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Video: One Guy Saved 600 Passengers When the Captain Abandoned Them

You might think that the times of the Titanic are long gone, but what if we tell you that about 20 years ago there was another ship that almost followed in the steps of the infamous passenger liner?

This time, abandoned by their captain, around 600 passengers would have lost their lives if not for the quick-thinking and courageous cruise ship entertainers.

The Oceanos, built in France and first launched in July 1952, was a Greek-owned cruise ship that traveled along the Marseilles – Madagascar – Mauritius route. On August 3, 1991, after a serious delay due to a bomb threat, it set out from East London, South Africa on its fateful voyage toward Durban.

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 before the journey started, the ship had already started to wear. With holes in its walls, loose hull plates, and missing parts that control the flow of water, it looked pretty neglected.

Soon, things got even worse! 

Several hours into the dinner party, the waiters could hardly balance their trays without dropping something. At one terrifying moment, plates, glasses, and cutlery started to slide off the tables. People couldn’t stand straight any longer, and potted plants decorating the lounge began to fall over. The problem was that, in an attempt to make up for the previous delay, the Oceanos  headed into 40- knot  winds and 9 m (30 ft) swells. But it turned out to be a fatal mistake!

First of all, the ship’s waste disposal system was still under repair, meaning that several essential parts of the ships were not working. Secondly, the ship wasn’t only stuck in a violent storm, the situation was much more dangerous, because the Oceanos encountered rogue waves, also called monster waves. They’re incredibly large and unexpected; they appear all of a sudden and can wreck even large ships and ocean liners.

So, with these dangerous waves slamming against the ship, its shell plating eventually gave in and burst open. Seawater started to fill the ship’s engine room at lightning speed. Since the rising water could have easily short-circuited the generators, they were immediately switched off. The Oceanos lost power and was rolling adrift on the waves.

The main lights went out, replaced by the emergency ones. The ship turned dark, with only public areas dimly lit. You’d probably assume that the crew must have immediately informed the passengers and started the evacuation process, right? 

Not this time; on board the sinking Oceanos , it just didn’t happen.

As soon as the crew realized that the ship was beyond hope and couldn’t be saved, they got ready to abandon it. They didn’t follow the standard procedure of locking the portholes on the lower decks, and they didn’t even raised the alarm!

As a result, the passengers remained in the dark until the water began to flood the lower decks. Those who finally noticed the horrifying situation rushed to the bridge in search of the crew, but discovered that it was unmanned!

A few witnesses later reported that they saw the captain, along with some other crew members, all packed and ready to abandon ship.

Ever heard about the seamen’s rule, which states that the captain is the last person to leave the ship if it’s sinking? What’s more, if he’s unable to evacuate the passengers and his crew, he shouldn’t save his own life even if he can.

Luckily, the ship still had its entertainers. Before the disaster struck, almost all the passengers had gathered in the main lounge to see the 10 PM show. However, they were getting more and more alarmed because something strange was happening on the ship.

Moss Hills performed on the Oceanos as a singer and guitarist. He could tell that the ship was having a problem, but at that time, he hadn’t realized yet how serious the situation was. For the time being, he decided to keep entertaining guests to prevent panic and keep them calm. Since there was no electricity on board, none of the microphones or speakers worked. In the dimness of the emergency lights, the performer played his acoustic guitar and sang along with it.

But the passengers kept asking what was going on in between the songs. Having run out of plausible explanations and any other ways to entertain the nervous people,  Hills left to investigate.

Later, Hills said that the captain denied that the ship was sinking, but at the same time, told them to prepare for an evacuation. It sounded strange, and Hills, together with his fellow entertainer Julian Butler, made their way to the “Crew Only” area to find out the real story.

Hills and Butler had nothing to do but to return to the upper deck. As they got there, they saw that several lifeboats had already been lowered, and children and women were getting inside. But to their shock, the entertainers also noticed that senior officers were climbing into the boats as well, and no-one seemed to be in charge of the situation.

Hills got even more suspicious and headed for the lower decks again, this time alone. As soon as he neared the engine room, he heard the sound of raging water. His worst fears were confirmed – the ship was SINKING.

As soon as Hills realized the horror of the situation, as well as the fact that they couldn’t expect any help from the panicking crew, he sprang into action. Together with his wife Tracy , and their colleagues Robin Boltman and Julian Butler , they started to assist the passengers. 

Hills kept broadcasting a Mayday distress call via the radio phone until their cry for help was answered. The South African Air Force and the South African Navy sent 16 rescue helicopters that were to arrive at any moment.

