"Really bad, it's looking really bad right now."

September 28, 2024 1:54 AM

Thirty years ago, on 28 September 1994, the MS Estonia sank in the Baltic Sea claiming 852 lives. MS Estonia was a ro-ro cruiseferry that sank on Wednesday, 28 September 1994, between about 00:50 and 01:50 (UTC+2) as the ship was crossing the Baltic Sea, en route from Tallinn, Estonia, to Stockholm, Sweden. "The sinking was one of the worst maritime disasters of the 20th century. It is one of the deadliest peacetime sinkings of a European ship, after the Titanic in 1912 and the Empress of Ireland in 1914, and the deadliest peacetime shipwreck to have occurred in European waters, with 852 (out of 989) lives lost." wikipedia

The official report indicated that the locks on the bow door – from which wheeled cargo entered the ship – had failed from the strain of the waves and the door had separated from the rest of the vessel, pulling the ramp behind it ajar at approximately 01:15, and by 01:30 the ship had rolled 60 degrees and by 01:50 the list was 90 degrees and the the ship disappeared from radar. "Ships rescued 34 and helicopters 104 (out of 989 people on board); the ferries played a much smaller part than the planners had intended because it was too dangerous to launch their man-overboard boats or lifeboats. Most of the victims died by drowning and hypothermia, as the water temperature was 10–11 °C (50–52 °F)."

A lot more technical data is available in the official report. The Atlantic covered the story in 2004. Here is an article in Estonian World: The sinking of MS Estonia: 30 years of unanswered questions. More info about the 2023 survey of the wreck site. Previously in 2014.

posted by fridgebuzz (24 comments total)

Previously in 2004.

I was eleven years old, and remember waking up to get ready to go to school and my mother watching the news. It was horrible. Later on I realised that I'd actually seen MS Estonia when the ship was called Wasa King just a year or two earlier when we took it's sister ship Wasa Queen from Vaasa, Finland to I think Sundsvall, Sweden and back.
posted by fridgebuzz at 1:59 AM on September 28 [6 favorites]

Thanks for this - I didn't realize today was the 30th anniversary.

I have to admit I wasn't as familiar with the disaster (I was only 13 when it happened) until I moved to Sweden a couple of years ago, but have learned a great deal about it since then. Have also been to the memorial in Stockholm which I'd highly recommend.

I remember watching a great Netflix documentary on it which was a great and sobering overview of it all, wish I could find it now. I haven't had time to watch it yet but Estonia also came out last year to pretty good reviews. It is a multi-part series in a similar vein to Chernobyl, I think one of the directors even worked on it.
posted by photo guy at 3:34 AM on September 28 [4 favorites]

I still remember that. A big part of the problem was that the vessel went down so quickly - but the mishandling of the Mayday call - and mis-relaying it as a pan-pan call by one of the other ferries - was another tragic aspect. For some reason the acronym "MIRPDANIO" is lodged in my head as describing the contents and sequence that is necessary to raise a mayday call. If you are ever in charge of any kind of boat or ship, it is worth remembering - before it might be needed.
posted by rongorongo at 4:03 AM on September 28 [7 favorites]

The story in the Atlantic was terrifying. A theme among the survivors who were belowdecks seems to have been leaving, with hardly any hesitation, any traveling companions or loved ones who weren't in top physical form. Sounds like a pretty bleak indictment of humanity, except that we don't hear from those who were determined to help others because they're all dead. All reports seem to suggest that the ship listed so suddenly that interior spaces went from "completely normal" to "traversable by people in good physical shape" to "completely impossible to escape" within minutes and that everyone who lingered even a little bit was doomed. It's terrible to escape like that — I can't help but think they're plagued by nightmares, even as, intellectually, they surely know absolutely nothing they could have done would have helped, and that even offering perfunctory comfort before leaving would have just meant their own death.
posted by jackbishop at 4:17 AM on September 28 [15 favorites]

Here is an archive link for the Atlantic story, didn't realise it is behind paywall.
posted by fridgebuzz at 4:45 AM on September 28 [6 favorites]

Mod note: Deleted: Long transcript of satirical comedy sketch on a similar incident
posted by taz (staff) at 5:58 AM on September 28 [17 favorites]

The Estonia sank over a year after the much smaller Jan Heweliusz sank for the exact same reason, with a likewise botched rescue effort though the sinking wasn't as catastrophic and most people got out only to succumb to hypothermia in the water or drown waiting for rescue. It took the much bigger Estonia to change safety regulations.
posted by I claim sanctuary at 8:06 AM on September 28 [3 favorites]

That Atlantic article is downright terrifying. The folks at the "Well, There's Your Problem" podcast did an episode about it.
posted by rmd1023 at 9:25 AM on September 28 [2 favorites]

wow, I had not realized this was 30 years ago. I do remember it well, and have read a bit about it, including analysis of what went wrong, how the few survivors managed to do so. (basically, you had to have done every single thing the one exactly right way, or you were toast. so a handful of people made the right choices, probably by instinct or luck.)
posted by supermedusa at 10:02 AM on September 28 [1 favorite]

I was supposed to meet two guys I’d worked with on a project at a convention on the 28th, they were coming over on the Estonia. I heard of the sinking on the radio on the way over. Both of them drowned, along with at least a dozen more that were coming over for the convention. It’s heartbreaking that survivors and relatives still don’t feel they have closure 30 years later.
posted by boogieboy at 11:17 AM on September 28 [13 favorites]

I'm an enthusiastic sailor, and I completed a course that earned me Canada's 'licence' for marine VHF, and that included Mayday procedures, but I hadn't heard of that MIRPDANIO acronym, so thanks rongorongo for that.

