Almost 30 years ago, the ferry M.S. Estonia sank on the way from Tallinn to Stockholm. Why am I writing about it on this blog post? When we visited St. Nicholas Church in Tallinn, I noticed a painting that commemorates this accident. It is a memorial site. Another point was that later, after visiting the church, we talked about this tragic accident in the tour group. At that point, I thought that the cause of the accident had been clarified. I had promised to find out more about it. Another point was also important to me, namely that it was almost 30 years ago and it didn't seem that long to me. Of course, I can't try to solve this complex problem here and I've only read the Wikipedia articles to give a condensed view of some aspects of the accident.
In St. Nicholas Church, there is a picture hanging on the wall showing a stylized ship and a figure of the Virgin Mary with her arms outstretched. Next to M/S "Estonia" is the date of the disaster (September 28, 1994) and reference is made to the ninth verse of Psalm 28, which reads: "Oh, save your people and bless your heritage! / Be their shepherd and carry them forever." This is one memorial site, but there are others, such as the Broken Line Monument in Tallinn [1], which I unfortunately wasn't able to visit. There are other memorial sites in Estonia and Sweden. Why Sweden in particular? The French Wikipedia text helps us here [2]: of the 852 victims of the disaster, 501 are from Sweden and 285 from Estonia.
One might argue about the place for the picture with the heating and the pipes. But I think it's a good place as I at least felt like being on a ferry.
Reason for the disaster
In the following I refer mainly to the text of the German Wikipedia article [3], because it is the most detailed one. The Estonia sank on 28 September 1994 on its way from Tallinn to Stockholm off the Finnish island of Utö. With 852 victims, this was the worst shipping accident in post-war European history. The course of the accident has been largely clarified, but not the cause of the accident. The ship was built in 1980 by the Meyer Werft in Papenburg [4].
What happened?
In heavy seas (waves up to 10m high), water entered the Estonia. The hinges of the bow hatch were subjected to great stress in the rough sea and broke during the journey, allowing water to enter. When the ship did not reduce its speed, the bow visor finally broke off, allowing large amounts of water to enter the ship unhindered. The ferry quickly began to list heavily and sank within a short time. Just a few minutes after the first distress call "Mayday" at 1:22 a.m., radio contact was lost and shortly afterwards the Estonia disappeared from the radar screens of the surrounding ships, which then headed towards the scene of the accident. The MS Mariella was there just an hour later. The rescue was made difficult by the rough sea and the 13°C cold Baltic Sea water. Only 137 people were rescued and young men had the best chance of survival. Most of the dead are still in the ferry because the list and the rapidly penetrating water meant that most of the passengers had no chance of getting from inside to the deck of the ship.
What theories have been developed?
A commission from the states of Sweden, Estonia and Finland investigated immediately after the accident until 1997; an investigation report was published. The locking mechanism of the bow visor failed under the weight of the waves. A deviation approved during construction, not having to extend the bulkheads upwards, may have contributed to the accident. The crew was not aware of the open bow visor, e.g. the sensors still showed a closed bow visor when it had already broken away. Meyer Werft assumed detonations for the blowing away of the visor, but a material report refuted this theory.
What about the concrete sarcophagus?
The Swedish government planned to ensure the peace of the dead by means of a concrete sarcophagus, but costs, protests and the fact that normal diving is impossible at the depth of the wreck led to a no-go agreement, which 8 of 9 Baltic Sea coastal states and Great Britain joined. Germany did not join because special regulations for later investigations into the cause were missing. Two Swedish members of a team of documentary filmmakers (depoying diving robots to the wreck in September 2020) were convicted of violating the peace of the grave in 2022.
What happened next?
Sweden changed laws in 2021 to legalize investigations, but the investigations carried out subsequently did not produce any findings that contradicted the 1997 investigation report. Various conspiracy theories were still being investigated, such as a collision with a Russian submarine.
In 2019, a court in Nanterre dismissed civil suits against the Meyer Werft and the French inspection company Bureau Veritas, which had classified the ship as seaworthy, because neither gross nor intentional misconduct on the part of the defendants could be proven.
Have I been afraid on the journey from Helsinki to Travemünde? No, because the sea was calm, the sad experiences were incorporated into improvements to the ship and regulations, and the Russian submarine [5] travelled on the surface.
