Another Costa-ly Mishap; Sister Ship of Costa Concordia Adrift in Indian Ocean After Losing Power

2012 is turning out to be a pretty rough year for Italy-based Costa Crociere. Six weeks after the Costa Concordia sunk after running aground in Italy, another ship in the Costa Crociere fleet lost power and was adrift in the middle of the Indian Ocean after a fire broke out in the engine room.

A French fishing vessel on Tuesday began towing an Italian cruise ship drifting powerless in the Indian Ocean to a nearby Seychelles island, but was not expected to reach the tiny resort island until Wednesday, officials said.

Seychelles authorities said they are making arrangements to evacuate people to the island of Desroches and then to transfer the more than 1,000 passengers and crew members to the main Seychelles island of Mahe by plane and fast boats.

No one was injured in the fire Monday, but the blaze set the cruiseliner adrift at sea in a region where Somali pirates prey on ships.

Two tug boats continued to steam toward the stranded cruise ship on Tuesday but were not expected to reach it until the afternoon. The tugs will tow the Costa Allegra back to the Seychelles' main port -- Port Victoria -- under escort by the coast guard and military.

The cruise ship company said that a helicopter took off from Seychelles' main island on Tuesday and will take food, satellite phones and VHF radios to the ship. Guests have been asked to prepare their luggage for disembarkation.

Photos released by the Seychelles on Tuesday showed hundreds of people milling outside on the decks of the Costa Allegra. Taken by an Indian navy plane, the photos showed calm seas and an upright ship.

The Costa Allegra has 636 passengers and 413 crew members on board. The fire knocked out power to the ship's engines as well as to its lights and air conditioning.

Unlike the Costa Concordia, which was built less than 7 years ago, the Costa Allegra is considerably older and was actually converted from a container ship. In 1969, the vessel was completed at the shipyards in Turku, Finland for a Swedish company and christened the MS Annie Johnson before changing hands a number of times and ultimately being converted to a cruise liner at the shipyards in Genoa, Italy in 1992.

A team of investigators from the Italian Coast Guard is being flown to the Seychelles to examine the stricken vessel once it reaches port. A special anti-piracy unit of the Italian navy is also reportedly accompanying the stricken vessel, a precaution regularly taken in the pirate-infested waters off the Horn of Africa.

The company that operates both the Costa Concordia and Costa Allegra- Costa Crociere- is an Italian subsidiary of Carnival Cruises [NYSE- CCL].