Guitarist once rescued hundreds from a sinking yacht

In 1991, Moss Hills from Zimbabwe was a performance guitarist on the luxury yacht Oceanos. The Oceanos, built by France and owned by Greece, had a horrific accident while sailing off the coast of South Africa.

Early on August 3, 1991, high winds and heavy rain caused Oceanos’ voyage to the South African port city of Durban to be delayed several times. However, when the weather showed no signs of improving, the captain finally decided to set sail. The Oceanos cruise ship with 581 guests and crew set sail in 74 km/h winds and 9m high waves.

Moss and his wife Tracy, the bass player on the boat, became aware of the severity of the storm over dinner. The staff on the train had a smooth delivery of the food, but they dropped the tray a few times that day.

The Moss and his wife, both in their thirties, used to throw parties at the deck pool, but that day the party moved indoors. Moss had to pull himself together as the boat struggled in the storm, trying to keep his balance while playing the guitar. “The storm is getting worse,” Moss exclaimed.

Tracy decides to go to the couple’s cabin and get an emergency kit, just in case. “She was about to leave when the lights went out,” Moss said.

None of the sailors on board showed up to give instructions. Although Moss is a person who is not easily flustered, he still cannot avoid feeling insecure. “Imagine you’re on a ship in the middle of a dark ocean facing a terrible storm,” he said. “I feel my stomach tighten.”

When the emergency lights came on, Moss went to the tea room to inspect the instruments on the table and found that the microphone and stand had fallen to the ground. Then he realized that the constant noise of the engine had gone away. The boat has lost power and is slowing down.

The 153-meter-long boat began to be hit by rough seas. Moss described Oceanos as being repeatedly struck by a giant hammer.

Panicked guests began to flock to the tea room, where teapots, ashtrays, tables and chairs were scattered. Everyone had to sit on deck as the boat swayed violently from port to starboard.

About an hour passed, and the atmosphere in the room became more and more tense. Moss picked up an acoustic guitar and started singing along with several other artists, trying to keep everyone calm. But then he realized the boat was leaning to one side.

“Something bad happened,” Moss told his wife. “I went to see.”

Magicians Moss and Julian, from Yorkshire, England, clung to the handrail and made their way through the darkness below deck. They hear voices in different languages. Sailors on the boat were running, some carrying bags, some wearing life jackets, soaking wet.

“Everyone had a panicked look on their faces,” Moss said. “We tried to inquire about the situation but got no response, as if we didn’t exist.”

Julian and Moss went down to the engine room, the lowest part of the boat. “We were below sea level in the dark and no one was there,” Moss said. “Normally, even if a ship is docked, someone has to be there to take care of it.”

The thick metal doors in the cabin are closed, and they act as safety barriers to prevent water from flowing from one compartment to another in the event of a flood. “However, behind those doors, there appears to be a large swath of water.”

Oceanos is sinking.

Back in the tea room, there is still no news. Moss found the yacht’s cheerleader, who said the captain had vowed to abandon the boat. “We found a lifeboat left the ship with a lot of crew,” Moss said.

Moss and others did not know how to evacuate the yacht, nor how to deploy the lifeboats suspended high on the decks on both sides of the hull. No one has the ability and experience to do this either.

They started trying to lower the starboard lifeboats to the deck, but when everyone stepped on, they didn’t know how to balance them. Moss improvised, standing on the deck with one foot and the lifeboat with the other.

After a period of deployment, each about 3-4m long lifeboats, which can carry about 90 people, were launched by cables, and many people screamed in horror. Moss didn’t know how to start the engine, or even where the starter key was.

“The lifeboat fell into the sea in the dark, swaying in the rough waves,” Moss said. “The people on the boat had a nightmare, they were in the fog, it was very cold and dark, but we had to keep going until all the starboard lifeboats were deployed.”

More and more water overwhelmed the boat, and Oceanos leaned more and more to starboard. It is nearly impossible to safely launch the remaining lifeboats in port. High waves caused the lifeboat to tip as it hung from the side lines.

Moss realized the situation was too dangerous to continue. “In rescue efforts, we could end up killing people,” he said.

