"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 (6 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 [1 favorite]

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 [1 favorite]

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

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 [2 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 [1 favorite]

Mod note: Deleted: Long transcript of satirical comedy sketch on this incident
posted by taz (staff) at 5:58 AM on September 28