Meanwhile, Moss Hills organized an orderly evacuation process where children and women were the first to use the remaining lifeboats. Unfortunately, since the ship had already been lying on its right side by that time, the passengers couldn’t use all the boats that were on board.

Luckily, the helicopters arrived just in time to airlift the 225 people remaining on the ship with the help of safety harnesses. Once again, the entertainers insisted that children and women had to be rescued first.

After that, everyone was taken to a nearby town, around 6 miles (10 km) away. All 571 people who were on board the ship after the crew abandoned it were saved.

Moss  and Tracy Hills , as well as Butler and Boltman , were among the last to leave the ship.

Boltman later said that the captain contacted him in the morning from the shore to find out how the evacuation was going. At about 3:30 PM the next day, the Oceanos touched the sand bottom, 300 ft (90 m) below the ocean’s surface.

The last minutes of its sinking were recorded on video and broadcasted by ABC News. Nowadays, the ship’s wreck lies around 3 miles (5 km) away from the shore.

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MTS Oceanos: When vigilante action saved 220 souls from tragedy

Guest writer: daniel thomas.

Travellers usually relax knowing that cruise companies operate with stringent safety measures. But what if staff don’t follow protocol when disaster strikes? This is the story of MTS Oceanos. Brace yourselves

When Moss and Tracy Hills noticed the crew of MTS Oceanos hastily packing up their personal effects and slinging on their lifejackets, something was clearly – and seriously – wrong. The married couple, both musicians from Zimbabwe, had embarked upon the MTS Oceanos as cruise entertainers several days prior, where the start of an ill-fated final voyage to Durban, South Africa, had unravelled like a bad omen. An anonymous bomb threat had delayed departure from the UK’s East London port, while a seasick organist had disrupted a wedding ceremony held onboard. The bride very nearly didn’t wear white.

However, worst of all was the weather. Conditions had been grim for days, significantly worsening by August 3, with 40-knot winds and 30-foot swells assailing the French-built, Greek-owned luxury cruise liner as it put to sea. The sail-away party was moved from the open deck to the cruise lounge, while progressively harsher weather caused several accidents during dinner service. As diners grimaced upon watching their meal disappear from the waiter’s grasp and onto the thick carpet, many felt the voyage was cursed. Still, at first, it seemed that there was no cause for alarm.

The Oceanos had weathered similar conditions before and had a 250-strong crew to support its complement of 581 passengers. Yiannis Avranas, the ship’s captain, had thirty years of experience at sea, twenty of which serving as an officer.

Nobody could have predicted that it would be the Hills, among others, who would help save the lives of everyone onboard.

MTS Oceanos: Prelude to disaster

Night fell, and as the ship moved along the Wild Coast of the Eastern Cape Province, south of Coffee Bay, the Hills began noticing signs of flooding and panicked behaviour from the crew around 8.45pm.

Other eyewitnesses reported similar incidents across the ship in the subsequent half hour. Finally, at approximately 9.30pm, a muffled explosion was heard in the engine room.

In later investigations, a general condition of neglect and unaddressed technical issues emerged. More seriously, non-return valves in the waste disposal system had been scrapped but not replaced.

Worryingly, a 10-inch hole had been left in the bulkhead between the engine room and the sewerage tank. This led to rapid flooding when an unfitted pipe burst from the impact of a strong wave. The engine room flooded, and the generators shorted out, cutting power to the ship.

Worse was to come. Sea water coursed uncontrollably through the gap in the bulkhead, filling the waste tank and the lack of non-return valves sent the water up the main drainage pipes, flooding every outlet connected to the system. The ship was stricken and, once the engines stopped, she began to list alarmingly.

Passengers had by this time gathered in the lounge for the evening show, but they soon began to realise that something was dangerously amiss. Ships often churn about in choppy seas, but a constant slant to one side could only spell trouble. Yet, the crew were largely mute about what was going on.

Thank God for entertainment

The crew and officers began their preparations to abandon ship, starting as they meant to continue – sloppily. Their conduct provided evidence showcasing a blatant disregard for maritime procedure. Lower deck portholes were left unsecured while many passengers were left uninformed of the flooding several hours after the ship’s doomsday had started.

In the face of this abdication of responsibility, salvation for the vessel’s passengers would come from an unlikely source – the ship’s musicians and entertainers.

Moss and Tracy began to investigate any suspected flooding, along with Julian Butler; a stage magician and comedian. Butler and Moss entered the lower decks, below the waterline, to find a sealed bulkhead door and further signs of serious flooding.

