MS Estonia | The story of her sinking
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- Опубліковано 26 чер 2020
- The Estonia tragedy happened in 1994, in one of the worst maritime disasters of the 20th century.
Ultimately, it was caused by the free surface effect due to seawater on the vehicle deck. In this video we look at what happened and how events unfolded that night.
The video is based on the accident report found at: onse.fi/estonia/
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Thanks to everyone who suggested I cover the Estonia. I read about it after your recommendations and felt it was a story that needed telling.
Also: I have had lots of comments about the flag on the bow. Congratulations if you spotted the real reference. It is the phonetic letter "Echo" rather than a country flag, specifically chosen to represent the "E" of the ship's name.
Sharing this on our FB Group!!!!
Amazing video!!!!
If you google "a Sea Story" you can find a great article in the Atlantic about this disaster.
agreed!
Can you do a episode on propellers and why they are where they are ?
I became curious on the Harrold of free Enterprise disaster. Can you please cover this too?
My good friend Thommy de Klerck from the Netherlands is still on board, R.I.P. Thommy.
Condolences. RIP, Thommy.
Gecondoleerd! Ik heb veel over Estonia gelezen en hij en alle andere slachtoffers mogen niet worden vergeten
rip he was real bc i search him it said his name estonia
@@juliangonzalez929 "rip he was real" ???
@@plant5875 i.e. hes prob not... 1 "survivor" from the netherlands 1 death.. 1 survivor from UK 1 death. Germany i believe also just 1 "survivor" and no other german. A Bit odd isnt it? WHen you see those death bodies doppering in drenched boats, having been there for hours in the frigid cold sea . And then see the footage of the UK guy in the chopper that supposedly just pulled him out of there. Talking smirking, with dry and done hair, looking fresh as a peach... But supposedly he cramped all over just after that and went into shock "again".. Just look him up and hear how much he twists his story with every question asked. It's unbearable. Sometimes you need the "i was there" person to push a narrative...
I love how with almost every sea disaster, one ship can shout “HELP!” and a dozen ships will almost immediately pop up out of nowhere, ready to help. There’s an enviable comradery on the seas, it’s one of those places where the idea of Do Unto Others really holds true.
and you know they are required by law
Unless it's war time, like the Admiral Gustloff
That was true of the Carpathia. But not of the Californian.
Titanic be like:are you sure about that?
Comradery? If you don't respond you go to jail..
Some of the stories from the survivors that really stayed with me over the years :
The danish man who during his escape in the stairs come a cross a young women who was stuck behind some sort of cabinet, screaming out in panic for help, they made eyecontact for a split second before he moved on, ” i never forget that moment” he said, she didnt survive.
The old lady with the stick trying to make her way up the stairs who got runned down .
The young group of men who robbed people of their jewelry and cash( have not been identified as survivors by any of the others, karma)
The goodbye letter from a swedish women who was found by divers early years after the sinking, indicates that people trapped in air pockets followed the ship down in the dark.
The young swedish man who escaped with his parents and girlfriend only to realise they wasent with him anymore, turned back and found them frozen and paralysed holding on to to the stairs. ”We cant move, save yourself” was the last word hes mother told him before he countinued on up to deck.
Gives me the chills everytime i hear about Estonia and all those lives lost.. RIP
Like many, I am only now hearing of this due to a recent documentary. Is there an online source for these accounts that perhaps you could share so I could learn more. Thanks in advance.
Some of these things you list, like goodbye letters etc., have been debunked.
@@KajsaBernhardina Good because that would be horrific. Also if my parents and girlfriend froze in terror and said carry on save yourself, I would find that really annoying.
Why didn't the first Danish man help the young woman? 😕🤨
@@DeDyson There's a Zero Hour documentary on the Estonia: ua-cam.com/video/eFDGL_ehpkI/v-deo.html
This one is based on testimonies of the survivors, but it's in Swedish: ua-cam.com/video/Unhyq67jcOs/v-deo.html&ab_channel=Marlin707070
Estonia's mayday call with subtitles: ua-cam.com/video/V5tbah19qo8/v-deo.html
Estonia was one of those wrecks where your location in the ship at the moment she rolled over determined whether you lived or died. People who just happened to be topside or in the superstructure had the greatest chance of survival, most of the people below in their rooms couldn't get out. The random choice to turn in and go to bed early in your room, or hang out at the bar and have a couple of more drinks really was a life-changing moment.
Not true. What surprised the investigators was that there was no correlaction between location at the moment of accident and survival rate. In fact, one of the best survived decks was the lowest, that which had cabins *below waterline.* What mattered wasn't your location, but whether you reacted by immediately heading for the boat decks or not.
It makes me very sad that the Estonia is still a VASTLY overlooked disaster compared to the Titanic, despite being a much more recent event, with a similarly great amount of lives lost.
That's one of the reasons I enjoyed making this one. If it gives the story even a little more exposure, and helps more people learn from the past then it's a good thing
And it was much more brutal than the Titanic if you read testimonies from the survivors. Since unlike with the Titanic there was a huge storm at sea and the ship sunk so fast.
the government of Sweden hired a Dutch marine salvage firm, Smit Tak BV, that specializes in neutralizing underwater nuclear waste, spending $350 million in a failed attempt to cover the ship in concrete. No salvage of bodies was allowed either, despite the wreck lies in only 60-80m. Some agencies are very interested in no one having a closer look at the wreck.
And in this case the amount of lives lost compared to the amount of survivors was far greater.
most who died where eastern europeans - not really a thing western world carred much in 90ties .
As amazing as it is to see so many come to the Estonia’s aid, still harrowing that so few actually survived even with that help.
It was because the ship went sideways very fast and people had to climb to get out of the ship. Also the weather was bad and water cold
Also some tragic scenes are recorded by survivors, including people mugging people as it went down while already capsized and even one case of a man having a panic attack while in a rescue helicopter and throwing himself out of it. This is without mentioning the fact that the life jacket lockers had been painted shut so there was a fight for life jackets
@@cobbleturd6978 what
Those big ships were similar to estonia doing the same thing, carrying people and vehicles. I think there must be more to the reason why the visor broke off, probably handling errors or previous failures etc.
