MB = Michael Buerk MH = Moss Hills PW = Paul Whiley

MB: Tonight on 999: holiday hell on a sinking cruise liner: one man's incredible story.

The sea can be a dangerous place but when you go on a big ship, a ferry or a cruise liner, you'd hardly expect it simply to sink underneath your feet.

But that's exactly what happened to the 581 passengers and crew on the cruise ship Oceanos that went down off South Africa in 1991.

Husband and wife singers Moss and Tracy Hills felt at home on board the Oceanos. So as the entertainment staff got things ready for the opening night's party, no one worried about the storm that was battering South Africa's east coast.

MH: There was a great atmosphere when we set sail. It's kind of typical … there's always … people are partying … it's the whole sail away party. It's one of the highlights of a cruise. I went upstairs to go and check on our musical equipment, and on my way up there I saw three security guards running down the passageway, so I followed them, and saw crew members packing their bags and everyone was in a real state of panic. I knew something was wrong, I then went up to the lounge, then suddenly the power went off.

MB: Unbelievably, the senior crew had already jumped ship.

MH: And next thing, we just sort of started running everything. It was myself and Julian and the Cruise Director, my wife Tracy, and we were getting people and just loading them into lifeboats.

MB: By 4a.m., 350 people, including the crew, had got off, leaving the entertainers in charge of the frightened passengers.

MH: There were just over 200 people still left on board, and nowhere to get off; we had no more lifeboats.

MB: Water continued to pour through the hull but the gravity of the situation was kept from the passengers to avoid panic.

MH: I'm an entertainer. We're used to leading with people, everyone just looked to us to … to see the whole thing through.

So I went on and I filled my pockets with sweets, and then I'd, like, give people - adults and everyone - I'd give them sweets.

MB: Eight hours had passed since the lights went out, and still there was no sign of help. Each wave tore deeper into the ship's damaged hull, but the Captain's early Mayday had been heard, and as the ship wallowed in the boiling ocean, the largest air-sea rescue in history was about to begin …

Swinging uncontrollably in gale-force winds, two navy divers were dropped on board the ship to assist with the rescue.

PW: Once I was on deck I went up with the first passenger just to show everybody once, and from then on everyone was on their own - we sent two people in the harnesses at a time.

MB: Paul organised the airlift of passengers from one end of the ship with Moss at the other.

MH: As soon as I had two in the harness and ready to go I'd signal the chopper guys and they'd get … the harness would go up … and then you'd send the next two out. We had 12 passengers left: myself, Tracy, and we had, um, Robin was on the bridge, so there's 15 people left on board, and they disappeared to go and drop those passengers off. We're waiting, and we wait, and we wait, and then they didn't come back.

MB: After 40 minutes there was still no sign of a helicopter.

MH: Turns out they'd run out of fuel and … and there was no fuel available there.

PW: Yes, time was passing and there was less and less space on the boat, um, and everyone was just, ah, waiting, waiting for … for choppers.

MB: Having refuelled, the helicopters returned just as Moss was giving up any hope of being rescued.

PW: As we got into the harness and I looked down on the vessel I was sad to the point where, you know, I was … I was emotional. I had a bump in my throat - I was really … you look at the vessel and you think that, ah, so much has happened in such a short time, you know, and there's nothing more we could do - there's just no way of saving it, there's no way.

Upper Intermediate Unit 9 DVD Script

	PHOTOCOPIABLE © 2011 Pearson Longman

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