Japanese TV company

There is a Japanese TV company doing a documentary on the Oceanos, if there are any passengers or crew that are interested, please email me at oceanos.survivors(at)gmail.com. They are based in London so you won't have to go all the way to Japan!

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY !!!

To all my fellow Oceanos survivors, happy 16th anniversary. Hope you all have a wonderful day and remember how we were all given a second chance.

By the way I received my DVD's from the French interview, one of my collegues are going to show me how to put snippets up on the internet and then everyone can see it.

Message from another survivor

My name is Mignon Knoetze and I am a survivor of the Oceanos. I was working for South African Airways at the time. A lot of my friends and colleauges where on the Oceanos with me. I got onto the last life boat to leave the Oceanos. Being launched was very traumatic because of the weather but only the beginning of a long cold and frightening night. The life boat was ill equiped for our needs. During the night we tried to board one of the many ships trying to rescue us but because of the bad weather we could not even get close. We where on the life boat until it started getting light. At first light we heard an aircraft flying overhead. The nearest ship to us was the Great Nancy which was a huge oil tanker. The weather had not improved much so when we tried to approach the ship the life boat slammed into the side of the ship and we all nearly landed up in the propellor. We where all hauled up the side of the ship by the crew of the ship using ropes. The crew where wonderful to us and they did everything to make us comfortable with their limited resources. We sailed to Durban on the Great Nancy overnight. We where taken to a rescue centre where we where given something to eat. We where also allowed to make a phone call and checked by doctors before going to a hotel to clean up before being flown home via Johannesburg to East London. My parents and I where on the front page of the Daily Dispatch newspaper in East London. My brothers Etienne and Eugene where a great support to my parents while waiting to hear if I had survived. I would like to mention some other survivors that I do not see on your list who worked for or who are still working for South African Airways in East London. Eugene Sweetnam who has since passed away, Trevor Godden, Leeanne Strauss, Natalie Measures now Du Plessis, Andrew Montfort, Glen Hurn, Kevin Putzier, Merril Binneman

Oceanos: Deep Quest - Incredible

Well I watched the DVD the day I received it, but have not had anytime to update the blog. It was absolutely incredible and anyone who ever sailed on the Oceanos should buy this DVD. The DVD is about the first successful dive to the Oceanos which lies at the bottom of the Ocean almost 100 meters down, not far from "The hole in the wall", right in the path of the most treacherous and powerful current in the world the Agulhas current.

I think Barry Coleman must be the most incredible diver I have ever seen, all the guys who did the dive including the cameraman were very brave to do the dive, but the photography and images are something that you will remember all your life.

I am not a diver and don't see myself ever doing any dives, so this DVD I will treasure for the rest of my life and will watch it often.

For details on where to obtain the DVD please look at the post further down on this blog.

"Thank You" Andre Shirley!

Today my DVD arrived from Andre and before I say anymore I am going to pop it into the DVD player and watch it now! Thank you once again Andre and if you want a copy please look at Andre's contact details further down in the blog on how to order one.

Simulation of the Sinking of the Oceanos

Michael O'mahoney sent me this post that someone found on Youtube, it is a simulation of the sinking of the Oceanos and pretty interesting:

SURVIVE THIS : "Sinking of the Oceanos" 2007

At the begining of this year 2007 a reproduction of "Survive this - The sinking of the Oceanos" was broadcast on television, if anyone can provide me with a copy of this on DVD please email me. I have one that was broadcast back in the 90's also called Survive this (I think), but this is a new one.

Dive of "The Oceanos" DVD

Hi There,

Well I managed to contact a guy called Andre Shirley who did a dive to the Oceanos, he is sending me a copy of the DVD and has the same DVD on sale for anyone interested in receiving a copy. Prices will depend on costs of shipping and packaging, so if you would like to drop him and email at the following address please do so:

IANTD

Andre Shirley

http://www.iantd.co.za/

info@iantd.co.za

Once I receive the DVD and watch it I will tell you all about it here, my DVD from Vince in Paris is also on it's way - so I'm looking forward to some DVD watching!