That's just how seamanship is. It transcends national boundaries, even in maritime branches of national militaries. Every sailor knows that the sea is a fickle beast, and she will grant you safe passage just as easily as she will wreck you upon the rocks. So when a sailor calls out for help, you respond. Even in military operations, everything is dropped and search and rescue (SAR) becomes the top priority. Assets are mobilized as it becomes a battle for time.
Anyway thanks for coming to my TED talk.
As a newly retired ship Captain with nearly 50 years at sea, stories like these are horrifying and curb my desire to return to sea. Although I already miss it.
Enjoy your retirement captain sounds like you deserve it after all those years at sea 🚢⚓
@@MICHAEL-wg2lh I was an astronaut. Serviced the ISS.
@@CooManTunes lol
Despite all the deaths this story still shows the fragile beauty of the human effort.
The Estonia won't be leaving our minds as Finns, Estonians and Swedes. This event had great impact on our countries and that memory lives on.
No alchohol cruises.
Count Latvians in as well.
don't forget us norwegians as well. my uncle lost half hisblood-related family in that catastrophy...
i'm from France and the sinking had an impact on my heart
Years ago, as a small boy in the Netherlands, I had seen a documentary about its sinking and I couldn't sleep. Last year, I took a round trip from Helsinki to Stockholm which takes a similar route and the disaster was still very much on my mind
The crew of the Europa was the real MVP of that night.
That’s not only part of the oath you take when you go to sea, but also natural instinct to render aid when able.
True, I always think about that when I see her.
@Jasonsenipor the first on scene means nothing for maritime rescue, this isn't a fire house, the ship that picks up the mayday signal first is the one who coordinates *Everything* and are doing so much more than what the Mariela was doing, if it wasn't for the Europa alot less people would have been saved
MVP stands for Most Victory Points. 138 saved of 989 doesn't at all sounds like victory.
Sam Hamsord Im sure the crew on Silja Europa did the very best they could.. Dont underestimate their heroic efforts.. Same goes for Mariella, Silja Symphony and the other ships!
Anyone hear after they found a hole on starboard side. Pretty big thing now in sweden. Estonian and Finnish prime ministers have come to sweden on a meeting with the swedish prime minister to discuss a eventual new investigation of the accident
The idiots who push that theory can't even give a reasonable theory as to what "5,000 ton" object the could have possible collided with at sea. The official report was clear: When the multistory metal visor was ripped off the front of the ship the passengers heard and felt it hit the hull. This is simply the damage to the ship's hull the film crew uncovered. Case closed. The same metal visor, that covered the car deck and waterproof loading door had ripped off the Estonia's sister ship only a few months earlier in high seas. No mystery, same problem, occurring on the same model of ship. Just more fodder for conspiracy nuts that cannot read an official report or understand basic science.
The metal around the hole was ripped Up from the inside of the ship. Possible explosion? Well it measured around 13feet Times 7feet and have an angle of 90°
Nothing can collide in that angle and just runaway unharmed. "There is No scratched either"
@@rfarevalo Have you seen the documentry? It has some pretty interesting points but we will see. Finlands and Estonias prime ministers(don't know if it's president or something else) are now open to start a new investigation. And the sister ship Diana 2 has not had any accidents with the bow visor but has struck ground.
@@SuperMats78 The visor has both pointed and sharp angles. Try sticking a pencil in aluminum can if your mind can't grasp what can happen to a thin hull.
@@rfarevalo So you mean that the bow visor caused the hole?
They did a new dive to it the other day, found a giant hole in it that wasn't reported on before.
Sweden pushed very hard for the case to be closed as fast as possible, even wanted to cover Estonia with concrete, they knew it had hit a submarine
@@livetillyoudielovelife2299 it was not a submarine. it was one of the underwater mines they did not bother to dispose of after ww2. i wrote a whole comment about it further above if you press "newest first". i know explosives very well, and this is clearly one of those mines. no doubt about it.
swedish submarines proved to be able to sink an american aircraft carrier so a cruiser like this should be a walk in the park.
According to an explosive expert in the Norwegian navy, the hole was prorbably not caused by an explosive.
In fact wasn't a new discovery, it has been known since 90s, it was just deemed insignificant by the accident investigation.
I mentioned it on another clip as well, but I travelled on the Estonia three times, the last time about 4 months before the disaster, and at that time I forgot to return my cabin key. Back in the student dorm I lived in at the time I just put it in a drawer, not thinking anything more about it. Then later I realized what i had lying there. To this day I still have it on the same bunch as my other keys, occasionally looking at it. Cabin 1029 it says. It may seem creepy, but it sort of forces me to take life seriously or something, and I don't want to put it away.
It doesn't seem "creepy" it sounds like you're trying to glom onto a tragedy and make it about you. How many people have you shown or told about the key? I'm betting it's a lot of people.
@@Vichedges You can always make more or less educated guesses about peoples motives, especially in the anonymity of the Internet, and honestly speaking I guess it's a little bit of both. I don't show it to people unless it's a "natural situation" i e the subject comes up for some reason. Maybe it can be seen as self centered, I don't know for sure. I really don't think it's about me per se, but since I'm very interested in human psychology I think I understand your assertion of what I wrote, But I also think it's a bit bold to make such a clear judgement of a person over one or two UA-cam posts.
@@Vichedges what gives you that idea?
@@mateuszmattias That was a very honest and intelligent response. Instead of replying with a snarky comment, you looked at what he said objectively and admitted that there could be merit in his idea. You have restored my hope in humanity for today.
So wasa king and Silja star
As a Finn I have actually been onboard on many of the ships in in this video.
I appriciate the fact that the ships in were drawn in such a high detail I could recognise them easily! Good job from the animator 😊
Thanks Nerdaxic. This was my first trying out a new drawing technique, so am glad it worked out
My dad rescued people in this disaster, my dad was the copilot of a Dornier Do228-212 of the Finnish coast guard, my dad was sleeping and then he heard an alarm, I don’t remember how many people my dad rescued, but he did rescue some people.
Finnjet? Finnmerchant? Finnhansa? There was many Finn's
@@finn0017 nii Utössako se oli ?
Exactly what I was thinking too!