Informing Lorraine Betts, the cruise director, of what they’d seen, they watched the crew organise lifeboat departures of women, children and themselves.

Senior officers were frantically piling onto the boats, after failing to issue a general alarm. The captain maintained that the ship was not in danger of sinking.

The Hills confirmed with video evidence that the captain and officers were lying about the condition of the Oceanos, but they had no time to confront anyone. Evacuation of the lifeboats had begun while the Hills, Betts, Butler, comedian Robin Boltman, and other entertainers and cruise staff (including the primarily Filipino kitchen and cabin crew), pitched in to assist.

Amid the exodus of the crew and the absence of effective on-deck leadership, the entertainers and cooks worked hard to minimise panic and maintain order among passengers.

Leaving passengers stranded onboard

Boltman played music in the lounge to calm the passengers, alongside cabaret performer Alvin Collinson. In Collinson’s telling, at one point, he began playing “American Pie”, only to realise that his next line would be “this’ll be the day that I die” – and, with this, he hastily switched to a different song.

The evacuation proved difficult and unsafe. Besides dealing with unsecured lifeboats, the dark and the hazardous conditions hampered progress, while jammed emergency exits and a lack of trained personnel onboard made for rough going.

To make matters worse, the lifeboats that had been launched by the officers - only partially full in their hurry to abandon ship – left 220 people stranded onboard after the last boat had departed.

By this point, Betts, the Hills, and several other passengers had virtually assumed total authority on-deck. They decided to try and access the bridge. With no assistance from onboard maritime professionals, 220 souls now depended on the vigilante action of the ship’s entertainers.

Operating the radio phone, Moss managed to successfully contact nearby vessels, and a rescue effort began. Passing ships broadcast the MTS Oceanos' coordinates far and wide, while Moss coordinated with Captain Detmar of a nearby container ship - Nedlloyd Mauritius.

Upon telling Captain Detmar that he was a guitarist with zero maritime experience, Moss recalls hearing a short pause on the phone before the “extremely supportive” captain came back, relaying technical advice.

The captain bails

Three hours after trouble kicked-off, a flight of helicopters - 13 Pumas from the South African Defence Force – arrived to commence an airlift operation. Multiple eyewitnesses, including the Hills, report Captain Avranas boarding one of the first choppers, long before the vast majority of the passengers had been rescued.

The captain would later insist he’d only left to better plan the evacuation. Naturally, his claims were met with an uproar of criticism and scathing judgement.

Even with the assistance of two South African naval divers, the airlifts were no easier for the Hills than loading the lifeboats. Passengers were sent sliding across the steeply pitched deck, or worse still, injured in collisions with the ship’s hull. All the while, the Oceanos was sinking lower and lower.

At one point, an inflatable boat – crewed by Butler and a diver – was dispatched to rescue a number of frightened people who, out of sheer desperation, had jumped into the ocean. But Moss and Tracy met the task, setting up evacuation stations on both the fore and aft decks, tying ropes to make improvised handrails, strapping passengers into harnesses and organising them into queues.

Somehow, eventually, they made it. Every single passenger and crew member was evacuated by either air or sea. Despite the calamity, the Oceanos did not suffer a single casualty.

Moss and Tracy Hills were among the last to be evacuated from the ship, alongside the Filipino cooks, following one of modern maritime history’s most successful rescue operations.

The MTS Oceanos finally flounders

At 3.30pm on August 4, having been abandoned to her fate following the rescue of her passengers, the MTS Oceanos finally sank beneath the waves. Her stern turned to the sky amid a crucible of pounding waves and turquoise waters, coming to rest nearly 100 metres beneath the raging Agulhas Current.

Exhausted and disorientated, survivors of the doomed cruise ship stepped out blinking into the spotlight of the international press. An American news crew had captured the dramatic final moments of the Oceanos while the sinking was reported from Johannesburg to Baltimore.

The Hills were reunited with their 15-year-old daughter, Amber, and hailed by passengers and their fellow entertainers for their efforts.

Moss would briefly become something of a minor regional celebrity, the civilian musician who had helped save hundreds of lives at sea. A South African newspaper ran an editorial cartoon depicting the sinking, captioned: “Attention, attention- this is your lead guitarist speaking”.

The Hills eventually moved to Liverpool, where Moss would later become a cruise director himself.

The aftermath

Avranas, on the other hand, would be pilloried – condemned as the captain who abandoned his crew, his passengers and his ship – on the testimony of multiple unrelated eyewitnesses.

