Unthinkable_ Who Survives When Disaster Strikes - and Why - Amanda Ripley [96]
The sinking of the MV Estonia ferry in the Baltic Sea on the night of September 28, 1994, was the worst sea disaster in modern European history. It was followed by years of official reports, conspiracy theories, and recrimination. But one mystery has received relatively little attention: in the horrific final moments aboard the ferry, witnesses reported later, a surprising number of passengers did exactly nothing.
The Estonia had left its home port in Tallinn, Estonia, on a routine fifteen-hour trip to Stockholm, Sweden. The massive roll-on, roll-off automobile ferry was fancier than most. It had a pool, sauna, casino, and three restaurants. It was a symbol of the newly independent, free-market nation of Estonia. Almost all 989 people onboard had sleeping cabins. Although the weather had been stormy all night, the crew did not expect serious problems. A band was playing in the Baltic Bar, and the ten-deck vessel churned through the inky waters as it had for fourteen years. It had passed two inspections earlier that month. And it carried the required number of lifeboats and life jackets.
Kent Härstedt, now a member of Sweden’s parliament, was a passenger on the boat that night. He was then twenty-nine, and he was there because he had helped to organize a “peace conference” to bring together businesspeople from around the Baltic Sea. In the aftermath of the cold war, the conference, sponsored by the Swedish government, was meant to foster peace through economic codependence. “The idea was that if we had more trade, more business, we wouldn’t so easily want to have war,” he says now. The conference was going well. It had started in Estonia and then continued on the sea onboard the giant ferry. During a break in the itinerary that afternoon, Härstedt took a sauna on the ship. It was then that he noticed the water in the pool sloshing back and forth. “Normally, these ferries are so huge that you can barely notice that the boat is rocking,” Härstedt says. “But to see that in the pool, that was the first [clue].”
Later, Härstedt went to dinner, but he felt seasick. He left to take a nap in his cabin. He woke up around 10:30 P.M. to the sound of a slamming noise. Later, he would wonder if this was the beginning of the disaster. But at the time, he figured that some piece of cargo must have been improperly secured. Feeling rejuvenated from his nap, he went back to the restaurant to join his colleagues. He sat down and ordered a Coke. This particular restaurant had a band and a dance floor, and Härstedt remembers how he and his colleagues amused themselves by watching people try to dance on the tottering boat. “They had to hold each other and run from one side to the next, with the waves. It looked really quite funny. I started to joke with my friends. I said, ‘This is almost like the Titanic. Soon they will give us champagne.’” Once dancing became impossible, and people started to leave the restaurant, Härstedt and a colleague moved to a bar in another part of the ship. The bar was full of about fifty people, he remembers. “All the people were having quite a good time. There was karaoke music. My friend and I sat down on two stools at the bar. We were in a good mood. Everybody was laughing and singing.”
Just after 1:00 A.M., the Estonia suddenly listed starboard a full thirty degrees, hurling passengers, vending machines, and flowerpots across its passageways. In the bar, almost everyone fell violently against the side of the boat. Härstedt managed to grab on to the iron bar railing and hold on, hanging above everyone else. “In just one second, everything went from a loud, happy, wonderful moment to total silence. Every brain, I guess, was working like a computer trying to realize what had happened.” Then came the screaming and crying. People had been badly hurt in the fall, and the tilt of the ship made it extremely difficult to move.
Though no one knew it, everyone onboard the Estonia had just ten minutes before the starboard side of the vessel would be submerged and the tilt would become almost