Reports indicate that at around 21:30 off the Wild Coast of the Transkei, the Oceanus Cruise ship lost its power following an explosion in the engine room. But his or her responsibility extends to executing the evacuation plan that all passenger ships are required to have and practice. Others respect it as "an unwritten rule or law of the sea," said Capt. I just watched national geografic program about the Oceanos tragedy. Being one of the worlds most difficult wrecks to reach and successfully dive, the Oceanos offers great rewards for technical divers at the top of their game. What happened to the Italian cruise ship captain? But in interviews, Captain Avranas was unapologetic for leaving the ship ahead of others, saying he was better able to direct rescue efforts from shore. Although Smith had ordered the boats uncovered some 40 minutes earlier, he didnt give the order to begin loading and lowering them until Second Officer Charles Lightoller reminded him by asking, Hadnt we better get the women and children into the boats, sir?. What happened to the captain of the Oceanos? - AnswersAll Life seems to have been unaware that immediately after Silent Smiths death in 1915, the Lima News had identified the man as one Michael McKenna. Midday, the sea spills over the bow of Oceanos. Originally built as a passenger/cargo vessel, the Oceanos underwent massive reconstruction by the time she came to operate as a cruise liner for Epirotiki Lines of Greece. A 2:20 a.m., the last portion of the Titanic disappeared between the waves. Physical and psychological training, descent strategies, bottom times, gas mixes, decompression profiles, equipment, and logistical planning; all these considerations had to be finalized before the team arrived on location at the Hole in the Wall hotel, where supportive technical diving and medical infrastructures do not exist. In the immediate aftermath of the disaster, newspapers cast Smith as a hero, the brave captain who went down with his ship. Only entertainment staff, singers and waiters helped us later. I would avoid any cruise that involves a Greek ship! Updated: April 12, 2023 | Original: November 12, 2020. In Moby-Dick, Captain Ahab sets off to hunt the whale, leaving the capable Starbuck in charge. Best Known For: Captain Edward J. Smith played a role in one of the most famous disasters at sea in history, the sinking of the Titanic in 1912. The Oceanos thrust her stern into the air and slid nose first into the sea. Five divers, including the late Rehan Bouwer, made four attempts to reach the Oceanos, but only succeeded twice, and then only for a matter of minutes. Within eight minutes I closed the waterproof doors. dontpanik, July 2, 2007 in What Ever Happened To..??? She headed into 40-knot (20m/s) winds and 9m (30ft) swells. 1940) [1] is a Greek former sea captain who commanded the cruise ship Oceanos when she sank off the Wild Coast of the Transkei, South Africa, on Sunday 4 August 1991. For a moment, they disappeared where had the bubbles gone? We strive for accuracy and fairness. The Oceanos arrived in South Africa in 1991. Smith was accused of ignoring ice warnings from other ships and failing to reduce the ships speed to fit the conditions at hand. When the team arrived at the wreck marker buoys, it was evident that the current was almost non-existent and the wind and swell had all but disappeared. Both literature and real life offer plenty of examples of shipmasters who paid the ultimate sacrifice to protect their passengers and crew. [20][21], Dateline NBC aired a documentary of the incident on 23 May 2010. Oceanos headed into 40-knot winds and 9 m (30 ft) swells. There is some film on YOUTUBE showing the sinking of the Oceanos. Meanwhile the extraction was completely broken, the engine room was filling water and tilting forward the ship. Davina Avrana. He and fellow entertainer Julian Butler[8] directed the efforts of the entertainment staff - including Robin Boltman - to assist them. READ MORE: Why Nobody Remembers America's Worst Maritime Disaster. Often, as in the case of Schettino, charges are brought based not on dereliction of maritime duty but for offenses that might pertain on land as well, such as negligence and manslaughter. All 571 passengers and crew survived. 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 "Bye Bye Miss American Pie", when he suddenly realised that the next line was going to be "Thisll be the day that I die" - and quickly switched to another song[14][15], Hills later said that searching for Captain Avranas, he had discovered him smoking on the fantail and he said "I think he was in deep, deep shock. The day of the first dive had dawned. MTS Oceanos was a French-built and Greek-owned cruise ship that sank in 1991 when she suffered uncontrolled flooding. The current on the surface was running reverse, and there was no sign of the dreaded Northeaster. They accused the crew and the captain, but if there werent good moves with so much inconvenience and so much wave who would be saved? According to Boltman, "later in the morning, Captain Avarnasi [sic] even contacted me from shore to