what happened to the captain of the oceanos

The Costa Concordia, carrying more than 4,200 passengers and crew, slammed into a reef on Friday, after Schettino made an unauthorized maneuver. A Greek board of inquiry found Avranas and four officers negligent in their handling of the disaster. 19952023, The Independent Traveler, Inc. Captain Yiannis Avranas who left passengers to die? [5] They used the radio phone to broadcast a mayday distress call until Moss received a response.[7]. In 2015, a court found Schettino guilty of manslaughter, causing a shipwreck, abandoning ship before passengers and crew were evacuated and lying to authorities about the disaster. Announcing Our 2023 Cruisers' Choice Award Winners! NAVY DIVER SAYS OCEANOS CAPTAIN DEMANDED TO BE ONE OF FIRST RESCUED. Several witnesses claimed to have seen him in the water. The success of the 1988 cruise season in South Africa was the motivation for her return in 1991 on an eight-month charter for TFC Tours of Johannesburg. Use of this site is governed by the User Agreement, Privacy Policy(function(w,d){var loader=function(){var s=d.createElement("script"),tag=d.getElementsByTagName("script")[0];s.src="https://cdn.iubenda.com/iubenda.js";tag.parentNode.insertBefore(s,tag);};if(w.addEventListener){w.addEventListener("load",loader,false);}else if(w.attachEvent){w.attachEvent("onload",loader);}else{w.onload=loader;}})(window,document); and Disclosure Policy. All three divers were ecstatic and eager to make the most of the prevailing conditions; the second dive was scheduled for the following day. The open-circuit diver is therefore restricted in terms of profile and dive time due to the chosen static supply of gas content and quantity carried. All considered, said Canadian-American fellow team member and cave diving world record holder Paul Heinerth, the Oceanos is probably one of the most, if not the most difficult wreck in the world to dive. The difficulties of diving on the Oceanos are extreme, but with commitment and proper planning, the dive is not impossible. MTS Oceanos was a French-built and Greek-owned cruise ship that sank in 1991. After evacuating, the 105 meter long ship began to sink. Among the crew, however, some tried to save themselves first. Passengers remained ignorant of the events until they witnessed the first signs of flooding on the lower decks. [4] Boltman told a newspaper: "Later in the morning, Captain Avarnasi (sic) even contacted me from shore to ask how things were going. http://www.aolvideoblog.com/2007/08/21/crew-bails-on-passengers-of-sinking-cruise-liner/. Midday, the sea spills over the bow of Oceanos. The Oceanos lies at a depth between 92m and 97m, about 5km offshore, on the western edge of the mighty Agulhas current. Find History on Facebook (Opens in a new window), Find History on Twitter (Opens in a new window), Find History on YouTube (Opens in a new window), Find History on Instagram (Opens in a new window), Find History on TikTok (Opens in a new window), 5 Maritime Disasters You Might Not Know About, Titanic By the Numbers: From Construction to Disaster to Discovery, Why Nobody Remembers America's Worst Maritime Disaster, https://www.history.com/news/costa-concordia-cruise-ship-disaster-sinking-captain, The Costa Concordia Disaster: How Human Error Made It Worse. South Korean authorities have arrested Capt. In an interview with the captain, he jokingly remarked that if the ship should sink, he would be on the first lifeboat off the ship. Pryal was no ordinary crank, but a highly regarded local businessman who claimed to have been an officer aboard the White Star liner Majestic some 30 years before, when Smith was its captain. "[9] They were among the last to be rescued. Barry Coleman and the team have accomplished is an amazing feat they have succeeded in conducting two fully controlled dives on the Oceanos. The reaction of the first engineer sabotaged the captains original plan. If some people like to stay, they can stay.". Five divers, including the late Rehan Bouwer, made four attempts to reach the Oceanos, but only succeeded twice, and then only for a matter of minutes. "If the master is simply looking out for himself or herself, you've breached your duty both legally and morally, to your ship, your crew and your passengers," says Allen, the University of Washington law professor. The captain goes down with the ship is a maritime tradition suggesting that a captain is honor-bound to stay on a sinking ship until all passengers and crew members have been safely evacuated. Its captain was accused of manslaughter and abandoning the 4,200 passengers and crew on the night of the wreck. Oceanos headed into 40-knot winds and 9 m (30 ft) swells. As soon as we reached seven degrees, we decided to lower the boats and start evacuation. Captain of MTS Oceanos. Some early newspaper reports, allegedly supported by eyewitnesses, say he had shot himself with a pistol, though few historians give them any credence. Those who did earned instant infamy, like the captain of the Greek luxury liner Oceanos, which