I found this photograph on: http://www.deeperblue.net/article.php/439/%200/1 by Phillip G Van Rensburg who has his wonderful account of his dive on this site, please have a read it is really interesting.

Comments on "The Fax"

Barry Ronge comments on the fax that was sent out soon after the Oceanos sank, read the fax in the next post.

The fax that caused a stir

On board itinerary 3rd and 4th of August 1991

I happened to take my handbag with me when I was rescued on the helicopter and amongst some very important things that a woman always keeps in her handbag I managed to have the itinerary for the day, here is a scanned copy:

Photos taken from the Helicopter 040891

Passengers from Bloemfontein and Welkom

I received an E-mail from Mervyn, (this always tends to happen when I think that nobody reads my blog) Mervyn was a passenger on the Oceanos, he was the manager at Rennies in Bloemfontein in 1991, he has provided me with a list of the passengers from Rennies in Bloem and Welkom - Thank you Mervyn.

Hopefully we will get Mervyn's story to publish here and maybe a photograph.

Thanks once again Mervyn - Here is the list:

From Rennies Travel Bloemfontein:
Kotzé Mervyn
Kotzé Nicky
Hanton Peter
Hanton Maria
de Villiers Nell
de Villiers Anneli
Sarluis Michael (deceased)
Sarluis Nerina
Madden Frank
Madden Beaulah
Burger Sandra
Burger SP
Malherbe Nicolette
Holmes Liesel (deceased)
Mostert Mossie
Mostert Heleen
du Toit Wouter
du Toit Jeanette
van Zyl Anne
Geyer Shelley

From Rennies Travel Welkom:
de' Ath David
de' Ath Charmaine
van Wyk André
van Wyk Daphné
van der Watt Neels
van der Watt Jo-Anne

People involved in the Oceanos Resucue operation

Paul Wylie - Navy Diver

N.S.R.I.

SAAF

S.A.N.D.F.

15 Squadron

19 Squadron

22 Squadron - Ysterplaat

Ships involved in the Oceanos Rescue Operation

MS Kaszuby II
Nedlloyd Mauritius
The Great Nancy
The Reefer Duchess

TFC Crew

TFC Crew members aboard the Oceanos on the 4th of August 2007. Please note that these lists are not complete and as I get names I will add them to the list.

Betts Lorraine
Boltman Robin
Collison Alvon
Ellis Kevin
Greig Lynne
Hills Moss
Hills Tracey
Lester Terry
Louw Mara
Russell Julian
Schouw Tina

Passenger List

I started going through all my newspaper clippings tonight and only managed to get the following names for passengers, I will need to contact the NSRI and see if they can help with a list of names: (There are only 58 names here of the estimated 361) - I will add the Oceanos Crew and the TFC Crew separately.

Adamson Gail
Adamson John
Adamson John Jnr (Baby rescued from Lifeboat in a fire bucket)
Adamson Kari
Adamson Samantha
Allister Audrey
Amez-Droz Anne
Blackie Herman
Boucher Cliff
Boucher Lawrene
Bryceland Gary
Clue Child
Clue Mrs
Clue Robert
Evgeniou Costa
Evgeniou Litsa
Flavio Enrico
Grantham Kim
Grantham Robert
Grove Derek
Grove Jenny
Hicklin John
Hutton-Brown Charles
Hutton-Brown Dulcie
Kemp Rose-Marie
Laidlaw Ian
Laidlaw Karen
McLoughlin Peter
Mountfort Clyde
Mountfort Darryl
Mountfort Samantha
Mountfort Sandy
Niemand Piet
O'Mahoney Michael
Oosthuizen Chantelle
Penny Dale
Penny Eileen
Penny Sian
Putzier Bradley
Putzier Candice
Putzier Margie
Redelinghuys Koos
Robertson Bernice
Roche Lionel
Rooney Jenny
Rooney Mark
Rooney Michael
Rooney Tony
Samoars Sharon
Schultz Baby
Schultz Leon
Schultz Mercia
Smith Gwendolyn
Smith Irene
Smyth Maria
Vink Trevor
Whittaker Debbie
Zanoncelli Susan

Passenger and Crew List on Board the Oceanos

Anonymous left a message to say they had recently met someone who says they were a crew member aboard the "Oceanos" when she sank, I don't have a list of Passengers or Crew but I am hoping with the help of other Oceanos passengers and crew to put together a list of all who were aboard her on that fateful night.

