All passengers were evacuated from the Empress of the North by 7 a.m. and returned to Juneau.

One person was taken to a hospital for observation, a city employee said.

Passengers said they were jolted awake when the ship hit the rocks in a remote part of a southeast Alaska archipelago in the middle of night.

They were ordered to don lifejackets and gather in the ballroom, where a singer and piano player entertained them with songs including "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" as they waited for rescue.

Mary Zanis Crosby, 83, of Seattle, said that "the rumble was horrendous" when the ship ran aground, but that she was never frightened.

"I considered it an adventure although I'd have rather been doing something else," she said with a laugh.

The Empress of the North had 206 passengers and 75 crew members aboard when it sent out an emergency radio message at 2 a.m., the Coast Guard said.

When Coast Guard helicopters reached the area, the vessel was listing at the southern end of Icy Strait, about 50 miles southwest of Juneau, and it began taking on water, said Petty Officer Christopher McLaughlin at the Coast Guard base in Kodiak.

As the ship's pumps worked to remove the water, the passengers were transferred to other boats in the area and then to the ferry to be taken to Juneau.

The fishing vessel Evening Star was about five miles away, finishing a halibut trip, when its crew heard the mayday call.

"They were laying over pretty heavy to one side," Evening Star captain Blake Painter told CNN. He said his boat pulled alongside and took 33 passengers, while another fishing boat pulled up and took a few more.

A Coast Guard cutter and a few more boats arrived about an hour later, and all the passengers were taken off safely, he said.

It wasn't immediately clear why the ship ran aground, McLaughlin said. It was drizzling in Juneau but the seas were calm.

Chief Petty Officer Barry Lane said all passengers had been evacuated from the Empress of the North by 7 a.m., and the vessel, with 29 crew members aboard, was heading toward Juneau. There were no reports of injuries.

"The story is shaping up for the good," Lane said.

The Empress of the North had 281 passengers and crew members aboard when it sent out an emergency radio message at 12:35 a.m., the Coast Guard said.

When Coast Guard helicopters reached the area, the vessel was listing at the southern end of Icy Strait, about 15 miles southwest of Juneau, and it began taking on water, said Petty Officer Christopher D. McLaughlin at the Coast Guard base in Kodiak.

As the ship's pumps worked to remove the water, the passengers were transferred to fishing vessels and other cruise ships in the area. Those passengers and about 130 others who were taken aboard the Coast Guard cutter Liberty were to be transferred to the Alaska state ferry Columbia and taken to Juneau.

It wasn't immediately clear why the cruise ship ran around, McLaughlin said. It was drizzling in Juneau but the seas were relatively calm.

The Empress of the North is operated by Majestic America Line of Seattle. The ship has 112 staterooms, a three-story paddlewheel and galleries featuring Native American masks and Russian artwork, including Faberge eggs, according to its Web site.

Dan Miller, a spokesman for Majestic America, said the grounding occurred on the second day of a seven-day cruise.

The American-built ship is billed by the company as the only overnight paddlewheel vessel in use on Alaska cruises. It also is used on cruises on the Columbia River between Washington state and Oregon.

The 112-cabin Majestic America Line vessel, which spends much of its time operating on the Columbia River in the Pacific Northwest, is the same one we wrote about a few weeks ago after it flunked a Centers for Disease Control health inspection a relatively rare occurrence in the cruise world.

Call it strike two for the riverboat-style ship. Or maybe strike three or four. As cruisecritic.com points out today, this isn't the first time the Empress has had navigation snafus. The vessel hit a sandbar in the Columbia River about a year ago, forcing an evacuation with similarities to the one today. And the ship also ran aground in 2003, its first year of operation.

As for today's accident, the U.S. Coast Guard reports that all of the ship's passengers were evacuated, uninjured, this morning after the Empress hit a rock in Icy Straights. Crew members stayed on board and sailed the vessel to Juneau, where it presumably will undergo repairs. No word yet on whether its majestic, three-story paddle wheel was damaged in the incident.

Empress of the North originally was built in 2002 for the America West Steamboat Company, which operated river boats in the West. The line later merged with the Delta Queen Steamboat Company, known for its historic riverboats in Middle America, and morphed into the Majestic America Line. When the Empress began seasonal service in Alaska's Inside Passage in 2003, it was the first sternwheeler to do so in more than a century.