Investigated by the South African Ministry of Transport and found negligent by a Greek inquiry, the captain was never held personally liable for the disaster or charged with any crime. His employer, Epirotiki Line, later assigned him as captain of a ferry until his retirement.

The sinking of the Oceanos was certainly a disaster – but not a tragedy. For those passengers abandoned by Captain and crew , profound gratitude was offered to the South African authorities for their prompt rescue – but the heroes were undoubtedly the band of quick-thinking entertainers.

As they say, not all heroes wear capes, or – in this case – cruise uniforms.

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Captain Accused of Leaving Passengers on Sinking Ship

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Everyone on board the cruise ship Oceanos was safe and accounted for Monday, but survivors angrily accused the captain of taking one of the first rescue helicopters to safety and leaving them on board the sinking liner.

“We had to take over the ship,” said Terry Lester, who worked as a comedian on the ship. “If it hadn’t been for the entertainers, a lot of people would have drowned.”

The ship’s entertainers said they guided rescue vessels by radio after Greek Capt. Yiannis Avranas abandoned the bridge, leaving passengers--including women, children, aged and the infirm--to their fate in a rough sea.

The 571 people aboard the ship were rescued in a dramatic operation Sunday that was completed only 90 minutes before the ship sank a mile from South Africa’s Indian Ocean coast near the village of Coffee Bay.

Passengers praised rescue efforts by the South African military and tour company officials aboard the ship but expressed outrage over the behavior of captain and the crew.

“It was disgusting,” said Julian Russell, 29, a Briton working on the ship as a magician. “The captain, safety officer and other senior crew got off as quickly as they could, so there was nobody to show us what to do during the rescue.”

Crew members took the ship’s only two motorized lifeboats, passengers said, leaving tourists to try to launch regular lifeboats. Also, many complained that no announcements were made during the 12-hour ordeal.

“They left us in the lurch,” passenger Kevin Ellis said of the crew. “They knew the ship was going to sink and didn’t say a thing.”

Passengers said Russell and his fellow entertainers took charge, guiding them to the helicopter winches that hoisted about 170 people aboard the choppers in a dangerous mercy mission.

Musician Moss Hills, 35, spent hours on the sharply listing deck helping elderly passengers into wildly swaying helicopter harnesses.

“There were so many times we thought the ship was going over,” Hills said. “We were hanging on for dear life.”

He said the captain was the second person lifted off by helicopter. Other passengers said that of the 16 people aboard the first helicopter, 11 were ship’s officers.

In Athens, the ship’s owners defended the crew’s conduct.

“The fact that the operation was so successful, with all on board saved, proves that the rescue plan was the correct one,” said Alevizos Klaoudatos, spokesman for Epirotiki Lines S.A., in a statement.

Capt. Avranas defended his decision to leave the ship.

“I don’t care what these people say about me,” the captain told reporters Sunday night. “I am separated from my family, who were rescued by one of the other ships, and I have lost my own ship. What more can they want?”

While admitting to leaving “quite a few” people on board, he said he went to supervise operations from ashore.

“When I order ‘Abandon ship,’ it doesn’t matter what time I leave,” Avranas said in a separate interview with ABC-TV. “Abandon is for everybody. If some people like to stay, they can stay.”

Hills, the musician, said he first realized the ship was in trouble when crew members in life jackets stormed up from the engine room Saturday night.

“We didn’t know what was going on. . . . There were no announcements, no sirens, nothing,” he said.

Last off the ship was Robin Boltman, a comedian and magician who manned the radio on the bridge to coordinate rescue efforts.

“They were bloody heroes,” one passenger said of the entertainers.

Rescuers said Monday that the search for survivors had ended since all aboard had been accounted for.

“The last remaining crew member missing from the Oceanos has been located, and the search for survivors has been called off,” said Ian Hunter, managing director of the tour operators who chartered the ship for a season of Indian Ocean cruises.

“You will agree that a miracle has happened here,” Hunter’s colleague Paul Levine told a news conference.

Passing ships picked up about 400 survivors from lifeboats.

South African Transport Minister Piet Welgemoed announced a maritime inquiry into the sinking of the 7,554-ton ship in seas with 24-foot waves.

The Oceanos, carrying mostly South African passengers, left East London on Saturday for Durban and began taking on water Saturday night.

Military officials said they did not know why the ship sank but said its proximity to the coast suggested that it may have hit a reef off the dangerous “Wild Coast.” Avranas said he believed that a piston in the engine room broke, knocking a hole in the hull.