This is one of the most haunting maritime disasters ever. A dark and stormy autumn night and rapid capsizing of the ship. Many passengers never managed to get out of the ship and those who did, had to jump into freezing water. RIP
RIP to all the victims on MS Estonia my prayers and thoughts go out to them and the family.
There’s a documentary and radio recording on YT on this. Quite terrifying.
There's also footage from one of the rescue helicopter. Very harrowing indeed
It was a huge tragedy here in Sweden... I was pretty young but can remember how horrible it was to hear about.
@@Liquessen Inte bara i Svedala ! ............
De var fan så mycket närmare Hangö ( Hanko ) .............
Hey, could you add the link?
I like how 19 ships came to the rescue. It makes them look like a team.
Ikr I felt like 19 cruise ships met for the first time
"It makes them look like a team"
Humaniteam.
Cruiseferries that i know are participated in the rescue (the sinking of the MS Estonia):
Mariella (now Mega Regina), Silja Europa, Silja Symphony, Isabella (now Isabelle), Finnjet, Finnmerchant, Finnhansa, Antares, Anette, etc
yes but in the end of the day ships rescued very few people, most people were rescued with helicopter
they are a team, they are seamen
I would love an updated video in light of the fact that a hole was discovered in the hull of this boat and there is now going to be an investigation by the governments of Estonia, Sweden, and Finland.
You probably need to recover this now as the hole on starboard side is finally found.
A hole is not surprising if you know anything about ship disasters that involve damage inn heavy seas. The official report was clear: When the multistory metal visor was ripped off the front of the ship the passengers heard and felt it hit the hull. This is simply the damage to the ship's hull the film crew uncovered. Case closed. The same metal visor, that covered the car deck and waterproof loading door had ripped off the Estonia's sister ship only a few months earlier in high seas. No mystery, same problem, occurring on the same model of ship. Just more fodder for conspiracy nuts that cannot read an official report or understand basic science.
@@rfarevalo sorry to say but there is no way in the world the visor could have made that hole in the ships hull. The visor would have extensive damages to cover that which it hasn't. There is a new documentary showing what weight and what force an object would have had to make that hole.
@@rfarevalo no the visor definetly didnt cause that hole, i dont know what, but the visor is allready been cheked out as the object,
The submarine theory - which has been called a conspiracy theory - seems more and more likely.
M/S Estonia was delivering "classified material" that night and is said to have been watched by a Swedish or perhaps an American submarine. Several passengers have also witnessed that they saw light near the water surface, several meters long, which they couldn't explain but they guessed that it may have been a submarine.
Now, not only were these testimonies later changed by Swedish authorities, at first Sweden said they were going to investigate this thoroughly to shortly after decide to drop the investigation completely _"out of respect to the families whom lost members that night"_
I don't know what happened but it is way too many people that were, and still are, suspicious about this whole matter. Somehow I think the final word has not yet been said about this tragic catastrophe.
@@rfarevalo And basic science disproved that it couldnt have been the visor. Experts said it needed to be an object of 1000tones going 4 knots to make that hole in the hull below sealevel.
The visors weight was around 77tones.
It couldnt have created a 4m x 1,5m hole in the hull like that.
Nice to see ships of all nationalities working together to save as many people as possible, kudos to them and the aircraft assisting
Its not nice to see, it's the law of the sea and an absolute requirement for all vessels to immediately respond until an authority stands them down.
@@superyachtchef it still warms you heart,.no need to be so matter of fact about it.
@@lewisallan9963 Agree but it's the martine wat and has been so since distress signals existed over hundreds of years.
The 800+ soles lost on that night were horrific for the responding crews/vessels -
If you get a chance, listen to the mayday radio distress calls and the corresponding calls from all the rescue fleet (it really isn't very nice).
The sea cares nought about nationality. We are all equally vulnerable. Sailors know all too well that it could easily be them.
@@superyachtchef the thing is, they could chose to ignore it
By percentage, more people died on Estonia than on Titanic. I remember I was at elementary school back then, we held a moment of silence for the dead. :(
Greetings from Latvia. I lost a coworker on this ship.
I’m not sure but I think my nan and grandad considered going on this vessel and I’m so thankful that they didn’t because they wouldn’t be able to give my mother the support that they did when I was a kid back in the 2000s
With the way the Estonia sunk it's no surprise, it took over 2 hours for the Titanic to sink thanks to the efforts of her crew.
That's how NFL statistics are calculated, LOL. Can you imagine if we tallied civilian casualties that way? I can see the headlines now...
*_"MORE"_ PEOPLE DEAD IN 9/11 THAN HIROSHIMA! (per square foot)
*INDIA CYCLONE DESTRUCTION **_"MORE"_** EXPENSIVE THAN KATRINA* (Adjusted for currency conversion, relative to median income)
It took well over 2 hours for Titanic to sink and it never listed the same way as Estonia. Estonia sank in 45 minutes and the list became too extreme for lifeboats , they couldn't lower them. The night Titanic sank was very calm, while Estonia disaster happened in rough waters, it was windy and rainy. Some lifeboats capsized because of strong waves.
There's something really touching when big, civil ships abandon their courses and immediately work together to save passengers and crew of the another watercraft that needs help. Thats some sort of unity that moves my heart every time
Just saw “ the days the flowers bloom” and the series includes this horrific maritime disaster ! I hadn’t know anything about it so came here - this was the best explained , easiest to follow description w graphics I have ever seen on ANY subject! Well done!!
Thank you for doing this video ( I wasn’t sure if it was a fictional disaster) I highly recommend that mini series !
This sinking has always terrified me, as the idea of being trapped beneath deck, in a ship that sunk so fast would be a horrible experience. Especially as many people were asleep and didn't notice until it was too late.
And many were probably alive for a long time in pitch black at the bottom of the sea until the water swallowed all the air pockets and they finally died from drowning. It must have been just pure horror.
i travel few times per year between germany, sweden and finland by ship. i always stay as long as possible awake while drinking.
This is why I always practice my free stroke.
This is such an unknown disaster in Sweden today compared to the Titanic. Many younger people don't even know about it despite the fact that 501 swedes died and that it happened so recently.
Its because its a banned gravsite, with original documents "lost".
TOTAL COVERUP!
@@heigoesula7952 yes, it got torpedoed or something, why did no new video get recorded after video evidence of the wreck was "lost"?(yes i know diving is banned, but..)