I have loads of Newspaper articles which I will be sifting through to get all the name of the passengers.

Majority of the Eporitiki crew were either Greek or Filipino
The TFC crew and entertainers were majority South African
The passengers were majority South African

I hope this helps you in the mean time.

Please leave a contact email address when leaving a message.

Robin and Terry

This picture was taken on the 3rd of August 1991 in the Bar, you can already see how bad the ship was listing, it was taken at about 7:00 pm.

Robin Boltman - Cruise Director playing the banjo and Terry Lester - Comedian!

Oceanos .. this is my story !

16 years is a long time, I suppose everyone would say that such a harrowing experience you would always remember, but I have like a lot of passengers put this experience to the back of my mind to try and forget and that I have. .

A while ago I was having supper with friends who were also passengers on the Oceanos, and another friend of mine was there – the other friend asked about the Oceanos and my fellow passenger blurted out “oh she doesn’t remember anything”, the reason for the outburst was because on the day that the ship sank, we came out on deck with the ship listing and I basically became a robot, I just followed orders, watched, waited and hardly said a word.

The Beginning
But let me start at the beginning, I don’t quite remember how or why it all happened, but my best friend Gwen suggested going on a cruise. Gwen and I had been friends since we both started working back in January 1982.

T.F.C. had advertised a really cheap cruise down to Cape Town, which included a stop over for a night in East London on the way back and then a night at the “Fish River Sun” as well. It wasn’t really cruise season, but it was an offer you just couldn’t refuse.

Titanic
So together with Gwen, her mom, her moms friend Eileen and her two kids Sián and Dale we all booked to go on the cruise. On the Wednesday before we sailed, they had the old Titanic movie on TV and I remember going down to the computer room and the guys, Derrick (who I am now married to) saying to me, “are you really going on a cruise? Well you’d better pack your water wings because it’s going to hit an iceberg!” I also remember turning round to someone and saying, because I though I may have to share a cabin with someone else, that I didn’t want to go anymore and I hoped the F”£%n ship would sink! Apparently Gwen’s sister Sheila also said that she hoped the ship sank because she wasn’t coming with and was being left behind while we were all going off to enjoy ourselves.

So as you can see “She was doomed from the start”!!!

Leaving Durban
We sailed out of Durban harbour on Sunday the 28th of July, it was a sunny day and there were loads of people down at the harbour. It was only once we set out to sea that you realised that the weather was not great and especially (as we know now) not for sailing past the wild coast or the Cape of Storms.

(Photo - Gwen and Dale at Life boat drill - Monday 28th July 1991)

Cape Town
If I remember correctly we were at sea, most of Monday and Tuesday and then on Wednesday morning we awoke as we were arriving in Cape Town. Going down to Cape Town there were only about 150 to 200 passengers on the ship it could even have been less. A few passengers disembarked in Cape Town and Gwen and I got off to meet her Dad, who was living in Simon’s town and had come to the harbour in Cape Town to see her.

When we arrived in Cape Town we couldn’t see Table Mountain and a lot of the sailors laughed. They had said that everyone had told them about this famous mountain yet they had been down to Cape Town and never seen it. The table was set, was what they would say when there were clouds over Table Mountain and you could not see how flat it was.

We spend a couple of hours in the harbour in Cape Town and then it was time to leave and head for East London, the weather was so bad when we left Cape Town, the tug boat looked like it was a toy being tossed around in the swells. It took the pilot of the tug boat several attempts and about an hour to disembark the “Oceanos” back onto his tug boat.

Leaving Cape Town
The sea that day was not happy, it was grey and dark and angry – even a big ship like the Oceanos was tossed around in the ocean and rolled from side to side. I remember Irene bumping into the Captain and saying something about stabilisers. In an angry voice he blurted out “this ship she is strong, she no need stabilisers … she sail in the Med all the time”, yeah right, but this is not the med.

