MTS Oceanos

Sinking of the Oceanos

Wreck of the Oceanos

East London

Eastern Cape, South Africa

On 3 August 1991, Oceanos – initially delayed due to a bomb threat – set out from East London, South Africa and headed for Durban. Captain Yiannis Avranas (born c. 1940) had been an officer for twenty years and a seaman for thirty.[2][3] Oceanos headed into 40-knot winds and 9 m (30 ft) swells.[1] Usually, there would have been a "sail-away" party on deck with the ship's musicians and British entertainers Moss and Tracy Hills. However, due to the rough seas, this was held inside in the Four Seasons lounge; most passengers chose to stay in their cabins.

The storm worsened as the evening progressed and when the first sitting of dinner was served, the waiters could hardly carry the trays of food without dropping something. Eventually Oceanos was rolling about from side to side so badly that crockery and cutlery began sliding off the tables and potted plants fell over.

While trying to make up time due to the earlier delay, Oceanos encountered rough seas. Earlier repairs to the waste disposal system had not been completed, which meant that a vital ventilation pipe which ran through the watertight aft bulkhead and the non-return valves was not replaced. It is believed that after a series of freak waves slammed against the ship, the pipe's shell plating burst open and began filling the compartment with seawater. At about 9:30 p.m., a muffled explosion was heard and Oceanos lost power. The ship started taking on water, rapidly flooding the engine room. By the next morning rescuers found Oceanos adrift just off Coffee Bay, listing badly to its starboard side.[4]

As no alarm or announcement had been given that the ship was in trouble, several passengers went to the bridge to look for the crew, only to find it unmanned. Moss Hills then used the radio phone to broadcast a mayday distress call until a ship answered.[5] Of the sixteen rescue helicopters that came out to the ship, thirteen were South African Air Force (SAAF) Pumas, nine of which hoisted 225 passengers off the deck.[6] They were assisted by the lifeboats of the Dutch cargo ship Nedlloyd Mauritius, which had responded to the distress call.

All 571 people on board were saved. Hills organized the orderly evacuation of passengers[7] by the helicopters and is generally acknowledged as the leading hero of the event. Hills and fellow entertainer Julian Butler[8] directed the efforts of the entertainment staff, which included Hills' wife Tracy and Robin Boltman,[9] to assist the passengers. According to Boltman, "later in the morning, Captain Avarnasi (sic) even contacted me from shore to ask how things were going."[10] Butler and the Hillses were among the last five to be rescued.[11]

Among the entertainers onboard was the South African cabaret performer, Alvon Collison, who reportedly told a Cape Town Press Club gathering afterwards that he began singing an impromptu repertoire as the ship was sinking, in an effort to keep the passengers' spirits up. In his characteristic style, he managed to weave a comical moment into his narrative of the tumultuous events, telling reporters that he had started singing "American Pie", when he suddenly realised that the next line was going to be "This’ll be the day that I die” - and quickly switched to another song.[12]

After many officers and crew had abandoned ship, women and children were given priority when loading the lifeboats by cruise director Lorraine Betts. Later, after the ship's list had become so severe that the remaining lifeboats were rendered useless, the remaining passengers had to be airlifted onto SAAF helicopters by means of a safety harness. Betts again insisted that women and children be rescued first.

The following day, at approximately 15:30 UTC+2, Oceanos rolled over onto her starboard side and sank by the bow. The last fifteen minutes of her sinking was captured on video and broadcast by ABC News.[13]

Captain Avranas and his crew were criticized for leaving hundreds of passengers behind with no one other than the ship's entertainers to help them evacuate. Avranas received extensive media coverage as an example of unprofessional behaviour whilst in command.[10][14][15][16] Avranas tried to defend his actions by claiming that he left the ship first to arrange for a rescue effort, and then supervised the rescue from a helicopter. He justified his actions saying the "ship was in darkness and the batteries on the crew's walkie-talkies had died, meaning that he had no communications with his crew or with other rescue craft". Avranas was quoted as saying, "When I order abandon the ship, it doesn't matter what time I leave. Abandon is for everybody. If some people like to stay, they can stay." The captain and some of the crew were convicted of negligence by a Greek board of inquiry for fleeing the ship without helping the passengers.[17]

Alevizos Klaudatos, head of Epirotiki Lines, was quoted as saying: "Of course the crew members assigned to the boats have to enter first in order to assist the embarkation of the passengers ... as regards the captain abandoning the vessel, this is untrue and he has maintained his position throughout in assisting the rescue in the most effective way".[10] Epirotiki Lines had lost two other ships within the three years preceding the sinking:[18] the company's flagship Pegasus only two months before, and MV Jupiter, three years before.

Dateline NBC aired a documentary of the incident on 23 May 2010. The sinking is the subject of a song called "Oceanos" by Celtic rock band Coast. It was also discussed in an episode of Nova on 18 April 2012, entitled, "Why Ships Sink", which focused mainly on the Costa Concordia accident (whose commanding officer also fled while passengers were still aboard) and how it related to the Titanic. Hills was interviewed in the special, and related that some years later he had been on board when the MS Achille Lauro of Star Lauro sank. The rescue featured in episode 4 of Shockwave, first aired 21 December 2007.[5] The NPR radio show and podcast Snap Judgment featured a first person account of the sinking as told by Moss Hills.[19] The show Extreme Weather: The Survivors featured a segment on the sinking.