Medical emergency delays Titanic memorial cruise
By Associated Press
Apr 10, 2012 12:02 PM CDT
Mary Beth Crocker, left, and her husband Tom Dearing from Newport Ky. pose for pictures in period costume as they disembark the MS Balmoral Titanic memorial cruise ship at its first stop in Cobh, Ireland, Monday, April 9, 2012. Nearly 100 years after the Titanic went down, the cruise with the same number...   (Associated Press)

A cruise ship retracing the route of the Titanic has been delayed at sea because of a medical emergency on board.

The Titanic Memorial Cruise set sail from southern England on Sunday and made a brief stop in the Irish town of Cobh on Monday before continuing on its journey to the North Atlantic site where the Titanic hit an iceberg and sank 100 years ago.

But the captain of the memorial vessel, MS Balmoral, announced Tuesday that the journey was being interrupted at sea because a passenger has to be airlifted to a hospital.

The Balmoral's cruise was scheduled to last 12 nights.

The ship, which is carrying 1,309 passengers _ including relatives of some of the more than 1,500 Titanic passengers who died _ seeks to recreate the Titanic experience, minus the disaster.