sank in rough seas off South Africa in 1991. He had apparently confused the Titanics partially enclosed promenade deck with the totally open one of her sister ship, Olympic, which he had previously commanded. The American inquiry was only slightly harsher in its judgment. In the middle of the 19th century, there were a number of incidents in which ships foundered and captains and their crews were either celebrated for leading the rescue or reviled for saving themselves while passengers drowned. Three years later she wrote in her book entitled, The Tragedy of the Oceanos: Christos Nikolaou, an Oceanist, had a relative who was an executive at the Panhellenic Federation. No alarm was raised. At 12:05 a.m. Smith gave orders to uncover the lifeboats and alert the passengers. It was also around 12:45 a.m. that crewmen lowered the first of the Titanics lifeboats to the ocean surface. Even before the journey started, the ship had already started to wear. It was as if the Wild Coast had been tranquilized by a hunters dart. Captain of White Star Liner, RMS Titanic, Commander Edward J. Smith, c. 1911. How did the Oceanos go into the sea? [2] Photographs taken in 2002 show that the bridge section has collapsed. On the morning of July 12, 1952, Forges Chantiers de la Gironde launched the last of four sister ships in Bordeaux, France, under the name of Jean Laborde. We meet him in Piraeus, where he lives after his retirement. I would know him even without his beard.. I knew then we were soon going.. The international and some Greek media condemned the attitude of Captain Yiannis Avranas. From mariners on ships plying the world's oceans, the answer is loud and clear: Aye. It has been reported that the ship was in a state of neglected maintenance with loose hull plates and an unfitted ventilation pipe. Whether or not Captain Francesco Schettino was trying to impress his girlfriend is debatable. "It's a matter of honor that the master is the last to leave. The chief engineer reported to Captain Avranas that water was entering the hull and flooding the generator room. dontpanik, July 2, 2007 in What Ever Happened To..??? Epirotiki Line. Soon after the collision, he and other officers saw what they believed to be the lights of a nearby ship. Reinforced when Capt. Through the confusion,the captain somehow made it into a lifeboat before everyone else had made it off. All Rights Reserved. Only entertainment staff, singers and waiters helped us later. In Moby-Dick, Captain Ahab sets off to hunt the whale, leaving the capable Starbuck in charge. Often, as in the case of Schettino, charges are brought based not on dereliction of maritime duty but for offenses that might pertain on land as well, such as negligence and manslaughter. Everyone on board the cruise ship Oceanos was safe and accounted for Monday, but survivors angrily accused the . Fleeing in a lifeboat, they were told by the captain of a rescue ship to go back and help their passengers. Still hoping to get the attention of the mysterious ship nearby, the captain ordered the firing of distress rockets at 12:45 a.m. At the same time, Boxhall tried to contact it with a signal lamp, flashing a plea for help in Morse code. A more recent example is Robert Royer, the captain of a fishing vessel that sank off Alaska in 2010. For a moment, they disappeared where had the bubbles gone? hide caption. Francesco Schettino, were charged with various crimes. The crew said that likely saved their lives, because the ship's emergency beacon didn't work. ", "Costa Concordia Tragedy: Capt. All 571 passengers and crew survived. Yiannis Avranas not only abandoned the Greek cruise ship Oceanos after it suffered an explosion off the coast of South Africa but cut ahead of an elderly passenger to be hoisted aloft by a helicopter. After rescuing passengers and crew followed by interrogations in Durban, South Africa. Very well, Pryal, the man supposedly answered, but please dont detain me. I saw Captain Smith getting excited; passengers would not have noticed, but I did, May Sloan, a surviving Titanic stewardess, wrote in a letter shortly after the disaster. In his characteristic style, he managed to weave a comical moment into his narrative of the tumultuous events, telling reporters that he had started singing "Bye Bye Miss American Pie", when he suddenly realised that the next line was going to be "Thisll be the day that I die" - and quickly switched to another song[14][15], Hills later said that searching for Captain Avranas, he had discovered him smoking on the fantail and he said "I think he was in deep, deep shock. Abandonment is for everybody, if some people want to stay, they can stay. What happened to the cruise ship Oceanos? MTS Oceanos was a French-built and Greek-owned cruise ship that sank in 1991 when she suffered uncontrolled flooding. The ships were used on the Marseilles Madagascar Mauritius service. Barry, Brett, and Paul disappeared below the surface. A captain and his crew needlessly endangered the lives of those on board. He and fellow entertainer Julian Butler[8] directed