A child and an adult were critically injured yesterday when a steering problem caused a new cruise ship to tip dangerously to its side as it sailed toward its homeport in Brooklyn, officials said.
Passengers were tossed, TV sets went flying, and water gushed from the ship’s swimming pool like a “mini-tsunami” as the Crown Princess – on just its fourth trip – rolled over more than 30 degrees, according to some passenger estimates.
The 113,000-ton ship righted itself almost immediately in the relatively calm seas about 11 ½ miles southeast of Port Canaveral, Fla.
“It was a scene out of ‘Titanic,’ ” Carol O’Connell, 54, a nurse from Port Monmouth, N.J., told The Post in a telephone interview.
“I said to my husband, ‘You better do something because we’re going down!’ ”
About 3,100 passengers and 1,200 crew were aboard, the Coast Guard said. The ship immediately returned to Port Canaveral and all passengers and crew were accounted for, he said.
Besides the two critical injuries, 12 people were in serious condition and about 70 were hurt less seriously, officials said.
Thirty-three people were taken to hospitals – most with minor bruises and back and neck injuries.
O’Connell said she will never forget the scene of panic.
“It was just terrifying – and heartbreaking to see all the mothers looking for their children,” she said.
O’Connell said television sets came loose and fell from walls, dining rooms were flooded and furniture was pushed around in a jumble.
“The captain said, ‘There seems to be a malfunction in the steering and we’re working on correcting it.’
“But you could hear the terror in his voice – you could hear the fear,” she said.
O’Connell said some passengers estimated the ship tipped as much as 45 degrees.
“People were saying they were parallel to the ocean on the seventh deck,” she said.
She described the weather “as calm as it could be.”
Bay Ridge resident Frank Brett, who served in the Navy from 1966-68, said, “The ship listed quite a bit. My friend fell onto the floor and hit the sliding glass door. She has a small bump on her head but she’s OK.”
The ship had been returning from its trip to the western Caribbean.
New Yorker Tom Daus, 32, said several of the upper decks were flooded and the elevators were inoperable. Gym equipment flipped over and shattered glass was strewn across the deck.
“The water came gushing out of the pool like a mini-tsunami,” he said.
The ship is owned by Princess Cruises, which is operated by Miami-based Carnival Corp.
Martha Stewart christened the Crown Princess last month before it embarked on its maiden voyage to the Caribbean from its home terminal in Red Hook.
Princess Cruises spokeswoman Julie Benson said the ship suffered no structural damage “and we’re still assessing what happened – we don’t know why the ship listed as sharply as it did.”
She said the company was helping passengers make arrangements to return to New York or their hometowns.
“We deeply regret this incident,” she said.