Also, ive read the swedish government was arguing about covering the deck with concrete?
Who did it and why hide it?
Wreck is not even at 100 meters depth.news.err.ee/1140442/head-of-ms-estonia-investigation-estonia-sank-on-collision-with-submarine
@@TheDyrehauge Lol, the way this estonian website is reporting on it is so different from the swedish media. In the article I read they interviewed some random estonian called Märten Vaikmaa who claimed there was no chance that a collision caused the hole.
I hate my countries politicians in that Regards. They hide the truth and think people are stupid to find out.
Thank you for making this video. I nearly cried when watching this. I was a small kid, watching tv with parent's living near the coast when this horrible, tragic news came from TV. There is so much, secred theory stuff about this case that it makes me really angry. But that wasn't what made me cry... it was that I have listened those radio messages there was from Estonia during accident, between other ships. And what made me so emotional was how revealed how the resque was actually done and organiced, and how all those ships diverted from their business to help. And how you illustrated all that. That made me proud of how far we have gotten over the many years since titanic.
As a kid, I saw a lot of those news, about the resque... though understood very little at the time. It all felt chaotic, and scramble at the time. It is good to hear that things were done in orderly and swift manner. Thank you for making this video.
I love this channel. Such clear and simple explanations and your voice is pretty good for narrating. Cheers!
Damn, this story is heartbreaking. It's amazing seeing how many ships responded to the distress call and helped with the rescue though.
Lucy Back My dad rescued people in this disaster, my dad was the copilot of a Dornier Do228-212 of the Finnish coast guard, my dad was sleeping and then he heard an alarm, I don’t remember how many people my dad rescued, but he did rescue some people.
Lucy Back
Ships have a duty to help if they are in a position to do so. It’s also a long standing tradition at sea. In days past shipwreck was a common occurrence and you never knew when it might be you in distress, so the custom was built up. It was eventually incorporated into international law by the United Nations.
Do not believe this fake video. Yeah its Made heartbreaking but its a total BULLSHIT this video. Thats not a true stori in the video. Yeah the OFFICIAL STORY is Simple and sounds good how many came to help... But this story is a complete lye!!!! Why this video doesnt speak about the explosives on board????
Another COVERUP video, like the OFFICIAL report!!!
@@heigoesula7952 Conspiracy theories are the refuge of delusional people. Get help.
@@heigoesula7952 i hate conspiracy theories, get outta my sight
Two things missing, but worth mentioning in the video:
1. A crew member on the car deck called the bridge, informing them there was water coming in, but the bridge crew ignored his warning and thought he was seeing things. If they had taken him seariously, things could have been much different.
2. Finnish naval rescue started to carry spray paint cans after this incident. Plenty of the liferafts were capsized at the site and rescue crew had to dive into them to see if there was survivors. Time was lost because they dove to the same ones multiple times, because there was no way to tell them apart in darkness and rough sea. Spray cans can now be used to mark ones which are already checked.
They usually just cut them nowadays if multiple life rafts are floating. They just sink them. Who the hell had time to paint them in bad weather and during an emergency?
Also, the ship sunk so fast that we still would have saw deaths exceeding 700+ regardless. Would have been nice to get some more survivors though. RIP to the unfortunate victims
People need to be trained to identify normalcy bias. It's defined as "a cognitive bias which leads people to disbelieve or minimize threat warnings." Basically, things are normal 99% of the time, so when the 1% happens, people think that nothing is actually wrong
The teamwork of these rescue operations is pretty incredible
Made me cry several times.. This is such a big deal in our history and you mananged to
almost cover it all..
⁻⁻⁻⁻⁻⁻⁻⁻⁻
I've seen Estonia's bow visor up close, and what strikes you when you stand next to it is how mangled the metal that's supposed to hold the thing to the rest of the ship is. It's really scary to imagine the awesome forces of the sea that twisted the metal like child's toy. Also, knowing that it was the literal barrier between life and death for all those people breaks your heart.
water don't mangle metal, .. can't be that stupid..
@@Spectralcollapse *English has left the chat*
@@Spectralcollapse water absolutely mangles metal. Look at the wreck of the SS American star, it was totally dismantled by the waves.
@@astrotrek3534 probably because it was sitting in the the surf for dozens of years
Badly designed, which surprises me given it's a German ship.
With so many lives lost as a painful lesson for humanity , their losses shall not be in vain. The effort of so many civilian vessels in the rescue is very moving. Thank you for sharing the story
I never heard of this before and thought "Oh it sounds like they arrived quite early, so good chances for survival, they prob got alot of lifeboats still around"
Then i heard the numbers... erh...
Unfortunately, those lives were lost in vain, nothing good came out of this wholly avoidable tragedy, other than the few people that actually managed to survive by their own initiative and will to live.
The authorities colluded to (literally) bury this wreck, covering in in a gazillion tons of material like a sarcophagus to prevent further examination and investigation.
There are also reports of rescued crew members phoning their families from hospital to say that they were safe and well, before mysteriously vanishing and having their rescue denied, despite them telling their families the hospital they were in and that they were safe.
Like the South Korean death ship Sewol, the Estonia (of comparable size) could have been recovered and fully examined and investigated, with the dead being released back to their families, however, the government collusion ruled this out.
As with aviation disasters, loss of vessels at sea are supposed to be thoroughly investigated to identify how the vessel came to grief so that future lessons are learned.
Except with the Estonia!
@Felix Cat We know the probable causes to the disaster, and it is a restricted diving site because it is the burial grounds for over 700people.
All ships with similar flaws (including Mariella and the Estonia’s sistership) were retrofitted.
Crew training was also improved as it was a major factor for the high death toll.
They have also recovered the visor and there have been dives to the Ms Estonia.
I just watched today and soon forget about this... :) my memory is full
Great explanation of what happened to the Estonia. We went to visit the memorial to the children who died on board, it's very touching with the ships bell and childrens faces on overlooking the area of the sunken ship.
I remember giving a presentation on the Estonia disaster to my class in 4th grade. I was so moved by the tragedy and the loss of life.
The coordination of the rescue effort was quite extraordinary. The vessels worked together like a team. The radio convos from the ships are featured in a UA-cam video, quite fascinating.
