We received the distress signal around 1:45 in the early morning after Thanksgiving Day. A cruise ship was in trouble in the waters just north of the Antarctic Peninsula. We were on one of two other cruise ships in the vicinity, and sped about 60 miles to the scene. Five hours later, both ships arrived to pick up 154 passengers and crew who had been bobbing on the sea in lifeboats for more than four hours. Other than being uncomfortably cold, no one was injured.

The Explorer had apparently hit an iceberg and was listing badly when we arrived. Two hours later, the waters had reached the passenger deck railing, and eventually it sank.

The doomed Explorer was the very first Lindblad cruise ship, and the first to bring visitors to Antarctica. By coincidence we were on a much newer Lindblad ship, the National Geographic Endeavor. Many of our crew and several fellow passengers had sailed on Explorer and were devastated by its sad ending, even though it had been sold to a Canadian company several years ago.

This was 'the little red ship' that so many people fondly remember, the ship that actually invented Antarctica cruising. One guidebook called it the first and the best of the seaborne expedition ships taking passengers to the bottom of the world.

Here's what we saw on the third day of our Antarctica voyage.