The Story Of The Oceanos

[Music] the coast of South Africa today a dramatic and daring rescue at sea merchant vessels joined South Africa's Navy and Air Force to rescue the passengers and crew of a Greek cruise ship sinking in storm lashed waters all but about 20 of the 580 people who were aboard the vessel have now been accounted for but it's Richard Sergei reports disturbing questions remain about how the ship got in trouble and how its crew responded to the emergency what's up guys my name is Jake on the evening of August 3rd 1991 the cruise ship the Oceanos began taking on water with over 500 people on board and a crew that had already abandoned ship today I wanted to tell the remarkable story that you probably haven't heard of from one of the most impressive maritime rescues ever conducted and the ultimate sinking of the modern day cruise liner this is the story of the sinking of the Oceanus so the MTS Oceanus was a European passenger vessel built in 1952 under a different name the ship went through many different owners throughout the years and finally ended up with the Emperor Tiki Lines a Greek shipping company founded in the mid-1800s they took advantage of the growing cruise market in the 1970s and acquired the Oceanos the company actually became the largest cruise line in the eastern Mediterranean and Greece acquiring all types of older passenger vessels see back then the cruise industry was very different than how it operates today many of the up-and-coming cruise lines didn't have the capital or saud is too much of a risk to build new vessels specifically for the line so many companies had just purchased older ships usually built in the 1950s and 60s and refitted them for regular cruises the Oceanus was no exception to this making regular cruises out of South Africa by the late 80s and 90s the ship was only around 14,000 tons and able to hold a maximum of 550 passengers and 250 crew she featured a dining room several lounges and bars a casino and an open Sun Deck with swimming pool not exactly a large ship at all by today's standards but at that time that wasn't all that uncommon the largest cruise ship in the world was Royal Caribbean's monarch of the Seas at seventy-three thousand tonnes which compared to other ships to carrying passengers for pleasure cruises including the Oceanos it was pretty enormous while the Oceanus was still owned by the upper ot key lines the vessel was being chartered on an eight-month contract by a company called TFC Torn's they were essentially just leasing the vessel for their own routine cruises are the relatively untapped south african cruise markets however there is a good reason for that specific market not being very utilized as those waters are notoriously treacherous however in late July of 1991 the Oceanus was set to start her seven night voyage from Durban South Africa to Cape Town South Africa fed back around a thousand mile journey with two ports of call along the way at the helm of the vessel was Captain jnanis iranís an officer of twenty years and the man in charge of delivering the vacationing passengers safely to port though while the ship was seaworthy TFC tours had let the Oceanos fall under harsh decay when passengers arrived to port they described the vessel as looking rusted and not very well maintained on August 3rd 1991 the vessel was nearing the end of its seven-day cruise with its last stop in East London in South Africa the vessel took on more passengers for single night cruise as the Oceanus was beginning to complete the last leg of their journey back to Durban though that afternoon the winds began to pick up and the ocean just offshore began whipping up with strong Gale like I had mentioned earlier this part of Africa is well known for its weather the ship was scheduled to travel through the trance Eskie coastline nicknamed the wild coast for its freak'n sometimes violent weather this ended up delaying the Oceanos for a few hours that afternoon and as winds continued to pick up the vessel just couldn't leave port however by the command of captain of Ranas the Oceano is headed out to sea despite the weather to keep schedule now with 571 people on board usually a sail away party would be held on deck however due to the weather a party was held inside the main lounge moss hills a guitarist on board said quote it was a great success in spite of the weather we got passengers to dance and sing telling them that we would provide the rock and the ship would provide the roll as dusk approaches that evening passengers made their way to the main dining room however by now the Oceanus was encountering very rough 40-knot winds and up to thirty foot swells passengers described the scene inside the main dining room as a tad chaotic with plates and glasses shifting around their tables and staff struggling to keep balance the swells outside were tossing the 500-foot vessels side-to-side seemingly becoming even more violence meanwhile below deck in the bulkheads the scene unfolding would instantly change the fate of the Oceanos earlier that day repairs have been performed on the ship's water disposal system a very important pipe that directly intakes seawater within the vessel had it's vital non-return valve not fully replaced it's believed that after a series of freak waves slamming against the ship the pipes shell plating had burst open spilling seawater and began filling the compartment eventually that water going unnoticed had reached the ship's main propulsion engines and caused an explosion the Oceanus immediately lost power and propulsion from her two main propellers upstairs in the main lounge performers had been entertaining passengers just as the main engine exploded a guest had actually been videotaping the show at the same moment the Oceanos lost power and you can hear the loud thud in the video from below deck immediately cruise director Lorene Betts rushed upstairs to find out what was happening from the ship's officers by now captain of Ranas had assessed the damage below and knew the 14,000 ton powerless vessel was in trouble with room for 594 people in her 6 lifeboats the Oceano certainly had enough room to save everyone aboard however with the rough ocean and the vessel beginning to ever-so-slightly list time was at the essence when Lorene got to the bridge captain our Venice was described to be in shock as the crew and officers were in a panic sending out distress calls as passengers waited patiently in the dark lounge terrified as to what happened moss hills and a few other entertainers had continued to sing songs and interact with the passengers an effort to keep everyone calm not too long after the ship's lifeboats were beginning to be lowered for four however not by passengers but by crew in fact passengers and entertainment staff were told that there was just a problem in the engine room and that there may be a chance they would need to abandon ship so his passengers put on their life vests the crew were seen running to and from their cabins throwing personal items and suitcases in the lifeboats just before lowering away which had very few actual passengers aboard the captain assured everyone that the ship was