A Swedish company on Monday sent a powerful towboat to help free a German cruise ship that ran aground off the coast of Latvia in the Baltic Sea, Latvian officials said, according to dpa. Swedes will work to free the ship at the request of the ship's owner, Germany's Lord Nelson Seereisen shipping company, Latvian navy coastguard service head Hermanis Cernovs was quoted by the Baltic News Service as saying. Earlier on Monday, the Latvian coastguard began evacuating nearly 1,000 people aboard a stranded cruise ship in the Baltic Sea off the coast of Latvia, officials said. The 747 passengers who were mostly elderly Germans, and the crew boarded two naval ships which would take them to the seaport city of Ventspils in northwestern Latvia, Cernovs said.
