Spanish Point Park was awash with binoculars and digital cameras last night, as crowds turned up in droves and trained their sights on the dramatic rescue.

Amazed bystanders unfolded beach chairs, weighed anchor and made themselves comfortable almost from the moment the news filtered through that the giant cruise liner had run aground near Dockyard just before 8.30 a.m.

By 7 p.m., the 34,000 ton cruiser was finally free. An hour of frenetic high-tide activity involving at least three tugs and several circling speedboats ending the Norwegian nightmare.

As the painstaking rescue bid played out in front of families anxious to get a glimpse of the stranded liner, there was no shortage of opinion on the grassy slopes of Spanish Point about what had gone wrong.

The rumour mill was in full swing, speculation running wild. The pilot made a misjudgment; he wasn?t local; the wind was too strong; torrential rain squalls and poor visibility sent the veering off course.

Maybe it was a combination of all three, some said, but there was no denying that the ill-fated had become the latest in a long line of ships to run aground on an Island renowned for its perilous reefs. Every Spanish Point spectator had a different story. But they all agreed that this was worth witnessing ? and something Bermuda had rarely seen before.

?This is definitely a once in a lifetime thing,? said a Pembroke woman, who was watching the rescue with her dad. ?I heard there wasn?t a local pilot at the helm, but with all that navigational equipment on board there?s no excuse.?

?At least the passengers have got something to put on their postcards,? another bystander joked. ?Wednesday: stranded in Bermuda.?

One man said the last incident of its kind was when a cargo ship ran aground near Shelly Bay about 15 years ago. ?There?s been nothing like this since then,? he added.

Errol Smith, from Dock Hill, Devonshire, said he recalled a cruise ship getting washed up in the St. George?s area in the 50s.

?People have been here all day,? said the 60-year-old. ?I could have made some money selling hot dogs and hamburgers.?

Llewellyn and Margaret Hall, who live just around the corner from Spanish Point Park, also watched the rescue unfold.

?There were more people here this morning,? said Mrs. Hall. ?I had my video camera to record it.?

She added: ?At least it didn?t happen out at sea and I?m just glad that nobody got hurt.?

As the cruise liner started to move without help just before 7 p.m., the scores of spectators started to dwindle. The excitement over for the day. ?I bet a lot of people are going to get a free cruise ship holiday after all this,? one man with a long-lens camera joked.

Whether such a vacation would be as entertaining as the scenes that kept spectators at Spanish Point enthralled yesterday is open to question.