The MS Explorer, with a capacity of 104 passengers and 54 crew, was a 2,398 ton cruise ship designed for Arctic and Antarctic service, commissioned by Lars-Eric Lindblad, the Swedish-American pioneer of exotic expedition tours, and built in 1969 at Uudenkaupungin Telakka shipyard in Uusikaupunki, Finland. The ship was built to stay afloat with two compartments filled with water. In 1969 the Explorer made an expeditionary cruise to Antarctica and was effectively the frontrunner for today's sea-based tourism there.
The vessel was formerly known as the MS Lindblad Explorer until 1985 and the MS Society Explorer from then to 1992.
The ship's demise came on 23 November 2007 after visiting the Falkland Islands and South Georgia when she hit an iceberg in the Bransfield Strait close to King George Island in the Southern Ocean, near the South Shetland Islands. She was completely submerged 20 hours later. Experts consider that the Explorer was "perfect for ice navigation", and consider that the explanation of the sinking "doesn't add up" and that "essential pieces of the story are missing." More
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