Two Bulgarians were among the crew members on board of the cruise ship that sank after hitting an iceberg off Antarctica, Darik News reported Saturday.

All 91 passengers, nine guides and 54 crew members were safely evacuated to lifeboats, and then to another ship, after the M/S Explorer was holed close to the South Shetland Islands, in the Antarctic Ocean.

The tourists and crew have been spending the night at a military base on a Chilean island and are expected to start their journeys home within hours.

Some 23 Britons, 17 Dutch, 13 Americans and 10 Canadians were among those on board.

There were also passengers from other nationalities including Irish, Danish, Swiss, Belgian, Japanese, French, German and Chinese, BBC reported.

Following the news of the incident, a specialist maritime publication said the 2,400-tonne Explorer had had five faults at its last inspection.

However, the UK Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA), whose inspectors found the faults, said that they had all been rectified by the time the ship set sail again.

The tour group had embarked from Ushuaia, on Argentina's southern tip, on 11 November for a 19-day "Spirit of Shackleton" cruise through the Drake Passage, costing from around USD 8,000 per cabin.

The ship ran into trouble approximately 120km north of the Antarctic Peninsula.

The company said pumps had been used in an effort to stop the ship sinking, but in the meantime the captain gave the order to abandon ship, and passengers were transferred to lifeboats.

Several hours later, they were plucked to safety by the Norwegian cruise ship.

Coastguards said although the weather conditions were good for this time of year, the average temperature was still -5C.

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