Here's a link to that video for all that want to check it out.
ua-cam.com/video/V5tbah19qo8/v-deo.html
Not that I'm glad this horrible event took place, but I'm so excited I just discovered your channel (like, yesterday) and now I wake up to this!!!
Good to have you aboard Eduvigis
My mom was on Mariella that night. She was sleeping onboard after a work conference and looking forward for the rest of the travel. Everyone was woken up in the middle of the night by desperate crew memebers asking in english swedish and finnish for anyone able to help. My mom volounteered with her nursing background. My dad was still home in Stockholm with 3year old me. Terrified of the news of a "large baltic sea ferry calling mayday in the storm". This was before snapchat phones and internet.
My mom went on deck in her fancy coat (the only warm clothing she had brought) and started shouting orders (many languages of all involved. Complete chaos). They lowered their lifeboats down and just looked down in vain from the 100ft railing, onto survivors trying to climb onboard.
They threw draggersand hooks with lines, threw lifevests overboard to people in the water. The janitor/securities weak flashlights did not penetrate the darkness down below. The first survivors got onboard and my mom immedietely screamed for their wet clothes to be taken off.
They carried people inside and started cpr on unconcious survivors. They redressed the survivors with towels and dry cloathing and she offered her coat to a woman, surrounded on a ship without her group not speaking her language.
My mom went out again and watched crew members real in more lines of people and debree, and that is when my mother broke.
The woman shouted "Vart är Buster? En pojke. My boy has anyone seen him? Buster!?".
The last debree with the last survivors also carried an empty stroller. My mom had seen it and knew what that meant.
That coat has always been in our cellar. I asked my mom about it and she just said it was for special ocassions. Until I was old enough to hear the truth.
@@EstParum Wow, what an amazing account. You should have posted this on the main thread for everyone to read!
I was living in Finland at the time. The news carried little else. So very sad 😞
I live on a boat myself, albeit a narrowboat on the English canals, but I was a sailor first, so it hit hard.
I traveled with Estonia"s sister ship in 1998, just before they scrapped them . Also a journey through the night in the ice cold Fall. It gives me the chills. I was a teenager and traveled alone for adventure. In the middle of the night I went outdoors. They had locked the area with a chain but I made my way to the railing and looked down. The storm was an inferno. Almost pitch black. High waves.
The ship was more or less an exact replica. So old and fragile. I remember those tiny hallways and narrow stairways. On the top floor they had a little sandwish bar. Most people spoke finnish. Very spookey ferry. It gives me the creeps and I could not sleep the whole night remembering the Accident I had seen on TV.
Still today the memory haunts me.
The sinking of Estonia still haunts my fellow people many years later even me. Such a sad and a tragic story.
henry sirelmets КФК Елвис диви Елвис
Jah.
I recommend everyone to listen to mayday call radio recording of this event. Its on UA-cam with transcripts. Hits hard.
There is a video on YT filmed from one of the rescue choppers hovering above an upside down life raft with bodies floating amongst a handful of survivors.
'Good morning, do you speak Finnish?' short before sinking. 😰
I know the captain that arrived there first onboard M/S Mariella
Uuuu ! Rather not ! 😵😵😱😓
@@bern6543 The guy that was on Estonia (Andres Tammes, the third officer of Estonia) had respect to say "good morning" despite the fact that the ship was sinking. Many say that his last words were "It's very bad now" but.......his last words were "It was clear what you said" (talking with the guy on Silja Europa). He was very kind but he died on Estonia, it was just around 20 years old. To rest in peace😭😞😭😞😭😞.
P.S. He was Estonian
This still hurts my soul. So many fellow estonians who died there.... also swedes, finns and others.... Their stories are also heartbreaking.
All people who died in that catastrophe, you will stay in my heart
I wondered if I should take my time to watch this because I had watched a few others on the subject but I liked how you talked at length about the ferries that came to the rescue. It was cool for me because I have been on board some of those ships or seen them in port either in Maarinanhamina or Helsinki while traveling to Stockholm.
I like how he can explain these stuff in less than 10 minutes , one of my favorite UA-cam channel
Keep up the good work!
Great to have you aboard Rafther
@@CasualNavigation make it 10 minutes, you deserve it 👍🏻 I will watch your adds.
I was 2nd mate on a crude oil tanker. We were anchored outside Tees and I had the 0000-0400 watch. I was correcting navigational charts and listened to BBC. I remember the news reader saying "a passenger ship is believed to have sunk in the Baltic Sea". In the morning the captain called the office and learned it was former Viking Sally that sunk. Absolutely chocking. Been on it several times travelling from Åland to Sweden and mainland Finland. A lot of the older seaman were truly shocked that something like that could happen. But the sea can be merciless. I went ashore in 1997 and can still have nightmares about bad weather.
My dad worked on the Estonia a few months before that terrible night. I don't even want to think what could've happened if things had been different.
It’s so creepy that the crew didn’t even know this was happening and then a second later it just rolls over like me in bed
This is why nowadays ships are full with surveillance cameras.
@@KrotowX it wouldnt help.them amyway..
Once the bow visor fell off,the ship was doomed..
On the 28th Sept 1994 I was working overtime in a newspaper in Oslo together with a colleague installing a new IT system that deciphered telegrams from news agencies that beeped journalists automatically in case of important events. (pre WWW..) After we finished installing the system we headed out for beers in a local pub. I can remember the weather was terrible in Oslo that evening. About two hours later our system test beeper went off. The first alarm on this system was the Estonia accident. I'll never forget it.
Good God, belss those souls...
@@asoru5573 *bless
sorry for correcting you, but i feel for the fellas onboard Estonia...
Thank you CasualNavigation.
me: Thats a cool boat design!
Casual Nav: So this is how the design killed 800 people
Actually, it didn't. There's much evidence that it was a Russian submarine that hit it, one for example is the big hole they found.
@@Kert69 Iirc the hole was too small and the wrong shape to be a submarine strike. On a general note about the conspiracy theories: never attribute to malice what you can attribute to incompetence and the desire to cover up an embarrassment.
@@casacara They have found a submarine that is exact size than can make such hole, interesting isnt it?