ask how things were going. What Was the Titanic's Captain Doing While the Ship Sank? - History We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. A little more than an hour after impact, the crew began to evacuate the ship. In addition, Pryals doctor attested that he was absolutely sane and not given to hallucinations., In fact, Pryal said he had seen Smith twice, once on a Wednesday and again the following Saturday, when he returned to the same spot to look for him. The international and some Greek media condemned the attitude of Captain Yiannis Avranas. "Abandon is for everybody. The decision was to be his last as captain of the Oceanos. The most famous, perhaps, is the captain of the Titanic, E.J. The ship started taking on water, rapidly flooding the engine room. Regular drills ensure everyone knows what to do. [14] He was never incarcerated and Epirotiki gave him command of a ferry until his retirement. But is it realistic to expect skippers only human after all to suppress their survival instinct amid the horror of a maritime disaster? How did the Oceanos go into the sea? A Greek board of inquiry found Avranas and four officers negligent in their handling of the disaster. On 3 August 1991, the Oceanos - initially delayed due to a bomb threat - set out from East London, South Africa and headed for Durban.Captain Yiannis Avranas (born ca. Creating equal decompression profiles for the two systems was a difficult task for Barry that took many hours of calculation. The open-circuit diver is therefore restricted in terms of profile and dive time due to the chosen static supply of gas content and quantity carried. Captains accused of leaving prematurely often claim they can manage the situation better from the safety of a lifeboat, rescue vessel or on shore. In more than 40 years at sea he had rarely been involved in an accident and never held accountable for one. Still hoping to get the attention of the mysterious ship nearby, the captain ordered the firing of distress rockets at 12:45 a.m. At the same time, Boxhall tried to contact it with a signal lamp, flashing a plea for help in Morse code. Through the confusion,the captain somehow made it into a lifeboat before everyone else had made it off. But whatever relief Smith might have felt at that moment was quickly shattered. He said he supervised the . Is the Oceanos still at the bottom of the ocean? Schettino reportedly said he ended up in a life raft after he tripped and fell into the water. At this stage, eyewitness accounts reveal that many of the crew, including Captain Avranas, were already packed and ready to depart. The team retired for the night, hoping that conditions would improve. Those who did earned instant infamy, like the captain of the Greek luxury liner Oceanos, which sank in rough seas off South Africa in 1991. Meanwhile, he told the ships two wireless operators to get ready to transmit distress signals. Barry Coleman was yelling, Its a good day to dive, I can feel it in my bones! Well, a good day it certainly was! They had returned them as they had sent them., Two babies, one 22 days old and the other one year old I put them down with a bucket (bucket) on the boat, he says. Smiths body was never recovered, and his final moments remain a mystery, with no shortage of conflicting accountsincluding one in which he jumped off the ship holding a baby. All three divers were ecstatic and eager to make the most of the prevailing conditions; the second dive was scheduled for the following day. (Reuter) | Aug 07, 1991 8:00PM EDT. Her bow hit the sand 92m below the surface, while more than 60m of her stern remained aloft; minutes later, she was gone. Then, about two years ago, South African technical divers Barry Coleman and Brett Hawton decided it was time to revisit the Oceanos. It's shameful. I never saw the captain among us helping, he says.. Oceanos was very poorly maintained while simultaneously operating in one of the most dangerous and rough areas of the oceans. He says he lowered the switches, stopped the power generators and the ships engines. In the U.S., case law indicates that a ship's master must be the last person to leave and make all reasonable efforts to save everyone and everything on it. "It is my responsibility. But the report noted that some passengers testified that they didnt hear the alarm to proceed to the lifeboats. [9], A Greek board of inquiry found Avranas and four officers negligent in their handling of the disaster. The ship's captain, Yiannis Avranas, had 30 years' experience at sea. After five days of staying at the hotel, the other Greek sailors with the assistance of the Greek consular authorities also escaped. There was no stopping the flooding and no hope for the Oceanos sinking. This statement has placed the 51-year-old . He was never incarcerated and Epirotiki gave him command of a ferry until his retirement. Smith's body was never recovered, and his final moments remain a mysterywith no shortage of conflicting accounts. [citation needed] An inflatable had to be launched to rescue some passengers who panicked and jumped into the water. The one who