not sinking so Moss hills and fellow entertainer Julie and Butler traveled down below decks to find out for themselves and what they found was alarming water had been pouring in and sloshing around on the lower decks by this time over five hundred passengers were on board the Oceanus and still no alarm or announcement had been sounded to abandon ship by midnight the vessel was in serious trouble and with hundreds of passengers awaiting some official to direct them as to what to do to evacuate no such person appeared it eventually came to the ship's entertainment staff to take charge of the rescue and group passengers and place them in lifeboats so one by one each lifeboat filled with at least a capacity of ninety nine passengers were lowered down into the rough pitch-black ocean by the early morning hours of August fourth hundreds of passengers had been lowered down on several different lifeboats until a serious problem came by this time the Oceanus had been listing so heavily on a starboard side that launching or loading lifeboats became impossible since the crew had taken off with nearly half empty boats there was not enough seats and the remaining boats for everyone and now with over 220 people still aboard the slowly sinking vessel there was nothing to do but call for help Moss hills and Julian Butler had made their way up to the ship's bridge to assess the situation with the captain the only problem was the captain wasn't there he was actually still on the ship seen here grasping to the pool deck staircase completely uninvolved actually the only reason he was still on the ship was because he was caught boarding a lifeboat earlier and the entertainment staff had pulled him back on board in fact almost all of the officers had escaped and the two entertainers found the cruise ships bridge deserted so it became entirely up to them to basically save everyone on board by making distress calls to whoever would answer luckily they weren't able to reach several ships in the area and later learned that the South African Air Force set up a multi helicopter rescue by 6:00 a.m. all of the passengers were moved out onto the open decks awaiting for the helicopter rescue and after around 4 hours of waiting in complete darkness the choppers finally came efficiently running two different air lives simultaneously each carrying around 20 passengers once they were full they would fly the three miles back to shore where they would unload and refuel at the station area they would then fly back and repeat and over the course of a few hours unbelievably every single person was off the Oceanus and had been successfully rescued via helicopter and inflatable boats all 571 people and after what seemed like just moments the listing of the sinking ship worsened as waves washed over the starboard bow then it didn't take long for the flooding to accelerate soon and incredibly all captured on video the 500-foot 7-story vessel became swallowed by the ocean then finally at around 3:30 p.m. on August 4th nearly 19 hours after the flooding began the Oceanos finally went under at the staging ground on the shores of South Africa passengers were reunited and the entertainment staff were regarded as heroes which they were as for captain Irv Ranas actually he was one of the first to be airlifted off the sinking ship and later on the ground well he had this to say when I or thereabout know the ship I don't miss for everybody if something they like to stay they can stay his reasoning was that he would be better suited to coordinate the rescue from the shore remind you of anyone the captain was actually defended by the cruise line saying passengers misunderstood the crew procedures saying quotes as regards to the captain abandoning the vessel this is untrue and he has maintained his position throughout in assisting the rescue in the most effective way you know looking over the footage again it looks like he was an integral part of the rescue oh wait no he's actually just standing there lifeless thankfully a Greek board of inquiry found captain our vaana's for other officers guilty though there are conflicting stories as to what actually happened to him anyways as for a protic uihlein's well they were merged with another shipping company and had gone bankrupt in the early 2000s now looking at all of it as a whole the actual cause of the sinking was honestly one of the best possible scenarios since the rate of water entering the vessel was very minimal if the leak had been more severe and the Oceanus only had a few hours of floats in the middle of the night during a harsh storm the end result could have been much more catastrophic but this maritime miracle has always fascinated me the incredible images of a somewhat modern cruise ship sinking into the ocean and not a single life was lost is absolutely unbelievable and now looking into it further it's hard to even believe the astonishing task these entertainers and rescue crews were faced with having the lives of hundreds of scared passengers aboard a sinking ship during a storm all in their hands but thanks to the selfless individuals of the people coordinating and performing the air rescue the actual crew staff and passengers aboard the Oceanus as well as the ships in the area coming to the aid the story of the Oceanus remains to be one of the most incredible rescue operations at sea I'd like to thank Nord VPN for sponsoring this video they've been a continued supporter of the channel with a fantastic service I use every day you can sign up with the link Nord VPN comm slash BSF to receive their tremendous offer of 75 percent off a three-year plan plus with the code BSF you could obtain one extra month for free Nord VPN not only secures my internet browsing and privacy across six different devices but they also have fantastic 24/7 customer service and now with all the holiday traveling I do using unknown Wi-Fi sources and foreign locations never worries me knowing that I'm protected with military-grade encryption if you haven't yet please go use my link Nord VPN comm slash BSF to protect your online presence by doing that you'll be helping videos like this out thanks for watching everyone [Music] for the captain [Music] now there's nowhere we can there's a guitar [Music] [Music]

Channel: Bright Sun Films

Views: 4,067,888

Rating: 4.9448066 out of 5

Keywords: STORY OF THE OCEANOS, new video, the oceanos, MTS Oceanos, moss hills, sinking cruise ship, caught on tape, costa concordia, 2019, 2018, footage, eperotiki lines, HD, coast, south africa, 1991, the sinking of the cruise ship oceanos, ship sinking, video footage, how ship sinks, survivors, cruise ship disaster, family friendly, clean, history, family cruise, air rescue, sunken cruise ship, cruise ship in storm, documentary, carnival, oceanos sinking documentary

Id: aCiuK7qcxU4

Length: 14min 48sec (888 seconds)

Published: Fri Dec 28 2018

Reddit Comments

[u/CorporalMinicrits]

Those had to be some of the worst crew and best entertainment staff

[u/bertiek]

I come from a maritime family, that captain had me way triggered.

[u/campbellm]

"operator error"? Seems the root cause was maintenance.

[u/painting4]

!remindme