Gwen was sea sick most of that day and of course lunch on deck was cancelled again like it had been so many of the other days. We eventually found it a bit of a joke that we were always being tossed around on the ship, walking down the ships corridor even Panayotis a huge Greek sailor battled to find his sea legs. I remember being in the cabin sitting at the dressing table, trying to put my make up on when I was thrown to the floor – I even had a huge bruise on my back, but we just laughed about it, and also trying to sit on the toilet with out being thrown off was hilarious. The entertainers did so much to take our minds off the weather and the fact that the ship was really a “rust bucket”. Moss & Tracey were always around to entertain, as was Robin and the rest of them. It was great that there were so few passengers on the ship as most of the time you felt that they were really there just to entertain you. Also most of the elderly passengers would retire early and not come to any of the entertainment.

Talking about toilets, we would often smell sewerage but did not quite know where it was coming from; this had something to do with the pipes.

East London – Thursday 1st of August 1991
We finally arrived in East London on the Thursday evening, disembarked and the buses took us off to the Holiday Inn where we spent the night. It was fun as Gwen and I had made friends with a few other young people and we headed off to the Disco at the hotel. The next morning we did some shopping in East London and then the buses headed us off to the Fish River Sun a hotel in the then Ciskei.

Now the reason for us disembarking from the ship was because some wealthy guy from Queenstown, had hired the ship for his daughters wedding reception and the guests were all staying on the ship that night. This guy had also paid for all the passengers that were on the ship to spend the Thursday night at the Holiday Inn and Friday Night (the night of the wedding reception) at the Fish river sun.

Again if I remember correctly all the crew and entertainers stayed on board to assist with the wedding and entertain the guests.

Gwen and I were quite put out that we had to get off the ship because we were really having so much fun.

Stormy Saturday 3rd August 1991 and back to East London
The next day the buses were there to pick us up and take us back to the ship in East London harbour. Luckily on the Friday night the weather had been really good for the bride, groom and the guests. However, on Saturday morning it was totally the opposite the winds were gusting and the rain was really coming down. Driving from Fish River Sun we saw corrugated iron roofs being blown off houses. By this stage though we just wanted to get back on the ship, get back to Durban, jump in the car and go back to Johannesburg.

When we arrived at the harbour, the wind was so bad that it had blown huge concrete dustbin over and they had been smashed. When we started embarking, I remember one guy turning round and saying that he was not getting back on the ship and he would fly back to Johannesburg. When we got back onto the ship, there were loads of new passengers amongst them were mainly travel agents from East London and Durban who had got a special offer of a night on the ship. So in actual fact they were only spending one night on the ship and most of them intended to party the whole night through.

As we sailed out of East London you could already see that the ship was listing to the right hand side, I have photos that clearly depict this but unfortunately they are in a box in storage in South Africa and I am sitting in Dublin.

We went down to the cabin to get ready for dinner, we decided to do the 9 o’clock sitting as there were just so many people on the ship, although most people were in their cabins being sea sick that they did not come down to dinner anyway.

The last supper
Dinner was certainly entertaining that night, we basically had to hold your plate onto the table to stop it sliding off and try and eat at the same time. The dining room staffs, were also running around looking very irritated, and bothered but as we now know by the time we had supper most of the bottom of the ship was already flooded, no wonder they were looking perturbed.

The Blackout
After Dinner we were heading up the stairs from the dining room this was probably about 9:30 or 10:00, when we heard a very loud thud which sounded like it might have been from the engine room, then the lights went out. Gwen fell and ripped her tights, and within a minute or so the emergency lights were on, we carried on up the stairs and I was going to head to the lounge for a drink, Gwen said she would meet me there but was just going to change her tights.

I’m not too certain of the events that happen next, but I think we were told that no one was allowed to go back to their cabins and we all had to go upstairs to the lounge. At no point did anyone ever say that the ship was going to sink. We sat in the lounge listening to music while the crew handed out life jackets to everyone. I then remember a group of people sitting on the floor in the lounge huddled together crying and singing “abide with me” and of course someone else saying “oh for gods sake, that’s the song they sand when the Titanic sank”.

