Battered Liner Heads for Port

A cruise liner that spent five hours adrift in a severe Mediterranean storm with more than 700 passengers on board was last night headed for the Italian island of Sardinia after managing to repair its engines.

The Bahamas-owned, 24,000-tonne Voyager, on a seven-day tour of the Mediterranean, sent an emergency message at 11am yesterday from near the Spanish island of Menorca.

A large wave smashed a window on its bridge, swamping electrical circuits and knocking out its engine control systems. Several people were injured.

French maritime authorities said the Voyager, with 480 mainly Spanish passengers and 296 crew, was barely able to make headway on just one of its four engines and was battered by 60mph winds and waves of up to 14 metres.

The five-year-old ship, owned by Horizon Navigation of Nassau and chartered by the Spanish operator Iberoships, was en route to Barcelona.