Key Takeaways
- The Coral Adventurer, a 93-meter-long cruise ship, ran aground on a coral reef off the coast of Papua New Guinea (PNG) on Saturday, leaving 120 people stranded.
- The ship was on a voyage from Cairns to PNG when it hit strong sea currents and ran aground near Finschhafen, about 90 kilometers from Lae, the capital of Morobe province.
- All passengers and crew escaped injury, but efforts to refloat the ship have been unsuccessful, and it remains stuck on the reef.
- The passengers have begun their journey home, flying back to Australia on a charter flight, while the ship’s owners, Coral Expeditions, work to free the vessel.
- The Australian Transport Safety Bureau has started a safety investigation into the incident, and the Australian Maritime Safety Authority has detained the vessel due to concerns about its seaworthiness.
Introduction to the Incident
The Coral Adventurer was carrying 80 tourists into the remote reaches of Papua New Guinea when it came to an abrupt halt on a reef off the Pacific nation’s coast. The ship was passing Dregerhafen Point at 5:30 am on Saturday local time when it ran aground north of PNG’s Nussing Island. Vessel tracking data show the Coral Adventurer first neared the coast of PNG on December 20 after leaving Cairns two days earlier. The ship’s owners, Coral Expeditions, have confirmed that all passengers and crew escaped injury, but efforts to refloat the ship have been unsuccessful, and it remains stuck on the reef.
Location of the Incident
The ship was passing between Normanby Island and Fergusson Island and moved north before hugging the coast of Morobe Province before it ran aground near Finschhafen. Morobe’s provincial governor, Rainbo Paita, told the ABC that the Coral Adventurer ran aground while taking a route not usually taken by local operators. He said, "Local boat operators know the reef is very high there." The ABC approached Coral Expeditions, but it declined to respond to Mr. Paita’s comments. The ship’s location, about 90 kilometers from Lae, the capital of Morobe province, has made it challenging to refloat the vessel.
Passenger Evacuation
The passengers began traveling home to Australia on Tuesday after Coral Expeditions announced it would fly them back on a charter flight. They disembarked the Coral Adventurer in the morning and took a passenger boat, the MV Ialibu, to Lae, reaching the city by afternoon local time. The passengers were expected to fly on to Cairns. Earlier, on Sunday, they had disembarked the Coral Adventurer and were transported to Gingala village for community-hosted sightseeing activities, while a tugboat attempted to free the vessel. The passengers’ safety and well-being have been the top priority, and Coral Expeditions has worked to ensure their safe return to Australia.
The Cruise Ship
The Coral Adventurer is one of three small cruise ships operated by Cairns-based cruise company Coral Expeditions. The vessel was built by Norway-based shipbuilders Vard in 2019 in a Vietnam shipyard for $119 million. It can carry 120 passengers, has 60 staterooms, and more than 1,000 square meters of open deck space. The ship, which is 5,500 in gross tonnage, was on a 60-day cruise around Australia in October when a passenger allegedly left behind died on a Great Barrier Reef island. The Coral Adventurer ran aground in PNG about two months after the death of 80-year-old tourist Suzanne Rees on the Great Barrier Reef’s Lizard Island.
Coral Expeditions
Coral Expeditions is a Queensland-based company that has specialized in small ship expedition-style cruises to remote areas, including the Kimberley and the Pacific Islands. It describes itself as Australia’s largest local passenger cruise line and is headquartered in Cairns. The company runs multi-day cruises around Australia, including Tasmania, Western Australia, and Cape York, and internationally through Indonesian islands. Coral Expeditions is owned by the NRMA, which first acquired shares in 2021 before taking full ownership in 2023. The company took 6,700 passengers for 77,600 nights at sea and grew its revenue by 11.4 percent in 2025, partly because it expanded its itineraries, according to the NRMA’s annual report.
Next Steps for the Vessel
Professional divers have inspected the vessel underwater and found no evidence of critical external damage yet. However, the Coral Adventurer remains stranded on the reef despite a three-day effort to free it. A tugboat from PNG company Pacific Towing arrived on the scene about midday on Sunday to try refloating the vessel. Those early attempts failed when the tugboat’s engine overheated, and it had to return to Lae. A larger tugboat from Lae was expected to make further attempts at freeing the Coral Adventurer on Tuesday. The Australian Transport Safety Bureau has started a safety investigation into the incident and is gathering evidence, while the Australian Maritime Safety Authority said it had detained the vessel "based on reasonable suspicion" that it was "not seaworthy due to potential damage sustained during the grounding". The successful refloating of the vessel will depend on the outcome of these investigations and the efforts of the tugboats.
