began to take what they hoped would be temporary shelter in the Tourist Visitor Centre, neighbouring bars, hotels and shops.
At 6pm, with still no sign of improvement in the weather, the decision was taken to suspend launch operations for the day, leaving the staff of the ship's local agency, the Falkland Islands Company, a challenge, which elsewhere might have been solved by calling up a couple of hotels and arranging transportation to them. Unfortunately, the tiny town of Stanley has just two small hotels and a few even smaller guesthouses, mostly full at this time of year. It was evident there was going to be a serious accommodation problem.
The first stage was to bus the passengers, many of them elderly, to some points at which they could be fed and from which they could be distributed to whatever accommodation might be available. In the absence of any single indoor space capable of holding so many people, a number of different locations had to be used, including the drill hall of the Falkland Islands Defence Force, the parish hall and the secondary school gymnasium.
Within a short time, a make-shift hot supper was served in each of these locations, in itself no mean feat and requiring the efforts of pretty much every commercial kitchen in the town.
FIC agency staff, with some volunteers were working the phones, going through the sixteen pages of residential listings in the Falkland Islands phone book in search of spare beds.
By 10 pm, when Mercopress visited the FIDF Drill Hall, several hundred tourists were still either waiting for accommodation to be found or beginning to make preparations to pass the night where they were. Given their lack of comfort and uncertainties of the night before them, the majority, mainly Canadians and citizens of the United States, appeared to be in stoical, and, in some cases, downright cheerful spirits. Typical of the latter was Barbara McDermott from Issaquah, Seattle, who said that she and her husband were reconciled to staying the night on the floor, if need be, but in the meantime were "enjoying the adventure."
Finally, some 520 beds were found for passengers, most in private homes, including the official residences of the Islands Governor and Chief Executive. By 11.30pm, with offers of a bed for the night still coming in, mattresses and some bedding had been found for the majority of the rest of the passengers, who had already settled down for the night.
At first light, the Amsterdam which had left her moorings around 9pm the previous evening to ride out the storm at sea, returned to Stanley's outer harbour and with the wind still brisk, but much reduced, the first of the tenders which had passed the night alongside a jetty in Stanley, began to ferry grateful and tired passengers back aboard.
Queues for the launches were long, but quickly moving. Despite having in some cases had very little sleep, the majority of the passengers, were still in excellent spirits, though looking forward to being able to shower and change once back on board.
For the FIC Shipping Agency team the logistical nightmare of the previous evening, which had kept them working till 1.15am, began again around 5.30am, with the effort of ensuring that all the passengers and crew, who had spent the night ashore could be located and returned to the embarkation point.
There was tension in the shipping agency office around 8am, when it appeared that there were still four passengers missing, but within a few minutes and with considerable relief, agency boss, Sue Buckett, received the news that all had been accounted for. Shortly afterwards, some fifteen hours behind schedule, the Amsterdam finally departed, bound for Ushuaia in Argentina.
"Sometime after sailing, the Captain of the MS Amsterdam used the medium of the Falkland Islands Broadcasting Service to send a message to the people of Stanley, who had responded so generously to what he realised must have been a logistical nightmare. The passengers, who had to spend the night on shore, were now, he said, all talking about the kindness shown to them by the Falkland Islanders."
John Fowler (MP) Stanley
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