Among people familiar with maritime traditions, Avranas’ behavior was viewed as gross neglect of his primary responsibility, the safety of his passengers and crew.

Frank O. Braynard, a maritime historian and curator of the American Merchant Marine Museum at the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy at King’s Point, N.Y., called the decision of the captain to leave the ship “completely wrong.”

“There’s no excuse. It’s cowardice of the first order,” Braynard said.

The captain is not expected to go down with the ship but is expected to be the last to leave, Braynard said.

“It’s very much an accepted tradition that the captain is responsible for the lives of everyone on board,” he said.

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The Costa Concordia Disaster: How Human Error Made It Worse

By: Becky Little

Updated: August 10, 2023 | Original: June 23, 2021

Many famous naval disasters happen far out at sea, but on January 13, 2012, the Costa Concordia wrecked just off the coast of an Italian island in relatively shallow water. The avoidable disaster killed 32 people and seriously injured many others, and left investigators wondering: Why was the luxury cruise ship sailing so close to the shore in the first place?

During the ensuing trial, prosecutors came up with a tabloid-ready explanation : The married ship captain had sailed it so close to the island to impress a much younger Moldovan dancer with whom he was having an affair.

5 Maritime Disasters You Might Not Know About

Find out about some of history’s deadliest—and lesser‑known—shipwrecks.

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Whether or not Captain Francesco Schettino was trying to impress his girlfriend is debatable. (Schettino insisted the ship sailed close to shore to salute other mariners and give passengers a good view.) But whatever the reason for getting too close, the Italian courts found the captain, four crew members and one official from the ship’s company, Costa Crociere (part of Carnival Corporation), to be at fault for causing the disaster and preventing a safe evacuation. The wreck was not the fault of unexpected weather or ship malfunction—it was a disaster caused entirely by a series of human errors.

“At any time when you have an incident similar to Concordia, there is never…a single causal factor,” says Brad Schoenwald, a senior marine inspector at the United States Coast Guard. “It is generally a sequence of events, things that line up in a bad way that ultimately create that incident.”

Wrecking Near the Shore

The Concordia was supposed to take passengers on a seven-day Italian cruise from Civitavecchia to Savona. But when it deviated from its planned path to sail closer to the island of Giglio, the ship struck a reef known as the Scole Rocks. The impact damaged the ship, allowing water to seep in and putting the 4,229 people on board in danger.

Sailing close to shore to give passengers a nice view or salute other sailors is known as a “sail-by,” and it’s unclear how often cruise ships perform these maneuvers. Some consider them to be dangerous deviations from planned routes. In its investigative report on the 2012 disaster, Italy’s Ministry of Infrastructures and Transports found that the Concordia “was sailing too close to the coastline, in a poorly lit shore area…at an unsafe distance at night time and at high speed (15.5 kts).”

In his trial, Captain Schettino blamed the shipwreck on Helmsman Jacob Rusli Bin, who he claimed reacted incorrectly to his order; and argued that if the helmsman had reacted correctly and quickly, the ship wouldn’t have wrecked. However, an Italian naval admiral testified in court that even though the helmsman was late in executing the captain’s orders, “the crash would’ve happened anyway.” (The helmsman was one of the four crew members convicted in court for contributing to the disaster.)

A Questionable Evacuation

Evidence introduced in Schettino’s trial suggests that the safety of his passengers and crew wasn’t his number one priority as he assessed the damage to the Concordia. The impact and water leakage caused an electrical blackout on the ship, and a recorded phone call with Costa Crociere’s crisis coordinator, Roberto Ferrarini, shows he tried to downplay and cover up his actions by saying the blackout was what actually caused the accident.

“I have made a mess and practically the whole ship is flooding,” Schettino told Ferrarini while the ship was sinking. “What should I say to the media?… To the port authorities I have said that we had…a blackout.” (Ferrarini was later convicted for contributing to the disaster by delaying rescue operations.)

Schettino also didn’t immediately alert the Italian Search and Rescue Authority about the accident. 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. Search and Rescue contacted the ship a few minutes after 10:00 p.m., but Schettino didn’t tell them what had happened for about 20 more minutes.

A little more than an hour after impact, the crew began to evacuate the ship. But the report noted that some passengers testified that they didn’t hear the alarm to proceed to the lifeboats. Evacuation was made even more chaotic by the ship listing so far to starboard, making walking inside very difficult and lowering the lifeboats on one side, near to impossible. Making things worse, the crew had dropped the anchor incorrectly, causing the ship to flop over even more dramatically.