Yeah, a terrifying tragedy. You'd hope that the design of these ships would be such that if they do take on water, they'd still remain upright for as long as possible so that more people can get to lifeboats.
posted by Artful Codger at 12:05 PM on September 28 [1 favorite]

The part that always sticks with me about Langewiesche's piece is the thieves. Ship is sinking, and they decide it's a great opportunity to rob everyone who made it onto the deck. I guess there can be satisfaction taken in the fact that they decided to go back down to rob more people, and thus almost certainly drowned, but man... humans. Best and worst, I guess, since there were people who struggled desperately to keep others afloat.
posted by tavella at 12:14 PM on September 28 [5 favorites]

The Atlantic link is the definitive account, authored by famed engineering and aviation safety author William Langewiesche. If this sort of thing is for you, search out his other works, many of which are hosted on longform.
posted by j_curiouser at 12:55 PM on September 28 [14 favorites]

Artful C: You'd hope that the design of these ships would be such that if they do take on water, they'd still remain upright . . .
RORO ships are _designed_ to allow cars and trucks to drive on and off quickly to minimize turn-around time. This requires car decks with enormous "free surface" areas which are no problem until water slops in. A car deck, say 20m x 120m, and ankle-deep in water from the broken bow doors has 240 tonnes of liquid pounding towards whichever side is lower: allowing more water ingress as the list increases. Perhaps RORO car decks could be designed to have water-proof baffles rise up after the vehicles are loaded but that would reduce the carrying capacity, decrease efficiency and raise the price.
My uncle, a magistrate in Dover UK, was co-opted onto the compensation committee set up after the Herald of Free Enterprise, another RORO ferry, fell over leaving Zeebrugge in 1987. The compo aftermath was a whole other set of stories, not all heroic.
posted by BobTheScientist at 12:58 PM on September 28 [6 favorites]

Thanks Bob.

Note that the ferry had the cross-section of a shipping container. - flat bottom, vertical sides. Why not a bit more of a keel; a little bit of vee, so that incoming water would end up closer to the centerline, helping preserve righting moment, instead of flowing to a side, causing a capsize?

Or a below-deck layout that can behave as buoyancy compartments?

I'm sure there are nautical engineering reasons (other than economics, i hope), but it just seems strange not to put in more 'survivability' into such vessels that carry people.
posted by Artful Codger at 1:31 PM on September 28 [1 favorite]

As a Seattle resident, I have driven on/off our ferries more times than I can count.

We don't have any kind of bow cover, but Puget Sound seems to not get these kinds of high seas?
Will not drive on a ferry in bad weather I guess? Terrifying.

Many
.
posted by Windopaene at 3:29 PM on September 28 [2 favorites]

In the mid 90s i used to take the ferry between Vancouver and Victoria every week. Every once and a while the waves would be too large and we couldn't board. But much more worrying was the time we had already made the transit and the waves were too large to allow docking. Ya, that was a bad couple of hours with this event still fresh.
posted by Mitheral at 3:42 PM on September 28 [2 favorites]

That story in The Atlantic is single-handed responsible for my refusal to go on any cruise with my kids, since it was abundantly clear that as terrifying an experience as that was, it would be worse with a small child. I will not be rereading it.
posted by bq at 5:37 PM on September 28

There is a tragically long list of roll on/roll-off vessel accidents, including many capsizings and fires. The combination of large numbers of passengers, flammable automobiles, wide loading doors, and time pressure to keep to a schedule seem to be a challenging operating environment.
posted by autopilot at 1:16 AM on September 29 [1 favorite]

oof, that list. nightmare fuel. The free surface effect is grim physics.
posted by lalochezia at 4:54 AM on September 29 [1 favorite]

I sail on square riggers and am pretty used to being out at night, in rough conditions, a long way from help. I won't say it doesn't scare me, but it's something I'm conditionally comfortable with, from trust built up in the ship and the rest of the crew over long experience.

But after a passage, I often end up on a ferry for some part of the way home from wherever we ended up, and if it's dark and rough, you'll find me sitting no more than twenty feet from an outside door. Langewiesche's writing is seared into my soul.
posted by automatronic at 12:40 PM on September 29 [5 favorites]

Have you read "Tall Ships Down", automatronic? I've given (PDF) copies to everyone I've sailed with and we've spent many a slow night watch discussing what went wrong with the Pamir, Albatross, Marques, Pride of Baltimore, and Maria Asumpta. There are many similarity with the Ro-Ro incidents -- open hatches, shifting cargoes, fires, life raft issues, unexpected weather -- and I'm always worried about my own sleep deprivation after a long voyage, especially with the Swedish Watch many tall ships use.
posted by autopilot at 12:14 AM on September 30

I note that this includes the story of the Toya Naru - one of 4 ferries that sunk on the same night off the coast of Japan, when a typhoon that had been predicted to pass by, stayed put instead. North of 1,000 lives lost from that vessel.
posted by rongorongo at 4:04 AM on September 30

you'll find me sitting no more than twenty feet from an outside door.

Yeah, that story and the MV Sewol incident impressed on me that if a ship starts to get in the slightest trouble, get on deck no matter what the crew says, or at least one door away from the deck.
posted by tavella at 8:35 AM on September 30