@@Kert69 If you have a certain amount of tin wrapping your head, sure
@@casacara Well I dont ;(
My father with his dance troupe were supposed to travel to Stockholm on this voyage but were late to the ferry due to a broken down bus. In hindsight, they were so lucky to be late..
Thank you for covering this, I always wanted to know what actually happened.
Liar
@@Colea1010Maybe your the liar
☝️ here
@@Sg.dornan78 mate in this comment section alone i've seen at least 5 different stories of how their father or their uncle or whoever was meant to be on the estonia but they magically missed it. If all of those stories i've seen were true then the estonia would've planned to be carrying thousands more than what it did
@@Colea1010 Well you are correct but some are kind of true
@@Sg.dornan78 I guarantee that none of them are true and that if any were true, they probably wouldn't talk about it
My mother had a friend that managed to survive the sinking. He described how, while sitting in the lifeboat, there was one woman (maybe two women I cant remember) who they couldnt let on to the lifeboat, as it was at capacity. Sadly the woman froze to death while holding onto the lifeboat.
Liar
No lifeboats were launched from the Estonia.
Considering the new information that surfaced recently, I think it is important that a new investigation goes to the bottom with what _really_ happened with the M/S Estonia.
Yes clearly the official story is a lie....
@@EsromFF Clearly you are jumping to conclusions.
Try to be a serious person when we are talking about the deaths of up to 921 people.
When I hear about such disasters, I get the shivers. As a child, I loved swimming, I was not afraid of any body of water, but over time the fact that there is a huge body of water below me began to terrify me terribly. I can't imagine a worse situation than ship damage at sea/ocean. If I were in that situation, I'd probably die of a heart attack before the ship could sink.
Probably the most horrifying thing about this disaster was how cramped the ship was. My mom was on the ship when it was operated in a different route and by another company. She said that the hallways we're as wide as a normal door. Imagine been suddenly woken up along with hundreds of others and trying to get to the upper decks. On top of that alot of the passengers we're also probably hung over.
I used to work for Sally Färjor / Ferries) one of the three shipping companies under the Viking Line marketing name. Viking Sally later Estonia was the last ship I worked on. The cheapest passenger cabins were located under the car deck and that deck was a real labyrinth with many of the corridors dead ends. The passengers on that deck never had a chance to get out. The stairs up from the deck were steep and there would have been fireproof doors to open when the ship was listing and that is almost impossible because they are heavy. The first ship I worked on for Sally was the Viking Song. One of my former shipmates from Viking Song was on board Estonia as a passenger and survived. He told how he stepped over to the side, when the ship keeled over, and again stepped onto the bottom when it turned around. Big waves washed him off into the sea and when his strenght was waning he managed to swim to a liferaft where someone helped him into the raft. If you look at the raft in this link ua-cam.com/video/Vat4YhfWrrs/v-deo.html you can see it is upside down. The rafts are packed in small cylidrical white containers and they should be automatically inflated when they drop overboard. In the hard weather with strong winds the empty rafts turned upside down and offered no shelter. Normally when evacuating a ferry, if you have time, the rafts are inflated on deck and lowered down into the sea around a slide along wich the passenger can slide down from the rescue boat deck and be loaded into the rafts. The rafts have a tentlike top and inside there are resque equipment like flares and special blankets that keep you warm. But since many of the rafts were upside down the bottom was filled with water and you can see a passenger that probably had died from hypothermia floating around in the water inside the raft. Later when I worked on the Silja Line ferries a lot of new security training was implemented and I spent a weekend on a naval base near Stockholm, training crowd managment, evacuation, evacuation from a listing ship and extinguishing fires. Lifeboat and liferaft drills combined with evacuation drills were compulsory once each workturn.
@@gurkslunga How hard is it to evacuate from a listing ship? How would the crew help the passengers in this situation? Looking at Estonia's situation itself, I imagined even the crew were in horror and tried to save themselves first. I want to work on ship someday in the future but covid19 will destroy that very dream.
For us Sweds this tradgedy is on par with the titanic. I was not alive when it happend, yet I almost cried watching this video. Thanks for this great breakthrough!
"For us Sweds ... my ass"
Спасибо за ещё одно доказательство того, что либералы - нерусские!
Это антинациональный проект и враги русской нации.
The tragedy is much worse than the Titanic cos people didnt have time to escape on the upper deck due to the heavy list of the ship and from 980ish people ,only 130ish survived ..
get yourself together. there is no reason of being more emotional than neccessary.
Dang some of the ppl in this thread are oddly cold & unsympathetic.
My god we were talk8ng about this at work today so I came looking for more info about what happened. Truly shocking. My heart goes out to all the families.
I love the simple yet detailed art style.
The astonishing thing, to my mind, is that a ship should be designed with a part of the hull detachable. This was hubris. The strength of a ship comes from the integrity of the hull. Hinged bow doors compromise that strength, introducing a point of vulnerability. Car decks without bulkheads are similarly dangerous. Correct me if I am wrong, but roll-on roll-off ferries are still being built with bow doors, although the designs have changed following the Herald of Free Enterprise and Estonia disasters . . .
Bow visors, the kind that was present on the Estonia, was already more or less a deprecated design at the time of the sinking. Modern ships utilize doors which open sideways and outward, against the motion of the waves.
I also believe that the main reason to Estonia's fate is poor maintenance from Estline. The company wasn't doing so well financially at the time, so it is quite possible that they skipped on inspections and repairs for the visor. M/S Mariella, one of the ships assisting in rescue at the night of the disaster, has the same type of bow visor as the Estonia. She's still in service today.
@@Catonator It was faulty shipyard construction, visor didn't even follow regulations.
@Albert Fels Thank you for the advice, if I ever become a ship designer I would remember to make all the doors in the hull open outwards or slide
@@10gamer64 Or you know... Stop making RO/RO ferries.... They aren't safe.
@@chdreturns True
The struggle: wanting to watch this video because it's interesting vs my already high anxiety about an upcoming ferry trip....
The aim is that officers have learned from past events to avoid repeating them
Your ancestors: went out into an open sea in little wooden boats to raid and loot faraway coasts
You: sailimg amxiety
@@CasualNavigation Thanks, that's reassuring to know.
Don't worry. Ferry accidents are rare.