Through the confusion, the captain somehow made it into a lifeboat before everyone else had made it off. A coast guard member angrily told him on the phone to “Get back on board, damn it!” —a recorded sound bite that turned into a T-shirt slogan in Italy.

Schettino argued that he fell into a lifeboat because of how the ship was listing to one side, but this argument proved unconvincing. 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. He was sentenced to 16 years in prison. In addition to Schettino, Ferrarini and Rusli Bin, the other people who received convictions for their role in the disaster were Cabin Service Director Manrico Giampedroni, First Officer Ciro Ambrosio and Third Officer Silvia Coronica.

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SS United States

The SS United States is currently moored in Philadelphia.

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Scorned Cruise-Ship Captain Not First to Abandon Sinking Ship

What will likely never be forgotten about the Italian cruise liner disaster is the quickness with which the captain of the Costa Concordia abandoned the sinking ship.

According to investigators, captain Francesco Schettino maneuvered the ship, which was carrying more than 4,200 passengers and crew, too close to shore of the Tuscan Island of Giglio to "make a bow" to the locals. The "significant human error," as described by the ship's owner, Costa Cruises, caused the 114,500-ton liner to capsize just 500 feet from the shore, killing at least 11 people, while 24 remain missing.

According to the Italian police, who have detained Schettino on charges of manslaughter, failure to offer assistance and abandonment of the ship, the captain and some of the crew were among the first to bail into lifeboats.

Considered one of the most infamous crimes in maritime law, Schettino's act of cowardice has many precedents in history.

NEWS: Cruise Liner Keels Over Off Tuscany Coast

"The story of captains abandoning sinking passengers is as old as ships. They are only human," Andrew Lambert, a professor of naval history at King's College, London, told Discovery News.

Schettino, who is denying all charges, is accused of having abandoned the ship on Friday at 23:30, while there were still about 230 people aboard -- including two newborns and four disabled people who were not rescued until 2 a.m.

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Coast Guard officers repeatedly urged the captain to return to the Concordia and coordinate the evacuation until everyone was safely on land, but he refused.

"Please ….it's dark...," Schettino cried, according to audio of telephone conversations posted today on daily Corriere della Sera's website.

"Listen Schettino, perhaps you have saved yourself from the sea but I will make you look very bad. I will make you pay for this. Dammit, go back on board," Coast Guard Commander Gregorio Maria De Falco yelled.

Schettino may be a scorned captain today, but one of the most ignominious captains in history is Hugues de Chaumareys, captain of the French frigate Medusa.

On July 2, 1816, the Senegal-bound ship slammed into a reef. De Chaumareys, whose incompetence doomed the voyage, fled for the Medusa's lifeboats along with some upper class passengers and crew, while 147 people set afloat on a makeshift raft.

Initially towed behind the convoy of lifeboats, the raft was ordered cut free by de Chaumareys, who abandoned the passengers to a gruesome fate of murder and cannibalism.

When the raft floated to shore 13 days later, only 15 of the 147 were alive. The story shocked Europe and was immortalized in Theodore Gericault's painting, "Raft of the Medusa," on display at the Louvre.

Another 19th century infamous episode, involving the steamship  S.S. Jeddah, became the inspiration for Joseph Conrad's "Lord Jim."

In 1880, just like the fictional seaman Jim, captain Joseph Clark and crew abandoned the Jeddah, convinced that the leaking ship would have sunk. Nearly 1,000 passengers -- Muslim pilgrims on the way to Mecca -- were left to their fate in the middle of the Bay of Bengal.

Captain Clark reported his ship as lost, to then hear that she had reached port with all passengers alive, towed by another vessel.

PHOTOS: The Rena: Stranded, Broken and Dangerous

Since then, "Lord Jim" scenarios have played out several times. Though all 571 passengers of the Greek cruise liner Oceanos survived a spectacular sinking off South Africa's east coast in 1991, captain Yianis Avranas faced public scorn as he left the cruise liner by rescue helicopter while some 170 frightened passengers remained on board.

On the other side of these tales of shame are numerous stories of nautical chivalry. One, involving the sinking of the troopship the HMS Birkenhead off the coast of South Africa in 1852, inspired the tradition of "women and children first."

The story goes that the soldiers' commanding officer, Lieutenant-Colonel Alexander Seton, ordered his men to help get the women and children on board the three lifeboats as the Birkenhead began sinking in shark-infested waters. Not a single woman or child lost their life, thanks to the soldiers who stoically stood on deck as the ship went down. Their sacrifice has gone down in maritime history as the Birkenhead Drill -- women and children first.