abandoned ship along with his officers and crew and left the entertainers aboard to organize the rescue in August of 1991 off the African coast? "If you are leader, you have responsibility for your people, they put their lives in your hands.". The divers had penetrated 70m into the wreck with the aid of the scooters. In between, however, the first engineer was terrified. Maritime officials who did not want to be quoted said it was . So began the worst night of Edward John Smiths otherwise charmed life. Moving toward the bow, bad visibility and a substantially more damaged part of the wreck greeted the divers. Everyone on board the cruise ship Oceanos was safe and accounted for Monday, but survivors angrily accused the . Many famous naval disasters happen far out at sea, but on January 13, 2012, the Costa Concordia wrecked just off the coast of an Italian island in relatively shallow water. Being one of the worlds most difficult wrecks to reach and successfully dive, the Oceanos offers great rewards for technical divers at the top of their game. The Costa Concordia, carrying more than 4,200 passengers and crew, slammed into a reef on Friday, after Schettino made an unauthorized maneuver. Ten minutes later, by the surviving operators estimate, he returned and gave them the order to send out a CQD, the universal distress call that was soon replaced with an SOS. The sinking of Oceanos - NBC News Then he returned and oversaw the operation from the air. As in August, throughout the two-week period of the expedition, they only managed to reach the wreck on two occasions with a maximum bottom time of eight minutes. Even if he's not convicted, it is highly unlikely that he'll ever command a cruise or cargo ship again because of the damage to his reputation, said Prof. Craig Allen of the U.S. Coast Guard Academy in New London, Connecticut. He was never incarcerated and Epirotiki gave him command of a ferry until his retirement. In last year's Star Trek Into Darkness, the bad guy taunts Captain Kirk by saying, "No ship should go down without her captain.". [15], Prior to the events of January 1991, Avranas had apparently given no interview to the media. "[5] Hills reportedly rescued Avranas' dog and released his canary. "Shoreside rescue people can do all the shoreside coordination efforts needed," he said. Evidence introduced in Schettinos trial suggests that the safety of his passengers and crew wasnt his number one priority as he assessed the damage to the Concordia. "[16][19] In 1992, he and five other officers were convicted of negligence by a Greek board of inquiry for fleeing the ship without helping the passengers. International standards for sea captains vary. For many years, seasoned technical diver, Barry Coleman, has had one consuming desire: to dive the Oceanos. Use of this site is governed by the User Agreement, Privacy Policy(function(w,d){var loader=function(){var s=d.createElement("script"),tag=d.getElementsByTagName("script")[0];s.src="https://cdn.iubenda.com/iubenda.js";tag.parentNode.insertBefore(s,tag);};if(w.addEventListener){w.addEventListener("load",loader,false);}else if(w.attachEvent){w.attachEvent("onload",loader);}else{w.onload=loader;}})(window,document); and Disclosure Policy. What should I say to the media? To the port authorities I have said that we hada blackout. (Ferrarini was later convicted for contributing to the disaster by delaying rescue operations.). The avoidable disaster killed 32 people and seriously injured many others, and left investigators wondering: Why was the luxury cruise ship sailing so close to the shore in the first place? Passengers remained ignorant of the events taking place until they witnessed the first signs of flooding in the lower decks. The captain went up to the third of these. By Philip G Van Rensburg. Maritime experts said the tradition of a captain standing by his ship isn't established in international maritime law. On open-circuit scuba, the exhaled breath is not fed back into the system but is expelled and is no longer useable. 2023, A&E Television Networks, LLC. The remaining members of the team waited on the boat; some recalled the video footage they had seen of the previous dive made on Monday afternoon and tried to imagine themselves being down there on the wreck with them. An iceberg, sir, First Officer William Murdoch replied. . Reinforced when Capt. "[9] They were among the last to be rescued. Copyright 2023 CBS Interactive Inc. All rights reserved. [16][11][17][18] He stated that he left the ship first to arrange for a rescue effort, and then supervised the rescue from a helicopter because "the batteries on the crew's walkie-talkies had died, meaning that he had no communications with his crew or with other rescue craft". The bridge section, however, appeared to have collapsed, leaving a field of debris on the sand below. He was sentenced to 16 years in prison. An often asked question is what happened to the captain of the oceans at this stage, eyewitness accounts reveal that many of the crew, including Captain Avranias, were already packed and ready to depart, seemingly unconcerned