Most of what I am telling you now, could have happened in any order.

The Entertainers take over
Moss came in to the lounge and announced that help was on its way and that there were a lot of ships in the vicinity that would come and help us. Because I had never really know anything about ships, I just though it was like when a car broke down someone would tow you, and that would happen with the Oceanos, someone would come and tow us back to shore. (Must admit I was pretty thick back then ;-)) We spent most of the night and early hours of the morning in the lounge, we could smell sewerage and smoke coming from below.

At one point we thought we might be rescued, when Moss came in ordering all Woman with children, so No it wasn’t “Woman and children first”, but Woman with children. Oh well, maybe we’ll just wait for the tow to arrive. In a way we were very lucky not to have to go in the lifeboats. We saw them taking the lifeboats from the side of the ship that didn’t have the list, they packed in Woman and children and then lowered them into the angry sea were they were tossed around.

We watched everything happening and then went back into the lounge where it was at least warm and dry. The ship listed more and more and you could hear the wind slamming the life boats that were still tied up into the side of the ship. Some of the crew tried to get those life boats and bring them to the other side, I am not sure if they succeeded as again I thought it much safer and warmer in the lounge.

While all of this was going on the barman never left his post and ensured that everyone paid for their drinks, but by now I think he knew that if he did not abandon his post now all his mates would have left the ship without him. As most of you know a lot of the crew abandoned ship taking valuables with them, we heard later that most of the cabins were raided and the pursers office. So off the barman went, leaving an open bar for everyone, not that anyone really felt like drinking.

Sunday 4th of August – The final day
Everything happened very orderly and no-one became hysterical. It almost reminded you of the movie “Cocoon” where all the elderly people follow the guy who is taking them to a better world. At the first sign of day break we heard the helicopters hovering above the ship, we were then told to go out on deck. This was probably about 6:00 or 6:30 a.m. only once we actually got out onto the deck on the aft side of the ship did we realise how bad the ship was actually listing. There was a short woman running around, I forget her name now, telling everyone to get into rows and to sit down – she was one of the TFC crew.

Everyone listened to anyone who they thought was in charge. (As a South African brought up in apartheid times, you never questioned authority and just did as you were told.)

Helicopters
There were 2 helicopters, one on either side of the ship (aft and fore) hoisting up passengers, 2 at a time and then there were another 2 helicopters hovering, so once 2 passengers were in the sling the helicopter would fly away so that the next helicopter could take 2 and so they would carry on until they were full. The helicopters were from the South African Defence Force and I don’t think they had under taken such a large civilian operation before. Once they had enough passengers they would then fly them off and drop them at “The Haven”. We had no idea that the captain was one of the first people to be air lifted off the sinking ship until we saw it on TV that night.

Being out on the deck and realising how bad the ship was listing and looking at the queues of people waiting to get onto the helicopters, only then made you realise hey we might not make it after all. I remember someone saying quite loudly, “doesn’t this remind you of a movie”, and then someone else saying well it’s not a “feckin’ movie!!!” But this made everyone start thinking about death and drowning, I also know someone said that when you drown your eyes pop out, so I consoled myself by thinking, when you die it’s just like going to sleep, it all goes black and you just never wake up. One of my best school friends had died in the February of that year, and my dad passed away on the 14th of July, so I wasn’t too worried about it then.

Good morning Jack
I know I was sitting on the deck at one time, chatting to a guy from Durban who had a precious bottle of “Jack Daniel” with him. It was freezing out on the deck, and he offered me some and why the hell would I say No thanks.

At one point I was standing holding onto the banister while the ship was listing very badly, the waves were pounding the ship and the deck chairs were all sliding into the ocean. I was standing next a very heavy wooden box, that looked like a giant coffin, it held life jackets, and in front of my eyes I saw the rope that was keeping it tied to the railing unravel slowly – in a weird kind of calm, scary voice I said to Irene who was standing next to me “the rope is unravelling”. She then shouted for help and someone sorted it out. But I think I was in such shock that I just couldn’t do anything.