For the most part, people aboard one of history's most famous shipwrecks, the Titanic, also followed the tradition of the "Birkenhead Drill." The Titanic's captain E.J. Smith admonished the men to "Be British," letting women and children leave first. In the best romantic tradition, he did go down with his ship.

Indeed, 74 percent of the women and 52 percent of the children were saved; while only 20 percent of the men survived.

But one cannot rely on the Birkenhead tradition on all ships. Of the 86 survivors of the Northfleet, which sank in the English Channel in 1873, there was only one woman and two children, while no woman is recorded as a survivor in the emigrant ship the London, which sank near Plymouth in 1865.

The chivalric code was also absent on the Costa Concordia, with people pushing to get into lifeboats -- leaving behind children, pregnant women and disabled people.

Nevertheless, acts of heroism emerged amid chaos and panic.

While the captain was ashore giving television interviews, four men -- a doctor, a young official, the ship's purser and the deputy mayor of the Giglio island, who boarded the ship after the disaster -- saved about 500 trapped passengers.

Among the heroes, the 57-year-old ship's purser, Manrico Giampedroni, was found trapped in the ship with a broken leg 36 hours after the collision.

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Architecture , Art , Design & Built Environments

The unloved boats: 8 abandoned cruise ships & liners.

Article by Steve , filed under Destinations & Sights in the Travel category

MS World Discoverer

The German-built and Liberian-registered cruise ship MS World Discoverer enjoyed a 25-year-long, mainly trouble-free lifespan as a mid-sized (roughly 225 passengers and crew) passenger liner plying the South Pacific with occasional sorties into the frosty Arctic and Antarctic oceans.

On April 30th of 2000, the World Discoverer was sailing through the Sandfly Passage in the Solomon Islands when she struck an uncharted rock or reef. Captain Oliver Kruess heroically nursed the listing liner into shallow Roderick Bay in the Florida Islands, where all aboard were safely evacuated. The World Discoverer, however, remains where it was beached in 2000, stripped of anything valuable by local islanders.

Looking like an outtake from Life After People, the World Discoverer ‘s exploring days are over for good and unlike most other coastal shipwrecks it will probably remain where it is, slowly rusting and moldering away in its sheltered cove, for some time to come. There’s only one thing that worries environmentalists: sometime in the future the World Discoverer’s metal fuel tanks will finally rust through, releasing unknown amounts of poisonous toxins into the sea and onto the beaches.

Queen Elizabeth 2

The jewel in the crown of Britain’s venerable Cunard Line, the ocean liner QE2 sailed the seven seas as both a transatlantic ocean liner and as a premium cruise ship from 1969 until her retirement on November 27th, 2008. Subsequently, the liner was purchased by Istithmar, the private equity arm of Dubai World, whose stated intention was to convert the vessel into a 500-room floating hotel to be moored at the Palm Jumeirah offshore resort in Dubai.

Due to the world financial crisis and its lingering effects on business in Dubai, virtually no work has been carried out on the ship and rumors have persisted the virtually abandoned QE2 would either be sent to Asia, either to be scrapped in China or converted into a floating luxury hotel, shopping mall and museum… and so it goes.

TSS Duke of Lancaster

Launched in 1956, the TSS Duke of Lancaster was built at the Belfast shipyards of Harland & Wolff where the RMS Titanic was constructed almost a half-century earlier. The 4,450 ton, 1,800 passenger steamer operated as a passenger ferry on the Heysham-Belfast route and as a cruise ship calling at a variety of European ports from Spain to Norway for the better part of two decades. In November of 1978, the venerable Duke was retired from service on the seas… a new, landlocked career was about to begin.

In August of 1979, the ship was moved to Llanerch-y-Mor near Mostyn, Wales to become a static leisure center known as “The Fun Ship”. Legal issues and turf tussles with the local council crippled the ownership group’s business model, however, and the Duke’s slab sides were gradually covered by rust and unauthorized graffiti. The latter must have given somebody an idea because surprisingly, there’s life in the old Duke yet: as the largest open air art gallery in the UK.

Beginning in August of 2012, a commission was offered to Latvian graffiti artist Kiwie who spray-painted a large-scale artwork on the ship’s side. Kiwie’s work was augmented and complemented by a wealth of “bright and surreal” graffiti by acclaimed artists including Dale Grimshaw, Dan Kitchener, Snub23, Spacehop, and Fin DAC. The latter’s eye-popping “Mauricamai” covers most the Duke’s stern and has been breathtakingly captured above by Flickr user Mike .

