Woman survives ten hours treading water in the Atlantic

A cruise ship worker survived in the Atlantic with nothing to help her stay afloat - treading water for hours while the US coast guard and fellow crew members searched for her.

Norwegian Cruise Lines officials said the 24-year-old Romanian spent at least 10 hours in the water before being rescued yesterday.

She was in stable condition, ‘‘resting comfortably in the ship’ hospital’’ and being treated for dehydration, said Susan Robison, spokeswoman for the cruise line.

No one knows how the woman fell into the ocean. After being reported missing by another crew member at about 10.30pm on Monday, a ship-wide search determined that she was overboard but it wasn’t clear how she fell from the vessel when it was about 135 miles of the Bahamas.

‘‘We put a missing-person procedure into place and we searched the whole ship,’’ then launched ‘‘man overboard’’ procedure when she couldn’t be located, said Robison.

Coast Guard aircraft responded, but she was found by the Norway.

The woman was treading water when she was rescued by a small boat and taken back aboard.

The woman could have been in the water for some time before the Coast Guard called and it was determined she was overboard.

The Miami-based Norway in the US Virgin Islands, today.