Cruise Ship Runs Aground

Thursday, November 8th 2007, 8:17 pm

By: News On 6

VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (AP) -- The Coast Guard says it is investigating why a small cruise ship with 66 people aboard was taking on water before a captain ran it aground to keep it from sinking.

Officials say no one was injured and the Coast Guard got everyone off the boat in the Intracoastal Waterway in an isolated area of Virginia Beach along the Atlantic Coast.

Two Coast Guard boats picked up the ship's passengers and crew and took them to a ferry landing about 2 miles away.

A Coast Guard spokesman who was on the scene says he didn't see anybody panic during the evacuation.

The Spirit of Nantucket had been heading south on a 10-day cruise from Alexandria, Virginia, to Charleston, South Carolina on its last cruise of the season.

The cruise line that owns the boat says the damage is being assessed, and says it made arrangements to take the passengers to a hotel.