with the safety of the passengers. And on the boat what could he do in addition., The circumstances were tragic and my responsibility was more than great. The Agulhas shifts an estimated volume of 70 x 106m3/s down the East Coast of South Africa, making it the most powerful current on the globe. All 571 people on board were saved, following one of the worlds most dramatic and successful rescue operations of its kind. [5], 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 were not replaced. [2], At the time of the accident, Yiannis Avranas had been an officer for twenty years and a seaman for thirty. However, rough seas caused the party to be held inside in the Four Seasons lounge;[5] most passengers chose to stay in their cabins. [10][failed verification], Avranas claimed that he left the ship first in order to arrange for a rescue effort,[11] and then supervised it from a helicopter. ISSN 1469-865X | Copyright 1996 - 2022 deeperblue.net limited. There were also 12 inflatable rescue media on the cruise ship. "There must be a point at which I would think that now it is time to jump into the water so I don't die," he said. [1], Oceanos was launched in July 1952 by Forges et Chantiers de la Gironde in Bordeaux, France as Jean Laborde, the last of four sister ships built for Messageries Maritimes. http://www.aolvideoblog.com/2007/08/21/crew-bails-on-passengers-of-sinking-cruise-liner/. [citation needed], While trying to make up lost time, Oceanos encountered rough seas. Maritime experts say such manifestations of courage at sea far outnumber incidents in which captains saved themselves and left their passengers behind. Avranas was charged with misconduct after it was discovered that he and numerous crew members left the ship while the passengers remained behind. This day turned out much better than expected. She came to rest on her starboard side almost perpendicular to the coastline, with her bow facing seaward. It was an event that ended with the sinking of a family cruise shi. On the morning of July 12, 1952, Forges Chantiers de la Gironde launched the last of four sister ships in Bordeaux, France, under the name of Jean Laborde. Rescue helicopters began arriving three hours later, and winched passengers and remaining crew to safety, with Hills continuing in charge of the orderly evacuation. Captain Davina Avranas English wife aboard the ship with their daughter Faye. While the ship could have stayed afloat with up to four flooded compartments, depending on their location, five tipped into catastrophic territory. Seamen have expressed almost universal outrage at Capt. / AP. Barry and Paul were on closed-circuit rebreathers, a Buddy Inspiration rebreather, and a CIS-Lunar MK5P rebreather, respectively. As author Wyn Craig Wade wrote in The Titanic: End of a Dream, Captain Smith had at least five different deaths, from heroic to ignominious. Rumors of his survival also circulated. At 12:05 a.m. Smith gave orders to uncover the lifeboats and alert the passengers. Heres some good live video when it happened!!! What happened to the cruise ship Oceanos? This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies. Three years later she wrote in her book entitled, The Tragedy of the Oceanos: Christos Nikolaou, an Oceanist, had a relative who was an executive at the Panhellenic Federation. IIRC his response to being in a life boat was, "he was oraganizing the rescue effort! We meet him in Piraeus, where he lives after his retirement. Once complete, the team focused on preparing for the dives. The captain of the Oceanos was an experienced seaman Yiannis Avranas, who had been sailing the oceans for 30 years, including 20 years as an officer. The Italian captain went back onboard the wreck for the first time since the sinking of the cruise ship on January 13, 2012, as part of his trial for manslaughter and abandoning ship. Yiannis Avranas not only abandoned the Greek cruise ship Oceanos after it suffered an explosion off the coast of South Africa but cut ahead of an elderly passenger to be hoisted aloft by a helicopter. Fourth Officer Joseph G. Boxhall made a quick inspection of the ship and returned to the bridge to report that he had found no damage. What Happened to the Captain of the Cruise Ship Oceanos? What happened to the captain of the Oceanos ship? The technology means that the rebreather diver uses significantly less gas, has reduced nitrogen uptake, and subsequently fewer decompression requirements. Smith was back in the news in 1940, when a letter in Life magazine suggested that the captain had ended his days as an elderly derelict in Lima, Ohio, known as Silent Smith. Among the evidence: The man had arrived in town three years after the Titanic disaster, would only give his name as Smith, was about Smiths age and size, and bore the sort of tattoos common among seafarers. [5] The final minutes of her sinking were captured on video and broadcast by ABC News. Those who did earned instant infamy, like the captain of the Greek luxury liner Oceanos, which sank in rough seas off South Africa in 1991. 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.