Don't worry, not much can go wrong. And other things are dangerous too. A friend of mine was flying in an airliner, when it crashed down onto a ferry.
5:46 here the Estonia was still visable, but only the last bit of it, so they knew where it went down. The boat is like 157m or something and sank in 80-90m water, so when the first ship to arrive got there, the bow was still visable, at least a portion of it as it was taking water
Always sad to learn of such disasters :( but still thanks for reporting on them! and good to hear they've at least managed to improve from it
I travelled on that ship from Turku (FI) to Stockholm (SE) in 1980 when it still was named Viking Sally.
My dad travelled on that ship as well in 1993. But I don't remember from where and the destination (probably from Estonia to Sweden).
@@martinsedgarskeza1212 my mom went to Stockholm in 1992 on that ship
@@rando9347 Good that we exist😀
"Stockholm (SE)"
Incase someone mistakes it for Stockholm, Zimbabwe.
@@martinsedgarskeza1212 my dad did too travel in it in 1993, it was wasa line
The biggest recent national tragedy of my nation (after küüditamine).
Edit: There is actually a widely popular conspiracy theory about how the bang was caused by the detonation of a Russian bomb meant to prevent military equipment or important individuals from leaving Estonia. I can sadly not remember which one it was.
And that's just one of the conspiracies around the Estonia. One other I'm familiar with is, there was a whole bunch of Swedish Navy vessels around the accident site, who didn't help because they were conducting classified maneuvers not meant for the eyes of civilians. Civilians like the ones they'd have to take on board from the sinking Estonia.
it was that someone was tryng to smuggle weapons with it. it was something like thta dont remember anymore.
No wonder there is such a conspiracy. It fits anti-Russian bias so nicely.
While I’m not one to believe conspiracy theories easily, the fact that they want to either remove the wreck or burry it in concrete is a bit suspicious. While I doubt the ship was sunk by a bomb (the hole in the side could have been caused by pressurized air bursting out), I don’t think the Estonia carrying munitions is out of the question
To be fair, the Swedish government has admitted to using the MS Estonia to transport military cargo. They just insist it wasn’t on the fatal voyage. midtifleisen.wordpress.com/2018/09/16/ms-estonia-still-doubts-over-official-story-24-years-after-the-biggest-maritime-disaster-in-europe-since-ww2/
That music sure lightened The Mood. Great Choice
My dad's friend was flying the helicopter non stop through the night with the Finnish coastguard.. He told the story and it still gives me chills and gave me more motivation to study my way into flying planes or helis
Yesterday I was thinking to give a comment to make a video about MS Estonia sinking but now I have this video here! Thank You Casual Navigator for making this video!
I remember hearing about this all over the news when it happened. I'm a Finn and we and Estonians are essentially siblings. I was never in Estonia (the ship, I have been in the country) but I have been in Silja Europa (which still operates).
This ship was before under Viking Line. Finnish-Sweden route. Maybe youbhave been in that ship afterall.
It was known as the Silja Star and operated between Finland and Sweden until December 1990
Right now Silja Europa belongs to Tallink, Estonian ferry company( Tallink bought Silja Lines) and operates between Tallinn and Helsinki. Unfortunately it will be retired after Tallinks new ship is built.
@@Martin-wx8gd I think you are referring to Mystar that is supposed to replace M/S Star?
@@Martin-wx8gdIs it really going to be retired/removed from traffic? They often sell used ferries, old fashioned but otherwise fine to surprising places. I once took a ferry from Melbourne to Tasmania and found out that it used to sail between Finland and Sweden when it still was new and shiny.
My greatest respect to Captain and crew of the Siljia Europa. They acted in an amazing efficient and calm way.
It is so weird to think I have been on every one of the cruise ships mentioned here save for Estonia. And that is just because she operated between Tallinn and Stockholm at the time and I live in Finland. Mad respect to the crews of every ship that helped. Too many lives were lost but the rescue effort is still very touching.
Kudos to the 19 vessels assisting in the rescue despite the storm :(
The number of ships that run that area on a daily basis is enormous.
Just between Helsinki and Stockholm runs 4 major cruseferies daily runs. Two of them was the largest in the world when launched. Silva Europa is still to this day the largest cruessferry.
Estonia also have 3 sister ships that is close but not quite identical.
My dad rescued people in this disaster, my dad was the copilot of a Dornier Do228-212 of the Finnish coast guard, my dad was sleeping and then he heard an alarm, I don’t remember how many people my dad rescued, but he did rescue some people.
Estonia's ultimate design flaw was that the car ramp was connected to the visor. Car ramp had watertight seal but that didn't help because if visor come off, ramp would open too.
Yes what a stupid design and a disaster waiting to happen. And stupid crew members had no idea. Even the Titanic was designed better than this.
@@MicklowFilms even? So in your opinion, RMS Titanic had bad design?
@@richardstratford7126 Im saying the Titanic even as old as it was still had a better, safer design than the Estonia. You’d think ship designs would’ve gotten better with time but this is just ridiculous.
@@MicklowFilms well, it is incorrect to compare an ocean liner to cruiseferry. But yeah, as we started using ships for cruises more than transportation they got less safe. It's got explanations tho'
Except the car ramp didnt open more than a few centimeters. Its still closed in the wreck today. That is why the official explanation to MS Estonias sinking is completely impossible.
I usually dont put much faith into conspiracy theories, and Im not saying this is a conspiracy, but I am saying the official explanation isnt correct, it cant be correct.
Even in these tragic and heartbreaking stories, it's always so heartening to hear about the camaraderie and care for fellow humans in the maritime sphere.
And today it looks like we got a revolutionary explanation to what actually happened
No we did not. The idiots who push that theory can't even give a reasonable theory as to what "5,000 ton" object the could have possible collided with at sea. The official report was clear: When the multistory metal visor was ripped off the front of the ship the passengers heard and felt it hit the hull. This is simply the damage to the ship's hull the film crew uncovered. Case closed. The same metal visor, that covered the car deck and waterproof loading door had ripped off the Estonia's sister ship only a few months earlier in high seas. No mystery, same problem, occurring on the same model of ship. Just more fodder for conspiracy nuts that cannot read an official report or understand basic science.
rfarevalo are you working for the swedish Government or are you just naive, probably both🤔
@@johannesthollander5753 I am just smart, well read, and I think critically. Are you 12 years old and easily swayed by Pseudoscience and for profit streaming documentaries?