Another time while standing on the deck, someone shouted that there were sharks in the ocean, we saw the fins, but luckily it turned out to be a school of dolphin. We were standing in the queue on the aft of the ship wondering when we would ever get off, when someone came and said something. I remember Gwen saying come with me and I followed her, trying not to fall we headed for the front of the ship and Gwen started going down the stairs, I then said to her – “where are we going?” and she said “we are going to have to jump into the sea and a life boat will pick us up.” Thank God someone stopped us from going down, the next minute we were climbing up the stairs to the front of the ship, within about 5 minutes I had a harness around me and I was being air lifted into the helicopter. I bumped my head as they were pulling me up but at that stage I did not care, I was safe.

The Haven
Gwen and Irene were not on the same helicopter as me, once they dropped us at “The Haven” an army officer came down to meet the people and there were other people with blankets. They threw the blankets around us as we headed up to the hotel. I couldn’t find Irene & Gwen, so I headed into the bar knowing that they would find me there … and they did. We had probably been air lifted at 11:30.

Once Gwen and Irene arrived, we went into a kitchen where we were given a cup of soup, some bread and a rusk. Once we were finished we then were told to sit on the grass, there were a lot of military personnel co-ordinating the passengers. Only once everyone had been air lifted from the ship and brought to the haven did they start moving us out.

The ship must have sunk at about 1:30 that afternoon. Worried families were getting different news reports and nobody had been able to contact their loved ones. The phones at the Haven in Coffee bay were also not working. Once they had counted up the passengers they then put us on buses. I think some people were given lifts with the SADF helicopters back to Durban, but once again I could be mistaken.

Back to East London
We were put into a bus, which rattled and rocked on the sandy roads, but we didn’t care very much at that stage. We eventually got to the Holiday Inn in East London when it was dark. When we arrived they bustled us into the disco where they had loads of people taking names, telephone numbers, next of kin and any other details. We were then, given shoes and any other clothing we needed as well as toiletries, a hotel key for the night and all meals, phone calls etc were on the house.

Monday 5th of August 1991, We’re going home
That night they also arranged for us to fly back to Durban in the morning, we would have flown direct to Johannesburg, but I had left my car at friends in Durban. We apparently missed the 5:00 am flight, we never heard the wake up call and had to then wait until they called us again which was around 11:00 a.m. ( a more decent hour). We then flew back to Durban, picked up the car and headed straight back to Jo’burg.

It was only once we got back to Johannesburg that everything actually sunk in, everything we had been through.

TFC
A lot of things had emerged while we were on the sinking ship, the cruise company T.F.C. (Too F*ckn cheap) had gone belly up, but opened about a month later under another name. This obviously had something to do with them looking at hundreds of law suits.

To be continued …

© Rose-Marie Rowe (neé Kemp)

Cartoons

The Sunday Star 11th August 1991

East London 3rd of August 1991

This picture was taken in East London on the 3rd of August 1991, not the 4th as stated on the picture, the ship was already listing heavily before we even set sail in an 11 knot wind.

Best Friends

This is a picture of Gwen and myself taken about an hour after being rescued, you can see the helicopter in the background bringing more passengers to shore at The Haven.

Scrap Book

Well today I finally opened the box with my "Oceanos" scrap book in. It had been in storage for 6 years and it is amazing how much I have forgotten.

I have loads and loads of stuff which I will get round to scanning in and putting on the blog when I eventually get back to Ireland. So till then, if anyone manages to see the show on Friday night in France please let me know about it.

TV Program

I just go all the details from Vince about the screening of the TV Program, here they are:

The show will be broadcast in prime time on Friday the 6th of april at 9 PM
on the n°1 channel TF1 in France.


Their website is: http://www.tf1.fr/







He will send me a DVD though and I can hopefully get a few clips up onto the web page, else have a few copies made for all my adoring fans (that's a joke).

The Oceanos Tragedy by Davina Avrana

I was floored to see that the Captain's wife has written a book about the Oceanos, I have to get my hands on this but there is no way I am paying £55.00 for it, so will have to go off to the local library.

