MS Estonia轮沉没之谜

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Today we're going to look at what happened to the Estonia in the mid-1990s.

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The incident occurred around seven years after the infamous Herald of Free Enterprise and although the case is different.

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Ultimately both the caused by a fatal loss of stability due to the free surface effect.

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It was the 27th of September 1994 and the cruise ferry Estonia was completing her loading in the port of Tallinn.

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She was 155 metres long with a gross tonnage of 15 and a half thousand tonnes.

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As a cruise ferry, she was kind of a hybrid between a cruise ship and a ferry with a capacity of around 2,000 passengers and over 400 cars.

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To get vehicles aboard, she had an opening at the bow, the outer section or "visor" gave weather protection and formed part of the outer hull.

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When in port, that would hinge up exposing the loading ramp, which

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could lower down onto the key so that traffic who drives straight onto the vehicle deck.

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On that day, she completed loading in the late afternoon, the ramp closed, sealing the deck and the visor was lowered down, giving protection to the ramp.

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At around quarter past 7:00 in the evening

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she left the berth to begin her passage to Stockholm in Sweden

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where she was due to arrive at 9:30 the following morning.

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On departure, she had a slight list to starboard due to the loading of the cargo.

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Too much weight had been placed on the starboard side, which shifted the Center of Gravity slightly off the center line.

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It wasn't too bad and only actually resulted in a list angle of a degree or two.

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Throughout the evening, Estonia continued on passage, running at full speed as the wind and weather continued to build.

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By midnight, the wind had increased to 30 or 40 knots from the southwesterly direction with three to four meter waves.

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The ship's starboard list had increased since departure, mainly because the wind was on the port side.

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Now Estonia did have healing tanks. These are water tanks used to keep vessels upright for both stability and for the comfort of passengers.

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With a starboard list, you can pump some water onto the port side to bring the ship back upright

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but, once that port tanks full, you've done all you can and the ship's just going to continue with a list.

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In Estonia's case, she still carried three to four degrees of starboard list.

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At around 00:25 the ship altered course to a heading of 287 degrees

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at a plan waypoint, placing the weather on the port bow. She was pitching a role in quite a lot

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so to improve passenger comfort, she extended her fin stabilizers.

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They use the forward motion of the ship to generate of rioting force in the same way in aircrafts the wing generates lift.

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Crucially though, fin stabilizers can dampen a roll but they don't do anything to help with the pitching.

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That pitching motion meant the bow was rising up and down, slamming into the waves,

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the visor taking the full impact of each wave.

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At around 1:00 a.m, a loud bang was heard.

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It was the secured in bolts on the bottom of the visor failing. Over the course of the next 15 minutes or so, the visor flapped around

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damaging the hull and the loading ramp.

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Water started entering the vehicle deck around the sides of the ramp where the seal was broken.

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Within about 15 minutes, the visor broke free completely, ripping the ramp open and falling away striking the bulbous bow as it sank.

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Given the wide open nature of the vehicle deck, the free surface effect from the water entering rapidly led to a complete loss of stability.

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The effect is easily illustrated in a wide open space with water sloshing around.

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With a smallest angle, the water rushes to the lowest side, adding more weight to that side.

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This moves the center of gravity further out from the center line,

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increasing the list further and reducing overall stability.

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As more and more water entered the vehicle deck, cars and lorries broke free.

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The free surface effect meant Estonia rapidly developed a list over to starboard.

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Now, a peculiarity of Estonia's design meant that the bow visor was not visible from the navigational bridge due to the accommodation.

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they had an indication panel, but that showed everything was okay.

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obviously because the sensors was still in place. The officers had no idea the visor had broken free.

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They assumed the list was caused by the weather,

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so they tried altering course to port to change the relative direction though and ultimately that maneuver actually

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accelerated the list which passed 90 degrees in a matter of minutes.

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At around 20 past one, the first official "mayday" call from the Estonia was transmitted.

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given her location, it wasn't picked up by shore stations. So it was first acknowledged by the passenger ferry

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Silja Europa. She was or actually still is a 60,000 ton cruise ferry.

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On that night, she was traveling from Helsinki to Stockholm and was ten and a half nautical miles northwest of Estonia when the mayday was recieved.

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As the first responding vessel, the Europa started handling at the emergency radio traffic.

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Almost immediately, the Mariella, another cruise ferry on the Helsinki to Stockholm route also

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responded and started working with the Europa to try and work out Estonia's position.

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Around 10 minutes later, Estonia made her final radio communication and crucially she managed to give her position to the Europa.

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As the magnitude of the situation became clear, more and more vessels

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started reporting to the Silja Europa to confirm the messages and relay the actions they were taking.

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The Maritime Rescue Control Center in Turku initiated its rescue plan, taking charge of the whole operation and

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activating standby aircraft.

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They quickly designated to the master of the Silja Europa as the on-scene coordinator.

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Basically, he was tasked with coordinating the rescue at the scene itself.

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At 01:50, in the morning of the 28th of September 1994

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Estonia's echo disappeared from radar screens in the area as she sank below the surface.

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20 minutes later, the Mariella was the first ship to arrive on the scene. The weather was so bad

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they couldn't lower any rescue boats, instead they lowered life rafts down on wires

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so the people could transfer from Estonia's life rafts into them and be winched up onto deck.

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10 minutes after the Mariella, the Europa arrived on the scene, followed by the Silja Symphony and the Isabella.

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Around 3:00 a.m

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The first helicopter arrived and started winching survivors from the water onto the ships.

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Only three hours after the sinking, 4 helicopters and 8 vessels were already on scene.

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The helicopters were either ferrying casualties from the sea onto the waiting ships

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or flying them directly to shore for treatment. As day broke, the true scale of the scene became apparent.

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More and more vessels continued to arrive with surface craft searching for survivors and aircraft winching them from the water.

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At 6:50, the first air operation coordinator was flown out to the Silja Europa

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With portable air band radios to help manage all the aircraft on the scene.

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By midday, the rescue was being conducted by 19 vessels and 19 helicopters

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all directed on-scene by the team on board the Europa.

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They spent the afternoon sweeping the area in formation,

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following likely drift patterns that had been calculated from data about the weather and currents.

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When they spotted anything in the water, ships radioed the helicopters to investigate closer.

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By early evening, search and rescue operations ceased and most commercial vessels were stood down.

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governmental vessels then took over for the recovery operation.

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Sadly, out of 989 people on board, only 138 were rescued alive. :(

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34 by ships and 134 by helicopter.

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Echoing the Titanic disaster, numerous changes were made after the Estonia tragedy.

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her EPIRB's [Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacon] had been found and later tested and proved to work

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yet they were never activated because they were manual and she sank too fast.

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nowadays, EPIRBs all have automatic activation.

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The emergency response by the crew was criticized which led to new requirements in crisis management and crowd management training

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VDR regulations were also subsequently updated to improve post accident

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investigations and things like rescuing from listing ships and improved damage stability requirements were all modernized as well.

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Today, the wreck of the Estonia still lays in international waters in the spot where she came to rest that night.

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the entire site falls under the protection of an international treaty, The Estonia Agreement, which was signed into force in 1995.

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It expressly forbids contracting countries from disturbing the site

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giving due respect to all those that perished that night.

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And that brings us to the end of today's video. If you enjoy content like this,

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be sure to subscribe and hit the bell icon to receive notifications when I post new content

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Until next time, thank you for watching and goodbye!