Passengers who were onboard a cruise ship during a collision with a fishing boat off the Nantucket coast described feeling the "shifting of the boat" early Saturday morning.
Departing from Boston and headed to Bermuda, the Norwegian Pearl came into contact with a fishing boat, the Gabby G, around 2:30 a.m. Saturday, according to Coast Guard officials.
Julie Schnell, a passenger from Braintree, Mass. aboard the Norwegian Pearl, recalled the startling wake up call to NBC affiliate WJAR-TV.
"I felt the shifting of the boat," she told WJAR. "And I heard an announcement come over my TV that said 'code Delta, code Delta.'"
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Schnell said she asked the crew what was going on, but couldn't get much information.
"I called down to the front desk to ask what does that mean and they said they were trying to find out," Schnell said. "I knew that didn’t make much sense because they should know what the codes mean on their own ship."
Many passengers stayed awake during the three-hour standstill in the early morning hours, with no knowledge of what jolted the massive ship.
"They weren’t very forthcoming with information," Schnell said. "They said it’s fine… it was just a wave. Go back to bed and then we found out it was actually a fishing boat."
A representative for Norwegian Cruise Line confirmed in a statement to NBC10 Boston that a "small unidentified fishing vessel made contact with Norwegian Pearl while she was sailing to Bermuda."
The Norwegian Pearl was "thoroughly assessed" and given clearance by the Coast Guard to continue on her seven-day voyage as planned, the spokesperson said.
The Gabby G, however, reported some damages to the bow and was towed to New Bedford, arriving around 5:30 p.m. Saturday, the cruise line spokesperson and Coast Guard officials said.
A picture of the fishing vessel docked following the incident appears to show some of that damage.
According to officials, one minor injury was reported aboard the Gabby G, a cut that was treated on the boat. No injuries were reported aboard the cruise ship.
An NBC10 Boston and NECN employee who was on board the Norwegian Pearl said the fishing vessel struck just below his cabin.
"There was a huge thump that woke us and then the shipped rolled drastically in a couple of directions," Jim Warner wrote in an email to the station. "The fog was incredibly thick and visibility was 0. It happened at 1:30am and we were under way again by 4:30am."
Warner, who noted the only casualty was a little bit less sleep for everyone, shared pictures of the ship's tender in the water investigating around 3 a.m.
Some passengers onboard the cruise ship wish they were given more updates about what happened.
"That was concerning not to know that people hadn’t lost their lives," Jeff Coveney, a passenger from Natick, Mass. told WJAR, "We didn’t know that we didn’t run over a boat. That was nerve-wracking. A little more transparency would be good on the ship."