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Crew on Icon of the Seas cruise ship rescues 14 people stranded at sea

The crew on the world's largest cruise ship, the Icon of the Seas, helped rescue 14 people who were clinging to a small boat this week, officials said.

A Royal Caribbean spokesperson said the ship "encountered a small vessel adrift and in need of assistance" Sunday.

"The ship’s crew immediately launched a rescue operation, safely bringing 14 people onboard," the spokesperson said. "The crew provided them with medical attention, and is working closely with the U.S. Coast Guard."

The cruise, which began in Miami, was headed for Honduras when the rescue happened, passengers said. Passengers captured video of the crew using a small vessel to ferry the group to the safety of the cruise ship.

The crew broadcast “Code Oscar, Code Oscar, Code Oscar,” over the loudspeakers, Alessandra Amodio said in a report on  FoxWeather.com . Amodio said she watched as people on the tiny craft waved a large white flag.

After the rescue, Amodio said, the cruise ship’s captain announced the crew had rescued 14 people stranded at sea for eight days.

The Icon of the Seas boasts 18 decks and six waterslides, and it can accommodate more than 5,500 passengers. It has 2,850 staterooms and seven swimming pools.

The colossal ship is 1,198 feet long, dwarfing the Titanic, which was 882.9 feet long. It departed on its maiden voyage on Jan. 27 from Miami, TODAY.com reported.

Antonio Planas is a breaking news reporter for NBC News Digital.

The Associated Press

Meriam Bouarrouj is an NBC News assignment editor.

Rescue efforts underway for luxury cruise ship that ran aground in Greenland

Several Americans are onboard, according to the State Department.

LONDON -- A luxury cruise ship carrying 206 passengers has run aground off the coast of Greenland.

The Ocean Explorer, a 343-foot long and 60-foot wide ship, ran aground on Monday near Alpefjord in the Northeast Greenland National Park -- a 375,000-square-mile area that is the most northerly national park in the world.

There have been no reports of damage to the ship.

MORE: Cruise line apologizes after dozens of whales slaughtered in front of passengers

"Arctic Command has been in contact with the cruise ship Ocean Explorer, which has stated that they are still grounded in the National Park," the Joint Arctic Command said in a statement posted on social media. "This means that the tide, which came during the day local time, did not provide the desired help to sail on. Arctic Command is still in contact with relevant ships in the vicinity, which could be able to help the cruise ship free."

Tarajoq, a Greenland Institute of Natural Resources fishing research ship, arrived at the site on Tuesday and attempted to pull the boat out. The attempt was unsuccessful.

Now the Knud Rasmussen, a Danish Navy ship, was headed to The Ocean Explorer for assistance.

"The crew in Knud Rasmussen is doing their best to get there as soon as possible. Due to the weather in the area where Knud Rasmussen is, the ship has had to slow down a bit," Joint Arctic Command said in a statement Wednesday.

The U.S. State Department confirmed there were "several" Americans onboard the cruise ship, but did not have further details.

"Our staff in Greenland and Denmark, as well as here in the United States, are in contact with local authorities and other partner organizations," a State Department spokesperson said in a statement.

The cruise ship -- belonging to Ulstein Group in Ulsteinvik, southern Norway -- had its maiden voyage only two years ago in 2021, according to AE Expeditions. It features a gym, jacuzzi and off-boat excursions and offers state-of-the-art amenities and “maximum passenger comfort," according to its website.

“Accommodating just 134 expeditioners, the Ocean Explorer was purpose-built for expedition travel to the world’s most remote destinations. This small ship is outfitted with the latest cutting-edge technology, sustainability and navigation capabilities,” AE Expeditions says on its website detailing the vessel.

MORE: Search suspended for man overboard on cruise ship hundreds of miles away from Hawaii

Meanwhile, authorities have been in contact with another cruise ship in the area and it had been asked to remain nearby to assist should the situation develop, according to AP, and rescue efforts are currently underway on multiple fronts.

"The most important thing for us is that everyone gets to safety," Jensen told the AP.

The National Park is so remote that only a limited number of people get the chance to visit each year, according to Greenland's tourist board, and more people summit Mount Everest every year than there are visitors in The Northeast Greenland National Park.

ABC News' Shannon Crawford contributed to this report.

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A ghost ship with cannibal rats a story too grim to be true.

Newspapers from the U.K. to the U.S. were reporting a sensational story this week about an abandoned cruise ship drifting across the Atlantic with a crew of cannibal rats aboard. It sounded too outrageous to be true, so we dug into the story and smelled, well, a rat.

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