Crews and volunteer boats assisted in the transfer of passengers to other vessels after it ran aground, according to an Associated Press story. No injuries were reported.

The vessel, carrying 281 passengers and crew, took on water and was listing 6 degrees at the southern end of Icy Strait when the Coast Guard responded, the Associated Press reported.

Within hours the Empress of the North was heading to Juneau under its own power with an "essential crew,'' according to a news release from Majestic America Line, the boat's operator.

The Empress of the North was most recently at the Port of Clarkston on April 17 where it is the largest of the cruise boats that call. It has been a regular in the spring and fall since it was introduced in 2003 and docked in Clarkston 22 times in 2006.

Clarkston is the western-most point on a journey of about a week that originates in Portland. "We are concerned for our customer,'' said Wanda Keefer, manager of the Port of Clarkston.

The boat spends the summer in Alaska where today's accident happened.

Safety and the comfort of its passengers are the highest priority, according to a news release issued by Majestic America today. "We are working closely with the Coast Guard to undertake a full investigation and assess the condition of the vessel.''

The news release didn't indicate how seriously the Empress was damaged and calls to the cruise line weren't immediately returned.

Today's trouble is the latest in a series of situations that have interrupted cruises, but caused no critical injuries.

The most recent was a little more than a year ago when the vessel ran aground on the Columbia River near Washougal, Wash.

About 180 passengers were evacuated from the boat after winds and currents apparently forced it into a sandbar. No one was hurt. It was freed about two days later by two tugs with tides working in their favor. About 20,000 gallons of diesel fuel were removed to make it lighter and it returned to Portland, Ore., under its own power.

Two incidents took place during the boat's first year cruising.

The bottom of the vessel scraped the top of a lock gate at Ice Harbor Dam near Pasco in October 2003, after the lock master had given the captain permission to proceed. The boat was only going one or two mph at the time and no one was injured.

The 190 passengers on the Empress of the North were removed from the boat and taken to hotels in the Tri-Cities area.

The Empress of the North passed a Coast Guard inspection and was cruising again within about a week.

Repairing the lock took more than a month and cost $63,000. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers used a temporary locking system to allow commercial vessels to pass during the work.

About a month later on Thanksgiving the Empress again encountered difficulties that its operator at the time, American West Steamboat Co., blamed on human error. The boat developed steering problems and collided with a bank about one mile downstream from The Dalles, Ore., and sustained minor damage.

The captain of the boat regained steering before the boat touched the bank, but it happened in a part of the river that's extremely narrow.

One passenger bruised a shoulder. A crew member fractured an elbow and another crew member suffered a minor injury. They were all treated and released from a local hospital.

The vessel didn't take on water and passengers resumed regular cruise activities.

Later operators of the Empress of the North said the accident pushed in the bow of the boat a couple of feet below the water line, but that the integrity of the boat wasn't compromised.

Still as a precaution, the operators canceled cruises in December 2003 awaiting more information about the cause of the accident.

"There is a breach in the hull. It is on the rocks," said Petty Officer Eric Chandler at the Coast Guard base in Kodiak.

The Empress of the North, carrying 281 passengers and a crew of 84, was listing 6 degrees after hitting Hanus Rock at the southern end of the strait, 49 miles west of Juneau, Coast Guard officials said.

The Coast Guard immediately dispatched two helicopters to the scene after receiving an emergency radio message at 12:35 a.m. Alaska Daylight Time from the ship, operated by Seattle-based Majestic America Line, Petty Officer Christopher D. McLaughlin said.

The 110-foot Coast Guard cutter Liberty, the Spirit of Columbia cruise ship, and several other private vessels were taking on passengers from the damaged Empress of the North.

"Many Good Samaritan boats on scene are taking off passengers," McLaughlin said. "The fishing vessels Evening Star and Willow were able to moor up to the cruise ship and 33 passengers transferred from the Empress of the North to the Evening Star and 12 passengers to the Willow."

By daybreak those remaining were being taken aboard the Spirit of Columbia, a smaller vessel operated by Cruise West of Seattle, McLaughlin said.

All of the passengers were to be returned to Juneau, said Ann Marie Ricard, a spokeswoman for Majestic America Line. The City of Juneau was preparing temporary emergency housing for any passengers requiring it, Chandler said.