the efforts of the entertainment staff - including Robin Boltman - to assist them. Passengers thought the captain had left the ship. The ship underwent several name changes, including Mykinai, Ancona, Eastern Princess, and finally, in 1976, under the . Smith also checked in periodically with the wireless operators until, at about 2 a.m., he released them from duty and told them to try to save themselves. A recording of his conversation with the Italian Coast Guard suggests he fled before all passengers were off, and resisted repeated orders to go back, saying the ship was tipping and it was dark. One of the divers, Karl van der Merwe, commented, The current was so strong that it would rip your mask off your face and your regulator out of your mouth. Although conditions looked very good for diving, a large shore break was preventing our launch, and the skippers felt the risk to the team, and their vessels were too great. Schettino also didnt immediately alert the Italian Search and Rescue Authority about the accident. "Heres why and how the Oceanos sank off the Wild Coast", Sunday Tribune, 26 Feb, 2017, A Captain's Tale: 'The Rescue Was Perfect - Everybody Is Safe', OCEANOS CAPTAIN INSISTED ON EARLY RESCUE, DIVER SAYS, South Africa probes cause of luxury liner's sinking, Cruise captain sparks outrage among mariners, "Costa Concordia Tragedy: Capt. The captain of the Oceanos was alerted to the problem after receiving reports of water entering some of the cabins on board. In last year's Star Trek Into Darkness, the bad guy taunts Captain Kirk by saying, "No ship should go down without her captain.". -. [15], Prior to the events of January 1991, Avranas had apparently given no interview to the media. The decision was to be his last as captain of the Oceanos. The Oceanos crew was referred to disciplinary inspection for withdrawal of diploma or grade, but they were all acquitted.. [3] Entertainment manager Robin Boltman was credited with gathering the passengers in the lounge and playing music to calm them. [22] The show Extreme Weather: The Survivors featured a segment on the sinking. Nobody cared until that time if those who left on the boats were alive. Whilst laying the anchor line on the Oceanos that day, the boats remained almost stationary as the opposing forces of wind and current battled against each other for ascendancy. The Greek government is not doing anything about the incident. Think of Bligh, or Queeg, or the autocratic captains who drive many of the novels and stories of Herman Melville. None of the 571 passengers drowned. We were preparing to eat when the first mechanic warned us. There were also 12 inflatable rescue media on the cruise ship. / AP. Gas exchanges with backup divers at set points during the ascent worked flawlessly, and the divers surfaced on schedule without incident. There was no reply to either. "I can't lift my face before the passengers and family members of those missing," Lee told reporters. Known for. What happened to the captain and crew of the Oceanos? Industries; War and Militaries; At about 9:30p.m., a muffled explosion was heard and Oceanos lost power. [5], Earlier repairs to the waste disposal system had not been completed, which meant that a vital ventilation pipe which ran through the watertight aft bulkhead and the non-return valves were not replaced. The wreck was not the fault of unexpected weather or ship malfunctionit was a disaster caused entirely by a series of human errors. It was now just after 12:30 a.m. Technical diving is an exact science, and every member of the team performed their tasks with efficiency and focus. MACHINE LEARNING INVESTING IS SPECULATIVE BY NATURE. EAST LONDON, South Africa . However, rough seas caused the party to be held inside in the Four Seasons lounge;[5] most passengers chose to stay in their cabins. The lights went out and the ship got an unusual inclination, but none of the crew advised us, he says in telephone communication from Ireland. ", the captain of the wrecked cruise ship Costa Concordia. The 402 passengers and 179 crew members all survived, but Captain Yiannis Avranas and other officers left the ship while some passengers were still on board. But witnesses said he appeared on the bridge of the Titanic just moments later, asking what the storied ship, making its maiden voyage across the Atlantic, had struck. The World witnessed an ugly scene back on 03 August 1991 when MTS Oceanos sunk in 1991 because of uncontrolled floods. Once complete, the team focused on preparing for the dives. It was abject cowardice.". . Oceanos was briefly featured in the 1985 film Sky High and with another Epirotiki ship, Apollon XI, in the 1986 film Hardbodies 2. Powered by Invision Community. "When they go bad, they're evil," Shealy says. Realising the fate of the ship, the crew reportedly fled in panic, neglecting the standard procedure of closing the lower deck portholes. Search and Rescue contacted the ship a few minutes after 10:00 p.m., but Schettino didnt tell them what had happened for about 20 more minutes. "[5] Hills