The Oceanos Tragedy by Avrana, Davina

USA: Dorrance Publishing, 1994 0805934294. The story of the sinking of the Oceanos, the rescue of passengers and crew and subsequent treatment of the captain; written by his wife. First edition. Octavo, 111pp. Fine in near Fine dust jacket. Very scarce. .
Ordering information
£55.00

Another interesting Find

( These facts are a little obscure)

I.1.30 Oceanos

The Oceanos sank in rough weather off South Africa on 4 August 1991. It was a 7500 GRT 150 m long Greek passenger liner, built in 1951.

It had 401 passengers and 180 crew on board. Conditions were the worst of the year, with 45 knot winds. At around 21:00 on 3 August, water entered the engine room through a damaged seawater pipe.

The ship lost power and began to drift towards the shore. Watertight doors were closed, but flooding through pipes allowed other compartments to flood. The ship heeled to 20o and was rolling heavily.

The ship sent a Mayday at 23:00, but was advised to keep the passengers on board until
daylight since there were no other vessels or helicopters in the area. However, the ship
appeared to be about to sink, and the master was cut off while checking the stern of the ship.
After 02:00, 2 of the ship’s 8 lifeboats were launched, although with difficulty due to the lack
of power and the severe weather. By about 06:00, about 400 people had left the ship in its 8
lifeboats and some liferafts. Many passengers jumped into the sea.

Passing cargo ships arrived after 05:45 and rescued about 400 people from lifeboats and the
sea. One container ship used its enclosed lifeboat to pick people from the water and transfer
them to an accommodation ladder, although with difficulty due to the cold. Helicopters
arrived at 06:50 and winched the last 180 passengers and crew off the ship shortly before it
capsized at 11:45 on 4 August, 1 ½ miles off the coast. There were no fatalities.

[Comment: 11Puma helicopters from SADF were transported 1000 miles overnight to a temporary base near to
the casualty. A helideck on board would have been useful to speed the evacuation, although the ship may have
been rolling too much to have used it. Since no lives were lost, none could have been saved by this anyway.
Helidecks on the rescue ships would have been no use because the shore base was very close.]
Ref : Hooke, N. (1997) : “Maritime Casualties, 1963-1996”, LLP, London.
Lloyd’s List

THANK YOU!

I just want to say a big Thank you to everyone who has left comments in my "Guest Book" it really makes it all worth while.

Thanks Everyone!

The Haven, Coffee Bay - Transkei Wild Coast

Doing the interview with Vincent really opened up the whole Oceanos Saga for me again, I have been doing loads of research and came across this web page with information on "The Haven".

The Haven is where most passengers who were airlifted off the Oceanos were taken before going back home.
http://www.wavescape.co.za/advertisers/Haven/aboutus.htm

Vincent and Laurent

Here are two photographs are Laurent (left) and Vincent, Laurent is a Camera Man and Vincent is the guy who interviewed me.

The Heros of the Oceanos

Oceanos

Oceanos

Oceanus or Okeanos refers to the ocean, which the Greeks and Romans regarded as a river circling the world. Strictly speaking, it was the ocean-stream at the Equator in which floated the habitable hemisphere (oikoumene)[http://www.metrum.org/mapping/cosmol.htm].

In Greek mythology this world-ocean was personified as a Titan, a son of Uranus and Gaia. In ancient Greek beliefs this Titan is often depicted as having the upper body of a muscular man with a long beard and horns, and the lower torso of a serpent. (Compare Typhon.) Oceanus' consort is his sister Tethys, and from their union came the ocean nymphs, also known as the three-thousand Oceanids, and all the rivers of the world. Some scholars believe he originally represented all bodies of salt water, including the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean, the two largest bodies known to the ancient Greeks. However, as geography became more accurate, Oceanus came to represent the stranger, more unknown waters of the Atlantic Ocean (also called the Ocean Sea), while Poseidon ruled over the Mediterranean. In most variations of the war between the Titans and the Olympians ("Titanomachy"), Oceanus, along with Prometheus, and Themis, did not take the side of his fellow Titans against the Olympians, but instead withdrew from the conflict. In most variations of this myth, Oceanus also refused to side with Cronus in the latter's revolt against their father, Uranus. Uranus In Iliad the rich iconography of Achilles' shield fashioned by Hephaestus, is enclosed, as the world itself is, by Oceanus: :"Then, running round the shield-rim, triple-ply, :he pictured all the might of the Ocean stream." Oceanus appears in Hellenic cosmography as well as myth. Cartographers continued to represent the encircling equatorial stream much as it had appeared on Achilles' shield [http://www.metrum.org/mapping/cosmol.htm]. Though Herodotus was skeptical about the physical existence of Oceanus, he rejected snowmelt as a cause of the annual flood of the Nile river; according to his translator and interpreter Livio Catullo Stecchini, he left unsettled the question of an equatorial Nile, since the geography of Sub-Saharan Africa was unknown to him.

