M/S Estonia
The M/S Estonia was a car and passenger ferry built in 1979 in Germany, owned by the Swedish-Estonian shipping company EstLine. Half of the company was owned by newly-independent Estonian government and other half a Swedish company NordstrÃÂöm & Thulin. On September 28, 1994 it sank in one of the worst maritime accidents on the Baltic Sea, claiming 859 lives.
The disaster
The Estonia disaster occurred on September 18 at about 01:00 to 02:04 (UTC+1) enroute from Tallinn, Estonia to Stockholm, Sweden carrying 996 people, passengers and crew.
M/S Estonia was expected to arrive in Stockholm at about 09:30 AM, but a few minutes past 01:00, in the outskirts of Turku archipelago the bow visor was torn off the ship by the pressure of the waves and water accumulated in the car deck. At about 0120 hrs a weak female voice called "HÃÂäire, hÃÂäire, laeval on hÃÂäire" the Estonian words for "Alarm, alarm, there is alarm on the ship", over the public address system. Just a moment later an internal alarm for the crew was transmitted over the public address system. Soon after this the general lifeboat alarm was given. Soon the vessel lurched some 30-40 degrees to the right. Mayday was communicated by the ship crew and rescue helicopters arrived on the site a couple of hours later. The Viking Line passenger ferry M/S Mariella that was hurrying to the place of the accident had the last radar observation of Estonia at 02:04.
Out of the total 996 people on the ship only 94 passengers and 43 crew members were rescued. The accident claimed 859 lives, by drowning and freezing to death in the cold water. Only 94 corpses of the total number of casulties were recovered.
The location of the hull is at 59DEG 23' N, 21DEG 42' E, about 22 nautical miles on bearing 157DEG from UtÃÂö island, Finland.
Sanctity
Citing the practical difficulties and the moral implications of raising decaying bodies from the ocean floor, but also fearing the financial burden for the costs of lifting the entire hull to the surface and the salvage operation the Swedish government overhastily suggested burying the whole ship in situ with a shell of concrete. As the majority of the bodies were never recovered and a treaty between Sweden, Finland and Estonia declared sanctity over the site, prohibiting its citizens from even approaching the wreck. The treaty however is only binding for citizens of the countries that are signatories to the treaty and this has caused some problems in enforcing the sanctity.
Official investigation and report
Remote videotapes of the wreck showed that the locks on the bow door had failed and that the door had separated from the rest of the vessel. The official report indicated that the bow visor and ramp had been torn off at points that would not cause an "open" or "unlatched" indication on the bridge, as is the case in normal operation or failure of the latches. There was no video monitoring of this portion of the vehicle bay either. If the crew had known the condition it is likely that they would have slowed or even operated the ship in reverse, which may have avoided the swamping and sinking. Recommendations of modifications to be applied to similar ships included separation of the condition sensors from the latch and hinge mechanisms and the addition of video monitoring.
Conspiracy theories
In the aftermath of the disaster, many relatives of the deceased demanded that their loved ones should be raised and given a land burial. Demands were also made that the entire ship should be raised so that the "real reason" for the disaster could be discovered by minute inspection. A minor industry of conspiracy theory interpretations of the events culminated with an American adventurer and his crew diving to the wreck and filming its hull with inconclusive results.
The German journalist Jutta Rabe also decided to ignore the imposed sanctity to make her own investigations, mainly based on conspiracy theories. Her investigations resulted in the motion picture Baltic Storm, which portrays the Russian secret service as being responsible for the sinking. The plot portrays the Swedish government as being responsible for using the ship to covertly transport Russian high-tech components to the United States. The story is unveiled by a young female journalist, not unlike Ms. Rabe herself.
See also: KdF Ship Wilhelm Gustloff