Passengers aboard the Canadian cruise liner ‘Explorer’, which struck ice and sank 75 miles north of Antarctica on Saturday, have described how they abandoned ship in the darkness, huddled for warmth in sub-zero temperatures and told Titanic jokes to stave off their fear as they waited to be rescued.
Among the 100 passengers were 14 Americans, 12 Canadians and 24 Britons.
Just after midnight on Friday, a jagged ice floe pierced a fist-sized hole in the ship’s steel bulkhead and penetrated one of the cabins. Passengers awoke with a start to find water rushing in and raised the alarm as they made their way to the upper decks.
“I thought the ship was going down,” said an emotional Eli Charne, 38, of California. “We were on the lowest deck of the ship, so we rushed out of the room and pressed the emergency button as water rushed in.”
Argentinean tour guide Andrea Salas recalled, “I was in the ship’s bar having a drink with colleagues and some passengers when two passengers from the cabins below came in shouting, ‘There’s water, there’s water!’ ”
Over the ship’s public address system, the captain urgently called all 154 passengers and crew to the lecture hall, where they were told that the vessel had struck ice and was taking on water.
First Officer Peter Svensson told of the crew’s doomed efforts to save the ship. “In the water we tried to cover the hole,” he said. “We managed it at first but then we got a small blackout and the water started coming in more.”
As the hull began to fill, the ship became increasingly less stable. “We all got a little nervous when the ship began to list sharply, and the lifeboats still hadn’t been lowered,” said Canadian John Cartwright.
At about 1.30 am, with the ship listing at 25 degrees, lifeboats were hastily lowered into the icy waters below. The captain gave the order to abandon ship.
Passengers and crew made an orderly evacuation, climbing down ladders along the ship’s side and into the lifeboats.
“We didn’t panic because we knew there must be other cruise ships in the area,” said Bob Flood, 52, a British scientific journal editor and ornithologist. “The bizarre thing was that people began to tell Titanic jokes.”
As they huddled together under foil blankets in the darkness, braving rough seas and bone-chilling winds, passengers were horrified to hear the engines roar back to life and then nearly back the ship into lifeboats.
Holiday maker Raymond King, 67, of Belfast said, “It was pretty horrific. It was wet, it was cold, it was scary. I’ve got the clothes I am wearing, my watch, my camera and that’s it.”
About six hours after the stricken vessel was abandoned, two ships that heard the Explorer’s distress calls approached the flotilla of black rubber Zodiacs, orange lifeboats and weary but uninjured survivors.
“I’m so relieved. I’m happy that everyone made it off the ship, because it could have been a big disaster,” said Mr Charne.
The Explorer, built in Finland in 1969, had a double steel bottom but not a complete double hull – a design developed after the Titanic’s tragic maiden voyage in 1912.