There were no reports of injury, nor was there any immediate word on damage, and McLaughlin said the reason for the grounding was unclear.

Chandler said the vessel was taking on water. Still, he said, rescuers had some time to work. The Empress of the North has a double-hull design, making it safer and more able to withstand such an accident. And, he added, that with the tide on the way out, the vessel was not in any immediate danger of sinking.

"It's sitting on rocks," Chandler said.

The $50 million cruise ship is billed by Majestic America site as a "newly built" sternwheeler with a 24-hour bar and grill, a crew of 84, 112 staterooms for 223 passengers and gets most of its propulsion from a three-story paddlewheel.

Ricard said the Empress of the North was in the first day of a seven-day cruise of the Inside Passage when the accident happened.

She did not have any information on what caused the accident.

The ship, built by Nichols Bros. Boat Builders, is billed by the company as the only overnight sternwheeler vessel in use on Alaskan cruises. The vessel spends the winter carrying passengers along the Columbia, Snake and Willamette rivers. At least twice, it has run aground along the Columbia River, most recently in March 2006.

It began offering cruises in Alaska's Inside Passage in 2003, the first paddlewheel ship to do so in more than a century.

Just two weeks ago, the Empress of the North stopped in Seattle and took passengers for a cruise to Alaska, Ricard said.

Sunday, it took on passengers in Juneau for its Inside Passage cruise, which was to have wrapped up Saturday.

All of the ship's passengers arrived after 11 a.m. Alaska Daylight Time at the Auke Bay ferry dock, said Mike Chambers, a spokesman for the Alaska Marine Highway System, which operates the ferry.

The cruise ship, the Empress of the North, was carrying 206 passengers and 75 crew when it left Juneau on Saturday for a seven-day trip, said Dan Miller, a spokesman for Seattle-based Majestic America Line. The 223-guest ship is based in Portland and also offers trips along the Columbia and Snake Rivers.

A Coast Guard official said there were no reports of injuries or fuel spill or any pollution from the ship.

The Empress sent a distress signal at 12:35 a.m. Alaska Daylight Time after hitting the rocks, said Coast Guard Petty Officer Christopher McLaughlin. Sea conditions were calm at the time.

Numerous vessels came to the aid of the cruise ship and took passengers aboard.

"The fishing vessels Evening Star and Willow were able to moor up to the cruise ship and 33 passengers transferred from the Empress of the North to the Evening Star and 12 passengers to the Willow," McLaughlin said.

A Coast Guard fixed-wing aircraft and helicopter were dispatched. At about 3 a.m., the Coast Guard asked the Alaska state ferry service for help.

One of the largest vessels in the state ferry's fleet, the Columbia, was just west of Douglas Island en route to Juneau when it changed direction and headed for the Empress. The Columbia ferry, which can carry 499 passengers and 134 vehicles, stops in several ports including Bellingham, Ketchikan, Wrangell and Petersburg.

With 234 commuting passengers aboard, the Columbia arrived at Hanus Reef just before 5 a.m. and picked up 252 passengers and crew, Chambers said. That left 29 crew members aboard the Empress as it navigated on its own power back to Juneau's Auke Bay terminal.

Emergency authorities had buses on standby to transport the passengers to Centennial Hall Convention Center in downtown Juneau. The convention center was setting up a shelter for passengers, while Majestic America was making arrangements with hotels and airlines for getting the passengers back home.

The Coast Guard is trying to assess the damage, but because the ship has a double-hull design, it is in no danger of sinking and the bilge pumps are keeping up, said Petty Officer Eric Chandler at the Coast Guard base in Kodiak

"We're trying to figure out the best course of action," Chandler said. "We're still looking into the damage caused by the grounding."

The cruise can't continue because the boat is too damaged, Chandler said.

"We don't know if it was mechanical or an error in navigation," he said.

According to the company's Web site, the Empress of the North is a "newly built" sternwheeler with a 24-hour bar and grill, a crew of 84, 112 staterooms for 223 passengers and "a robust modern diesel propulsion system."

The American-built ship is billed by the company as the only overnight paddlewheel vessel in use on Alaskan cruises and also is used on cruises on the Columbia River between Washington state and Oregon.

