Luxury cruise ship pulled free after passengers stuck for days off Greenland's coast

Previous attempts to free the stranded Ocean Explorer were unsuccessful.

ByMorgan Winsor ABCNews logo
Thursday, September 14, 2023
Cruise ship passengers stuck near Greenland after boat runs aground
The Ocean Explorer set out from Norway on Sept. 1 with 206 passengers onboard and was halfway through a 22-day Arctic Circle expedition when it ran aground on Monday.

LONDON -- A luxury cruise ship carrying 206 people has been pulled free days after it got stuck off the coast of Greenland, authorities said.

The Joint Arctic Command, which is part of Denmark's defense forces, announced in a social media post on Thursday that the ship, named the Ocean Explorer, was finally pulled free at high tide in Greenland, which is a semiautonomous territory of Denmark.

The 343-foot long and 60-foot wide vessel, which is operated by Australia-based cruise company Aurora Expeditions, was traveling toward a remote corner of Greenland on Monday when it ran aground above the Arctic Circle near Alpefjord in the Northeast Greenland National Park, the northernmost national park in the world.

Previous attempts to free the stranded ship on Tuesday and Wednesday were unsuccessful.

It was unclear why the vessel ran aground. There were no reports of damage to the ship.

ABC News' Jon Haworth, Will Gretsky and Emma Ogao contributed to this report.