An Israeli cruise ship was evacuated yesterday after a after an internal pump connected to its sewage system caused a ballast tank to overfill leading the ship to list. The Bahamas-flagged Caspi Cruises MS Dream Princess was sailing from Turkey to Cyprus and was near Rhodes, Greece at the time of the equipment malfunction. The list was corrected but Greek authorities stated that the ship will not be allowed to sail until its seaworthiness is established. The ship’s 930 passengers spent the night in Rhodes and flew home to Israel the following day.

Interestingly, the 1970-built Dream Princess is the former Royal Caribbean Cruise Line vessel Song of Norway and was sold in 1997 to the now defunct Sun Cruises where it sailed as the Sun Dream. In October 2004 she was sold, refitted and became MS Dream Princess for Caspi Cruises sailing from Haifa, Israel.