@@rfarevalo you're literally crazy to think it's the visor that made that hole. plus they didn't speak about a "5000" tonne object. It was 1000 tonne with a speed of about 5 knots. If we take the theory about a uboat crashing in it really makes sense since most uboats weigh over 1000 tonnes.
Plus, former soviet knew about military equipment being shipped over.
plus russian / soviet uboats frequently visit these waters
@@rfarevalo lets just see what the new investegations finds... there is alot of weird, unlogical and pretty insane things about the whole thing. if you really are a critical person, you shouldt just brush this off as BS before it has been looked into further. And by singleing out the "5000 ton" scentenses without the rest of the context shows you might be bised and not very critical at all. Anyway, there are alot of indipendent experts who actually, without stating anything about what happend, that really thinks it warrants a new look, and atleast a goddamn explenation of why it never ever got mentioned, if what you say is known, why not say it?
Wow, I had never heard of this disaster before. Truly harrowing
I remember hearing this in the wardrobe of my school, I was 9 at that time. My gym teacher had been on that ship, she was also the mother of one of my classmates. We got a new gym teacher, he did not get a new mom. Another one who went down was an amazing singer, who had some time before the accident wrote a song which title translates roughly to "when I'm no longer", and agonizes over the perspective of having to leave loved ones behind ...
MySTGxD-v6g
in the minds of many in Estonia, he was sort of a poetical prophet.
"Do you understand how fragile is the string, that ties me to you, or with life? Some unfortunate moment may take me away for good."
Same here
What is truly crazy is that I DIDN'T know about this tragedy! And after Titanic this is really an awful modern day tragedy. Am glad this was cover on here, simple and well described THANK YOU! for taking the time to educating us on the subject. 🌞
If you look at percentages. Alot more people percentually died on board the Estonia, than the Titanic.
This was very helpful for me since im interested in the MS estonia
5:00 As depicted here the rival shipping companies Silja Line and Viking Line run their ships on the same lane just 30 minutes apart which put them within visual distance from each other for almost the entire way. I can't help but feel like this is done for increased safety.
as an Estonian myself i'm shocked. iv'e never known about this tragedy. thank you casual investigator for this. and bringing awareness to it not only to me but many many others as well.
I’ve never watched/listened to anything of this elk before, purely because of the death surrounding this type of things. The narration was wonderful a soft voice too. Done very tastefully. I’m full of admiration.
Thanks Stephanie. I wanted to do it tastefully after reading about it
You've made a subscriber out of me. I was highly aware of the disaster to the Estonia, but you laid it out perfectly in 10 minutes.
There have been a number of container ships that have disappeared without a trace over the last 30-40 years, might you be willing to discuss the stability issues with those huge vessels and how the loading on that class could have led to these issues?
it was more likely the fact that sweden smuggled soviet military tech onboard that caused the sinking
The part where more and more vessels joined in to help save another one in danger just melted my heart for some reasons
The quality of these videos are astounding, you are very skilled sir
Thanks Alexander. I'm trying to learn something new in every one I make
As a Swede it brought some pain seeing the title of the video but i appreciate what you've done here.
Thanks Kingsburg4ever. Hopefully it has just helped raise awareness and keep the story going
I can imagine how does it feel, as an ex crew member of the cruise ship. Immediate Responses from cruise ships near by is highly regarded as genuine Sail Mate 🙏🏻🙏🏻.. Sad to hear MS Estonia sinking 😔😔
What is still chilling, that in May that same year I was on the Estonia cruising from Stockholm to Helsinki...
The content on this channel is always outstanding, but this video is your best ever. Well done and much appreciated.
Hey! Thanks for making a video about this disaster, my mother was one of the surviving workers on the ship. If anyone has any questions, i can ask her and answer for her :)
Glad your mother got off safely RoksonsSC2
Casual Navigation Me too! Thanks a ton for making a video about this disaster, not many out there
Q: Does she believe the official story? Why would Sweden spend 350 million in a failed attempt to bury it in concrete?
@@axiom1650 most Swedes where against this as well because they suspected that the government tried to hide something.
Axiom im sorry, but i dont know what you mean. What is it you are asking?
Very cool video 😎 keep it up!
My grandmother’s dad was Stepdad to ”Karlsson Susanne Myhrström” who sadly passed away on the disaster 28 September 1994 My grandmother was shocked when someone called her and told her the news. I have a teacher whos called ”Malin” and her Aunt was on the Mariella as a staff member that night, She saw estonias lights far into the distance and it looked like a big star as she saw the lights flicker and then just vanish... like just vanish like the ship wasn’t there. So may all the people rest on gods hands and be in peace. 💜💜🙏🙏🙏
Liar
only the strongest managed to escape that ship and even then much bigger challenge was to survive the cold in the rescue boat.
I was waiting for this
Me to
I belived I was the single that was waiting for this!😂😂😂😂😂
Thank you for this documentary, I never knew of this disaster, sad so many people lost their lives that night.
This video has out dated information, this isn't how it sunk
@@zannrebel1217 How did she sink then
@@nissethepear4743 Submarine collision or attack, forgot which it was.
@@zannrebel1217 Those are just conspirach theories tho, and neither of them make much sense if I am gonna be honest with you
@@nissethepear4743 New discoveries like the hole found underneath the ship suggest something north of 1000 tons had to of rammed it.
ua-cam.com/video/BvFneAzjmUY/v-deo.html
Very astonishing story and video animation.
Yeeas, finally u made a video about my homeland ship. I have studied the story and as an Estonian myself, felt it. It was a hard day for us all and it's weird to see, that even 26 years later, we're still talking about it if it had happened just yesterday.
So thank you from the bottom of my heart from Estonia. Keep it up my man.
Been waiting for a new upload. Keep up the good work!
hello i have visited finland in the early 2000's and actually saw estonia in the harbor of the town of estonia in southern finland, can't believe it os now in the bottom of the ocean, greetings from america
I read the article about this disaster in The Atlantic. I maintain to this day that it is the most harrowing magazine article I've ever read.