SCHRIFTENREIHE SCHIFFBAU Festschrift anlässlich des 100 ...

He informed the Second Officer B (C47) about what he had heard and was ordered to try to
find out what had caused the crash. He did so and according to his several testimonies
everything seemed to be normal. His call with a walkie-talkie to the bridge was overheard:
According to the testimonies of two crew members (C6, C15) the seaman of the watch had
said to the bridge that there was quite a lot of water on the vehicle deck. Perhaps this was
normal.
Further observations of unusual noise, 2-3 heavy bangs from the ship bow, were made by
passengers at about 00:55-01:00. Obviously the loose bow visor was hammering against the
forepeak deck and the bow ramp. The Third Engineer in the ECR heard the bangs. Shortly
afterwards he felt that the ship was developing a list and went to look at the monitor showing
the bow ramp. He saw that water was forcing in at the sides of the ramp. The ramp was in a
closed or almost closed position.
When the seaman of the watch returned from his round, he caught up the master and
entered the bridge just behind him at 00:58. The heavy blows at the bow were being reported
to the bridge by telephone just when he entered the bridge. The captain asked how many
engines were running and commented that they were already one hour late. Shortly
afterwards the seaman of the watch was sent down by the Second Officer A (C48) to the car
deck to find out the cause of the sounds reported to the bridge. After leaving the bridge he
went to the information desk on the Deck 5. There he experienced the sudden large heeling
(at 01:02) and did not anymore manage to reach the vehicle deck.
According to JAIC (1997) at 01:00 the watch on the bridge was taken over by the Second
Officer A (C48) and the Fourth Officer (C49). After being relieved the Second Officer B (C47)
and Third Officer (C50) left the bridge, but may have returned later.
At around 01:00-01:02 the ship heeled suddenly and heavily to starboard. Bottles and
glasses were falling off from shelves in the bars. Originally fixed heavy pieces of furniture
broke loose, started to slide toward starboard and crashed somewhere. Bags were sliding
against the cabins doors, and the alarm clock of passenger P92, dropped from a cabin table,
the battery got out, and the clock stopped at 00:02 Swedish time, that is, 01:02 on the ship’s
time.
At an early phase of the accident, perhaps around 00:55-01:05, the bow visor separated
from the ship and tilted over the stem. The ramp was probably pulled fully open, allowing
large amounts of water to enter the vehicle deck and to flow onto both sides of the center
casing. Very rapidly the ship took on a heavy starboard list due to the water flowing on to the
vehicle deck and due to the ship starting to turn to port. As a consequence the water sloshed
on the vehicle deck towards starboard against the port side wall of the center casing and
against the starboard side plating of the ship. Some water splashed or leaked into the
staircases in the center casing and flowed down to the cabin areas on Deck 1. This caused
further concern among the passengers already alarmed by the noises from the bow and the
sudden large heeling motions of the ship.
Passengers started to rush up the staircases and panic developed at many places. Some
passengers got showers in the staircases inside the center casing, when they started
upwards from Deck 1, as the staircase was constructed so that water from the staircase
platform on level Deck 2 could flow down as a water curtain on the persons in the stairs
below. Many passengers were trapped in their cabins and had little or no chance of getting
out in time. About 237-310 persons onboard succeeded in abandoning the ship. An
overwhelming majority of them headed to the higher port side of the vessel.
Lifejackets were distributed by some individual crew members to those passengers, who
managed to reach the boat deck. Persons, who got out of the ship, jumped or were washed
into the sea. Some managed to climb into life rafts, which had been released from the vessel.
No lifeboats could be launched due to the heavy list. As most people went to the higher port
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