Earlier this year, the company announced that the Empress was recognized as one of the top small cruise ships in the world, based on a readers poll by Conde Nast Traveler magazine.

The grounding of the cruise ship near Juneau is the fourth time the ship has hit something or run aground since it was built in 2002 at the Nichols Brothers shipyard on Whidbey Island.

The ship is one of six vessels in a fleet of river and coastal cruising ships.

In October of 2003, it hit a navigation lock at the Ice Harbor dam on the Snake River.

In November of 2003, it ran aground on the Oregon side of the Columbia River near The Dalles.

In March of 2006 it grounded on a sand bar in the Columbia near Washougal.

The Coast Guard is still investigating that grounding, but Lt. J.G. Nick Barrow, of the Portland station, said the ship apparently went aground on a reef as it was trying to pass a tug and barge in a narrow, twisted section of the river.

He also said there were communications issues between the tug and the cruise ship "which led each to believe they were in different parts of the river." He said the tug was near the middle of the river, so the Empress had to take evasive action and hit Ough Reef.

In its report, the Coast Guard said the Empress tried to slow down to let the tug and barge pass but was unable to slow enough to keep the vessel from hitting the reef.

In addition, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says the ship failed an inspection in February, and the agency is investigating what caused 26 passengers and seven crew members to get sick during a five-day Columbia River cruise in March.

Ambassadors International, the parent company of Majestic America, has been on a small-scale buying spree in the cruise business.

It acquired American West Steamboat Co., including Empress of the North and a sister ship, in January 2006. Three months later it bought Delta Queen Steamboat Co., which offers historical cruises on the Mississippi, Ohio, Tennessee, Cumberland and Arkansas rivers. The steamboat company had three ships, and Ambassadors quickly bought two more.

Then, in February 2007, it agreed to buy Seattle-based Windstar Cruises and its three small luxury cruise ships.

According to Ambassadors' regulatory filings, it acquired Empress of the North and its sister ship by paying its former owner $1, retiring debt of approximately $4.3 million and assuming responsibility for approximately $41.5 million in loans guaranteed by the U.S. Maritime Administration.

On May 14, 2007, a riverboat style cruise ship ran aground off the Alaska coast after hitting Hanus Rock at the southern end of the strait, 49 miles west of Juneau, and all 281 passengers onboard were safely evacuated without any injuries, Coast Guard officials said.  The ship, The Empress of the North sent out an emergency radio message at 12:35 a.m., Coast Guard officials announced.

As Coast Guard helicopters reached the ship, it was listing at the southern end of Icy Strait, about 15 miles southwest of Juneau, and it began taking on water, said Petty Officer Christopher D. McLaughlin. The ship was still flooding, but was traveling to Juneau under its own power. Thirty-three of its 75 crew members stayed on board for the trip. It wasn't immediately clear why the cruise ship ran around, McLaughlin said. Majestic America Line of Seattle operates the Empress of the North. Dan Miller, a spokesman for Majestic America, said the grounding occurred on the second day of a seven-day cruise.

The 110-foot Coast Guard cutter Liberty, the Spirit of Columbia cruise ship, and several other private vessels were taking on passengers from the damaged Empress of the North. "Many Good Samaritan boats on scene are taking off passengers," McLaughlin said. "The fishing vessels Evening Star and Willow were able to moor up to cruise ship and 33 passengers transferred from the Empress of the North to the Evening Star and 12 passengers to the Willow." By daybreak those remaining aboard were being taken aboard the Spirit of Columbia, a smaller vessel operated by Cruise West of Seattle, McLaughlin said.

Coast Guard spokesman Mark Guillory said the Coast Guard was trying to come to a decision as to where to send the ship for an investigation into why it hit rocks in the island-dotted Alaska coastal area. Additionally, The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) will also be sending a team to investigate.

In March of last year, the same ship, which was built to resemble a Mississippi River paddleboat, slammed into a sandbar while cruising the Columbia River, which separates Oregon and Washington State, according to reports.

If you or a loved one were onboard The Express of the North cruise ship in Alaska that was involved in an accident on May 14, 2007 and you suffered serious injuries, you may be entitled to compensation. Please fill out the form at the right or Call 1-800-LAW-INFO (1-800-529-4636) for a free case evaluation.