reportedly rescued Avranas' dog and released his canary. The Costa Concordia ran aground off the Italian coast in 2012, killing 32 people. Barry and Paul were on closed-circuit rebreathers, a Buddy Inspiration rebreather, and a CIS-Lunar MK5P rebreather, respectively. When his "death-glorious ship" sinks, Ahab mourns that he's been denied the "pride" of having gone down with her. [9][11][16][17] Avranas's emergency management was again widely cited after the Costa Concordia disaster in 2012. Rescue helicopters began arriving three hours later, and winched passengers and remaining crew to safety, with Hills continuing in charge of the orderly evacuation. [4] The storm worsened, and at approximately 21:30 UTC+2, while off the Wild Coast of the Transkei, a muffled explosion was heard. Avranas at the time defended his actions, saying he left the ship to direct rescue operations. is University of Washington a good school. "Ahab is a great example in the sense that he knows a captain should go down with his ship," says Wyn Kelley, a Melville scholar at MIT. On open-circuit scuba, the exhaled breath is not fed back into the system but is expelled and is no longer useable. How does the braking system work in a car? Allen dismissed that idea, saying the captain's knowledge of his ship is crucial in an emergency. "In Anglo-American law, you would lose your license and make yourself liable.". Has the old idea that captains should not abandon ship itself been abandoned? At about 15:30 the following day, the Oceanos could hold her head up no longer and sank. Brodersen, 60, said he never had to deal with that kind of situation, but he has sometimes thought about his own limit, when his survival instinct would trump the hope of salvaging a doomed ship. He was never incarcerated and Epirotiki gave him command of a ferry until his retirement. 2023, A&E Television Networks, LLC. This page is not available in other languages. After the required decompression runtimes, the divers surfaced, and the team returned to shore. The impact on the Scole Rocks occurred at about 9:45 p.m. local time, and the first person to contact rescue officials about the ship was someone on the shore, according to the investigative report. In 1991, Yiannis Avranas, the captain of a Greek cruise liner, was also strongly criticised after leaving the ship as it started to sink off the South African coast. Others respect it as "an unwritten rule or law of the sea," said Capt. [citation needed]. Several estimated it was no more than five miles away. But whatever the reason for getting too close, the Italian courts found the captain, four crew members and one official from the ships company, Costa Crociere (part of Carnival Corporation), to be at fault for causing the disaster and preventing a safe evacuation. No one knows exactly where Captain E.J. En route to Durban, the Oceanos cruise ship set out from the port of East London on Saturday, August 3, 1991, into 40-knot winds and nine-meter swells. Becky Little is a journalist based in Washington, D.C. Then, about two years ago, South African technical divers Barry Coleman and Brett Hawton decided it was time to revisit the Oceanos. The waves reached 14 meters. On August 7, a news report emerged with the title: Battle for the critical hours . 1940) had been an officer for twenty years and a seaman for thirty. In the immediate aftermath of the disaster, newspapers cast Smith as a hero, the brave captain who went down with his ship. The unethical, unprofessional prick are working as a Captain of a ferry in Greece. More than 4,200 people were rescued, though 32 people died. [1] He was married to British national Davina Avrana.[3]. [citation needed] An inflatable had to be launched to rescue some passengers who panicked and jumped into the water. Copyright 19952023 The Independent Traveler, Inc. https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Yiannis_Avranas&oldid=1133434367, This page was last edited on 13 January 2023, at 19:56. What should I say to the media? To the port authorities I have said that we hada blackout. (Ferrarini was later convicted for contributing to the disaster by delaying rescue operations.). The function of a rebreather is to re-circulate the unused oxygen in the exhaled breath whilst scrubbing it of all traces of carbon dioxide. The Worst Christmas Story Ever: The Sinking of SS Leopoldville on 24 December 1944, How AI is Transforming Personal and Professional Investing, Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning, UC Berkeleys Financial Innovation Conference, Why did Titanic Sink : A Scientific Analysis. What Was the Titanics Captain Doing While the Ship Sank. The captain of the Oceanos was an experienced seaman Yiannis Avranas, who had been sailing the oceans for 30 years, including 20 years as an officer. Even if he's not convicted, it is highly unlikely that he'll ever command a cruise or cargo ship again because of the damage to his reputation, said Prof. Craig Allen of the U.S. Coast Guard Academy in New London, Connecticut. Both