Canadian Cruise Ship Stuck In Frozen Detroit River

DETROIT (WWJ) - A Canadian cruise ship is going nowhere fast -- because it's stuck in the Detroit River.

The 97-foot Macassa Bay drifted into an icy channel near Peche Island, just east of Belle Isle, earlier this week when a pair of mooring lines broke. No one was on board at the time, but the boat is frozen in place.

Mary Jones, the ship's owner, says she's not worried, it'll just take another day or two for enough ice to melt to enable the ship to move.

"The northerly winds snapped two of the lines and with it being so cold and the water has frozen, so it's impossible to move the boat. We've secured it with extra lines and when the ice melts, then we'll be able to move it back and tie it to the dock," Jones told WWJ's Scott Ryan. "It's not going to go anywhere. It's not going to cause any damage."

Jones says it's not the first time something like this has happened.

"I mean, it's 209 tons and once the wind gets it like that when it's not under power, then it can snap the lines," she said.

The boat was originally used as a ferry between Newfoundland and an oil platform in the North Atlantic. Now, the Macassa Bay spends summers shuttling tourists up and down the Ontario side of the Detroit River. It docks at Windsor's Lakeview Park Marina for the winter.