Safety is the number one priority

(Picture borrowed from
Hurtigruten.)

Last fall Hurtigruten was struck by a tragic accident. A fire broke out in the engine room of the MS Nordlys and although all passengers were safe, two crew members lost their life. 

In the beginning of January this year, the huge cruise ship Costa Concordia of Costa Cruises struck a rock, started to take in water and eventually sank near the coast of Western Italy. Just this week, a new incident happened on a Costa ship. A fire destroyed the ships electrical power, and the ship is now beeing towed for several days to a safe harbour. 

It would be natural for potential guests to be sceptic to order a cruise after these accidents. You should know that Hurtigruten is working continously on improving safety, and is currently conducting a "Safe sailing project" where focus among other things are on

• Identifying risk areas and ports (see illustration above)

• Defining «tracks» and routes

• Training

• Modus operandi on Captains bridge

• Identifying most important indicators for possible risk sources

• Safety drills with rescue teams along the Norwegian coast

Unfortunately, sometimes accidents happen. All passengers should take the time to read safety placards, and to pay attention during safety drills. In this way, passengers will know where to gather in an emergency, and how to put on the safety vest. Knowing what to do, will keep panic at bay. Here you can check out the safety videos of MS Nordlys, MS Midnatsol, MS Richard With, MS Polarlys, MS Vesterålen and MS Finnmarken. Below you can watch the safety video of Hurtigruten's MS Trollfjord. You're safe with Hurtigruten!

What does the signals mean?

If you have traveled with one of the Hurtigruten ships, you would have heard the loud signals that the captain (or someone else on the ships bridge) gives with the ships horn from time to time. You might think that these signals are quite random, but they are part of a signal system.

Several times during a cruise with Hurtigruten, the ship you're sailing with will meet another Hurtigruten ship, going in the opposite direction. The ships signal to each other, and the north bound is supposed to sound the horn first. (If they meet at night, they signal to each other with lights so that passengers can sleep undisturbed).

When a Hurtigruten ship approaches a port, it signals with a few blasts of the horn. If the ship is northbound, the signal is one long, one short and one long honk (it's the letter K in the morse code). If the ship approaching a port is southbound, the signal is two long, one short and one long (morse code for Q.)

Finally, the signal you shouldn't miss: Five minutes before the Hurtigruten ship is living a port, the ship gives a short signal. This means that you have to hurry back to the ship if you're not already back onboard!

In the video below you can see and hear MS Finnmarken meeting MS Richard With:

The Hurtigruten fleet - ships names explained

(Photo borrowed from Hurtigruten.)

• MS Kong Harald: in English "King Harald". Named after Norway's reigning King, Harald V.  
• MS Nordlys: is Norwegian for Aurora borealis (northern lights).
• MS Nordkapp: Norwegian for North Cape.
• MS Nordnorge: Norwegian for North Norway. 
• MS Richard With: named after the Norwegian captain and businessman who in 1881 founded what later came to be know as Hurtigruten. 
• MS Polarlys: Norwegian for "Polar lights", meaning the same as Nordlys.
• MS Fram: is named after the expedition ship used by the famous Norwegian explorers Fridtjof Nansen and Roald Amundsen. "Fram" means "Forward". 
• MS Finnmarken: is Named after the northernmost county of Norway, Finnmark. 
• MS Midnatsol: is Norwegian for Midnight sun. 
• MS Trollfjord: is named after a very narrow fjord which is famous for its steep-sided mountains. The name means "The fjord of the troll". 
• MS Vesterålen: is named after an archipelago in Northern Norway, just north of Lofoten.