A cruise ship with seven Britons on board is aground and taking on water in the Antarctic.

The Argentina-based Ciudad de Ushuaia, carrying 122 people including 89 passengers, ran aground near Cape Anna on Thursday. The crew sounded the alarm after two large cracks appeared and the ship began to take on water, according to the Argentine Navy.

Two Chilean Navy vessels are on their way to transfer passengers off the stricken ship and a passenger boat is standing by to help if necessary. However the Argentine Navy said there was no danger of the Ushuaia sinking.

A statement released by the International Association of Antarctic Tour Operators said the boat had gone aground at the entrance to Wilhelmina Bay, part of a peninsula that reaches towards the southern tip of South America. It said the ship was leaking fuel but stated there was "no imminent danger and no threat to life."

Passengers would be transferred as a precautionary measure before attempting to refloat the Ushuaia, it said.

Admiral Daniel Alberto Martin, the Argentine naval chief, told local television the passengers were all in good health.

They will be removed from the ship this morning, and taken to Ushuaia in Tierra del Fuego, on the southern tip of Argentina.

The 2,923-ton Ushuaia is one of several dozen small, ice-strengthened expedition ships that take adventure cruises to Antarctica each year during the continent's brief summer, when the ice melts enough to allow vessels through.

The voyages, which cost around £3000 per passenger, offer the opportunity to see one of the last unspoilt regions on earth, and to get up close to icebergs, penguins and whales. Last year, 5000 Britons visited Antarctica.

But recently concerns have been raised after incidents in which ships got a bit too close to Antarctica's natural beauty.

Last year, holidaymakers on board the cruise ship Explorer drifted in life rafts in frozen waters for five hours when their boat was holed below the water-line by an iceberg.

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