literature and real life offer plenty of examples of shipmasters who paid the ultimate sacrifice to protect their passengers and crew. Just before he boarded a train to Washington, Pryal reported, the man smiled at him and said, Be good, shipmate, until we meet again., There is no possibility I am mistaken. Pryal told a reporter. Do you think anyone was weighing in the boats.. [citation needed], While trying to make up lost time, Oceanos encountered rough seas. He remains incarcerated in a prison just outside of Rome, where he is expected to stay until he is around 80 years old. Smith was accused of ignoring ice warnings from other ships and failing to reduce the ships speed to fit the conditions at hand. What happened to the captain of the Costa Concordia? They understood their roles and contributed to the success of this dive. Is there confession in the Armenian Church? [16] A South African Navy Diver testified that the captain had insisted on being taken ashore by the first helicopter. After ramming into the sea floor, the Oceanos slipped silently beneath the waves. Schettino reportedly said he ended up in a life raft after he tripped and fell into the water. Edward Smith went down with the Titanic, the notion that a captain must stay with his ship became part of folklore. 1940)[1] is a Greek former sea captain who commanded the cruise ship Oceanos when she sank off the Wild Coast of the Transkei, South Africa, on Sunday 4 August 1991. A very small loss of hull integrity caused a storage tank in the lower machine spaces to fill with sea water. TRY ASKING HOST DOUGhe usually knows those things. Photographs, some taken by survivors, document the cruise ship sinking off Southern Africa's eastern coast in August 1991. The image of a captain staying with a sinking vessel has recurred again and again, in literature and real life. This window period, although based on unscientific information provided by maritime vessels in the area, falls in May and December. In addition, Pryals doctor attested that he was absolutely sane and not given to hallucinations., In fact, Pryal said he had seen Smith twice, once on a Wednesday and again the following Saturday, when he returned to the same spot to look for him. In the time of need, however, the crew found that everything was useless. In a matter of hours, more than 1,500 passengers and crew would be dead, including Smith himself. The moment was immortalized by Rudyard Kipling as the "Birkenhead drill." Four months later, on December 23, Rehan Bouwer, Steve Minne, Johan Swart, Ian Symington, and Nicko Brand returned to the Oceanos. Steen Brodersen, a retired Danish captain, said that every single crew member, from the chief mate to the cooks, has a designated role in an emergency on a cruise ship. Avranas was charged with misconduct after it was discovered that he and numerous crew members left the ship while the passengers remained behind. The ship was left adrift. After five days of staying at the hotel, the other Greek sailors with the assistance of the Greek consular authorities also escaped. Smith, who evacuated the ship women and children first until there were no lifeboats left, and then perished with it. Yiannis Avranas (born ca. The impact damaged the ship, allowing water to seep in and putting the 4,229 people on board in danger. ", Report: Captain claims he "tripped" into lifeboat. Everyone who had been put into lifeboats was rescued by passing ships and remarkably no lives were lost. When the team arrived at the wreck marker buoys, it was evident that the current was almost non-existent and the wind and swell had all but disappeared. Family members of passengers on a South Korean ferry that sank look at lists of survivors on Wednesday. It remains so potent because of the almost mythic authority invested in ship captains, Allen suggests. Attaining a maximum depth of 86.4m, the three divers initially made their way North to the stern, where Brett Hawton had time to pose next to the raised Greek lettering, spelling out the name OKEANOZ. The Costa Concordia was owned by Costa Crociere, a subsidiary of Carnival . I never saw the captain among us helping, he says.. [9], A Greek board of inquiry found Avranas and four officers negligent in their handling of the disaster. Smiths body was never recovered, and his final moments remain a mystery, with no shortage of conflicting accountsincluding one in which he jumped off the ship holding a baby. He would attempt to sit there. Two small ships in the vicinity were first on the scene, and provided the ship's coordinates to the South African authorities. So began the worst night of Edward John Smiths otherwise charmed life. Should oxygen levels drop below those required by the diver, O2 can be computationally or manually injected into the system from an onboard cylinder to replenish the supply. By Michael O Mahoney, a passenger remembers at least 30 crew members got on the first boat, while the captain left on a helicopter while passengers were still on deck.

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