Nobody was injured when the MV Louis Joliet cruise ship carrying 57 passengers ran aground on Thursday afternoon near Orleans Island near Quebec City.
The passengers and roughly 20 crew mates were evacuated and shipped onto another vessel to the Quebec City port while a tugboat worked at pulling the MV Louis Joliet back into open waters.
Alexandre Morin-Bernard of the AML Cruise ship company, which owns the MV Louis Joliet, said that the accident occurred when the ship's hull made contact with the bottom of the waterway.
The extent of the damage remains to be determined.
The ship left the Chouinard dock in Quebec City at 1 p.m. to visit Orleans Island and Montmorency Falls. The ship got stuck near the western tip of the island at 2:50 p.m.
Morin-Bernard said that it was the first accident of its kind for AML Cruises, which has operated on the St. Lawrence River for 40 years.
-With a file from The Canadian Press
