Hong Kong's Jumbo Floating Restaurant has not 'sunk', owners say it is 'still in waters'

Days after Hong Kong lamented the sinking of the iconic Jumbo Floating Restaurant while being towed to a new location, the owners of the diner on Thursday backtracked on earlier claims and insisted that the vessel “was still in the waters” near Paracel Islands. Amid increasing calls for a full investigation into what previously was known as the ‘sinking’ of the restaurant, the vessel's owner, Aberdeen Restaurant Enterprises Limited said that Jumbo and the accompanying tugboat were still in water. 

The 260-foot, three-storey restaurant was styled after a Chinese imperial palace and just earlier this month, the restaurant’s owners had said that the vessel had encountered “adverse conditions” while being towed away from its home location of 46 years and “Water soon entered before it began to tip”. The previous statement said, “The water depth at the scene is over 1,000 meters [3,300 feet], making it extremely difficult to carry out salvage works”.

However, on Thursday, amid growing pressure from authorities to elaborate on the circumstances that led to the apparent wreckage of Jumbo Floating Restaurant, Aberdeen Restaurant Enterprises Limited denied the vessel sank. But, it did not indicate whether the vessel was still afloat or if it faced any other ill-fate. It is to note that the shift in the narrative of Jumbo’s owners came as Hong Kong's Marine Department requested the restaurant group to submit a written report on the incident.

Jumbo’s owners said they always used word ‘capsized’

Meanwhile, a spokesperson for  Aberdeen Restaurant Enterprises Limited told CNN on Friday that the company repeatedly used the word “capsized” to describe the incident involving the Jumbo Floating Restaurant. The official said that it was never claimed the vessel had sunk. As per the report, when the spokesperson was asked if the latest statement contradicts the previous ones, they replied saying that the firm was required “to report the depth of the waters where (the incident) took place," and declined to answer whether this meant the vessel was salvageable or remained afloat.

Jumbo Floating Restaurant was a landmark in Hong Kong for more than four decades. It has served Cantonese cuisine to more than three million guests including UK’s Queen Elizabeth II and Hollywood actor Tom Cruise. Even though the renowned eatery shut down in March 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic and laid off all its staff, it had been facing financial woes for almost a decade. 

Just last month, operator Melco International Development had reportedly said that the business had not been profitable since 2013. Moreover, the cumulative losses had exceeded 100 million Hong Kong dollars. Without driving any profits for the stakeholders, the restaurant was still costing millions in maintenance fees every year and about a dozen businesses and organisations had declined an invitation to take it over,  Melco had said.

Image: Facebook