Time was running out for more lifeboats to be deployed, but there were still hundreds of people waiting to be rescued. Moss and others went to the bridge area to try to find the captain and the rest of the crew and ask about the next step.

“There was no one in the cockpit,” Moss reported. “That’s when we realized we were alone.”

Orange-red lights flickered in the darkness, but Moss didn’t know how to use the instruments in the cockpit. They took turns trying to use the radio to send a distress signal. “Help! Help! Help,” Moss shouted forcefully. “Yes, what’s the urgency?” a low voice replied.

Mayday is an international code word used as a distress signal in radio communications. This signal is always spoken three times in a row to avoid confusion with several similarly pronounced sentences in noisy conditions.

Moss, feeling somewhat calm again, explained that he was aboard the crashed and sinking Oceanos cruise ship with at least 200 people on board.

“Where is the train now?” asked the watchman. “We’re probably between East London, South Africa and Durban,” Moss replied.

When the agent asked Moss for the exact coordinates, he said he didn’t know the coordinates.

“What’s your position on the boat?” the man asked. “I don’t have a title. I’m a guitarist,” Moss replied.

The other end of the line was silent for a moment. “What are you doing in the cockpit?” the staff asked in surprise.

Moss then made contact with two small lifeboats near where Oceanos was located. They asked Moss to find the captain and bring him back to the cockpit, but Moss didn’t know where the captain was. “The captain certainly didn’t sink because the ship was sinking,” Moss said. “I checked the water levels regularly and one of the compartments below was flooded.”

Moss eventually found the captain smoking in the dark at the stern. Moss eagerly asked him for help.

“He looked at me blankly and said ‘no, no,'” Moss said. “I think he was shocked at the time.”

There are only two lifeboats near Oceanos. They shared Oceanos’ coordinates with South African authorities. The country’s authorities have started an air rescue operation.

As the storm continued to hit the ship, Moss and Tracy sat side by side in the dark, praying that rescue teams would arrive before it was too late. He and his wife have a 15-year-old daughter, Amber, who attends a boarding school in South Africa.

“The ship will sink, and we will probably follow in Oceanos’ footsteps,” Moss told his wife. “Amber can’t lose both parents. Make sure at least one of us survives.”

More than three hours later, the first rescue helicopter arrived and flew over Oceanos. Two navy divers landed on the deck saying they needed help in rescue operations before the ship sank. Moss was immediately instructed to use a helicopter cable to rescue for 5 minutes.

“Remember, seat belts need to go under everyone’s arms,” ​​the diver told Moss. “Make sure you do it right or they’ll turn upside down and endanger their lives. We’ll get you two up right now or we’ll run out of time. You know what? Go ahead.”

Navy divers were responsible for evacuating personnel to helicopters in the stern, while Moss was responsible for the front lines. However, as the ship sank, people panicked and jumped from the steep deck. A hard-hulled speedboat was deployed to rescue them.

The Moss couple tries to rescue a man floating in mid-air using cables from a helicopter. They were blown away by strong winds and crashed into the boat. Moss panicked for a moment, but realized he had no choice but to continue because there were so many people on board.

A total of five helicopters were involved in the mission, bringing 12 people to safety each time dawn broke. Exhausted, Moss and Tracy were the last to be taken. “We had cables hovering overhead and watched the boat sink and get hit by the wind,” recalls Moss.

When the helicopter carrying Moss landed on the lawn, passengers on the train cheered and ran to him, reaching out to hug Moss. “I started choking, sobbing,” Moss said. “And then fell.”

On August 4, 1991, about 45 minutes after the last person on board was rescued to safety by helicopter, the Oceanos sank into the sea. Those who left the boat in lifeboats were picked up by passing boats. No one was killed.

The Greek investigation team determined that the captain and four others were negligent in handling the emergency, but they were not criminally charged.

Moss and Tracy continued to play music on the cruise ship over the years. Thirty years have passed, but Tracy always refuses to recall the shipwreck as she and her husband face life-or-death moments.

However, Moss, now a yacht cheerleader, is willing to repeat the story. Looking back, he breathed a sigh of relief. “I’m not invincible,” he said. “But if I win that horror moment, I can beat anything.”

German and Chinese (according to BBC)