Underwater photographs of the Oceanos

I managed to find these pictures on the Net a while ago, they are absolutely outstanding:

My interview with the French Television

Well to tell you the truth everything just happened so quickly, I received an email from a guy about a week ago or so, saying that he wanted to interview me about my experience on the Oceanos.

After many emails and a chat on the phone he arranged to come over on the 1st of March to do the interview, I didn't really think too much about it as I probably didn't really believe what was happening.

Last emails were exchanged on Wednesday 28th, Thursday morning I was up early making sure I looked good and then the nerves started. The whole morning I was a bunch of nerves, but I knew they would only be coming around 13:30, so went off to lunch with Bob and Damo and we were then going to go out for a coffee as a really needed one, when I saw the tax pull up outside and out stepped to French men (it's amazing how I could just tell they were French), cameras and bags in tow.

Well that was it no coffee, the rest of the afternoon just went so quickly, I spent a lot of time speaking to Vince who is really nice and told me that most times he was more nervous interviewing people. He is just amazing though and has interviewed people like Paul McCartney, Clint Eastwood and so many other big stars, he said he has probably done over a thousand interviews with people.

He was just amazing how calm he made me feel and so at ease, that when I was actually being filmed on camera it still felt like we were just having a chat.

The program they are doing will be aired on the French Television Network M6 probably on the 14th of April. I will also get a copy of the interview on DVD and hopefull be able to put it up on this blog. I just need to get him the photos and newspaper clippings for editing into the program.

Will keep everyone posted.


Endemol.fr – le site de VOD gratuit d’Endemol France

Back to South Africa and the Oceanos

For my friends who are regular readers of my REDROWE blog, you will know that we have decided to settle in Ireland and are going back to SA in March to pack up all our things in storage, and bring them back.


All our belongings have been in storage for 6 years now and along with all of this are my collection of "Oceanos" paraphonalia, I have photographs that were taking the day she sank as well as form the cruise itself. I also have newspaper clippings, tickets and if I am not mistaken menus - no these are not for sale. I will scan them into the blog though, so everyone can see them.


I also have video footage from all the news broadcasts, MNET Channel 7 and other, which I will have transposed onto DVD when I get back.


Among my belongings, I also have souveniers from the Achille Lauro which I sailed on in 1992, just months after being rescued from the Oceanos. The Achille Lauro also met a disastorous end sailing up the coast of Africa.

Other Ship Wrecks

In order to keep interest in this web blog, I am going to open it up to all ship wrecks and would appreciate contributions and even discussions sorrounding other ship wrecks.

On ship (although not a wreck) that has interested me since a child is the Mary Celeste, In December 1872, the ship was found drifting, abondened off the coast of Portugal. Her crew were missing and never to be found.

Other stories of interest to me are the Titanic, the Mary Rose and the Lusitania to name quite a few.

The Oceanos - My story revisited

I created this blog page on the 23rd of July in the hope that survivors and rescuers may contribute towards keeping the blog going. However, so far beside Michael getting in touch with me I have not had much input or feedback to this site, until now.

Vincent from Channel one in France, read my blog and is coming over to Ireland on Thursday the 1st of March in order to do an interview. Vincent has a program in which the tell stories about people who end up in crisis situations, but it all ends up happy. I can only imagine that I will more than likely be dubbed into French and won't get to see it in Ireland but will definitly ask if I can get a copy and maybe even be able to put it up on the blog.