The next time I'll visit Tallinn, I will definitely visit the Broken Line Monument. And I am still pondering why the ninth verse of Psalm 28 was chosen for the picture in St. Nicholas Church.
One might argue about the place for the picture with the heating and the pipes. But I think it's a good place as I at least felt like being on a ferry.
Reason for the disaster
In the following I refer mainly to the text of the German Wikipedia article [3], because it is the most detailed one. The Estonia sank on 28 September 1994 on its way from Tallinn to Stockholm off the Finnish island of Utö. With 852 victims, this was the worst shipping accident in post-war European history. The course of the accident has been largely clarified, but not the cause of the accident. The ship was built in 1980 by the Meyer Werft in Papenburg [4].
What happened?
In heavy seas (waves up to 10m high), water entered the Estonia. The hinges of the bow hatch were subjected to great stress in the rough sea and broke during the journey, allowing water to enter. When the ship did not reduce its speed, the bow visor finally broke off, allowing large amounts of water to enter the ship unhindered. The ferry quickly began to list heavily and sank within a short time. Just a few minutes after the first distress call "Mayday" at 1:22 a.m., radio contact was lost and shortly afterwards the Estonia disappeared from the radar screens of the surrounding ships, which then headed towards the scene of the accident. The MS Mariella was there just an hour later. The rescue was made difficult by the rough sea and the 13°C cold Baltic Sea water. Only 137 people were rescued and young men had the best chance of survival. Most of the dead are still in the ferry because the list and the rapidly penetrating water meant that most of the passengers had no chance of getting from inside to the deck of the ship.
What theories have been developed?
A commission from the states of Sweden, Estonia and Finland investigated immediately after the accident until 1997; an investigation report was published. The locking mechanism of the bow visor failed under the weight of the waves. A deviation approved during construction, not having to extend the bulkheads upwards, may have contributed to the accident. The crew was not aware of the open bow visor, e.g. the sensors still showed a closed bow visor when it had already broken away. Meyer Werft assumed detonations for the blowing away of the visor, but a material report refuted this theory.
What about the concrete sarcophagus?
The Swedish government planned to ensure the peace of the dead by means of a concrete sarcophagus, but costs, protests and the fact that normal diving is impossible at the depth of the wreck led to a no-go agreement, which 8 of 9 Baltic Sea coastal states and Great Britain joined. Germany did not join because special regulations for later investigations into the cause were missing. Two Swedish members of a team of documentary filmmakers (depoying diving robots to the wreck in September 2020) were convicted of violating the peace of the grave in 2022.
What happened next?
Sweden changed laws in 2021 to legalize investigations, but the investigations carried out subsequently did not produce any findings that contradicted the 1997 investigation report. Various conspiracy theories were still being investigated, such as a collision with a Russian submarine.
In 2019, a court in Nanterre dismissed civil suits against the Meyer Werft and the French inspection company Bureau Veritas, which had classified the ship as seaworthy, because neither gross nor intentional misconduct on the part of the defendants could be proven.
Have I been afraid on the journey from Helsinki to Travemünde? No, because the sea was calm, the sad experiences were incorporated into improvements to the ship and regulations, and the Russian submarine [5] travelled on the surface.
The next time I'll visit Tallinn, I will definitely visit the Broken Line Monument. And I am still pondering why the ninth verse of Psalm 28 was chosen for the picture in St. Nicholas Church.
Links and Annotations:
[1] https://www.visitestonia.com/en/the-broken-line-monument
[2] https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Estonia_(ferry)
[3] https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Estonia_(Schiff,_1980)
The articles in English, Swedish, Estonian, Latvian and Lithuanian are much shorter:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MS_Estonia
https://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/M/S_Estonia
https://et.wikipedia.org/wiki/Estonia_(laev_1980)
https://lv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Estonia_(pr%C4%81mis)
https://lt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Estonia_(keltas)
I already mentioned the French article.
The Spanish article provides an English transcription of the emergency radio traffic from 01:21:59 to 01:25:52 a.m. https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/M/S_Estonia
[4] I was familiar with the shipyard because we surprisingly had a large number of patients from Papenburg on the Lower Rhine (Rheinisches Rheuma Zentrum in Meerbush-Lank) until a rheumatologist settled closer to the town.
[5] I'Ve already written about the Russian submarine: https://rheumatologe.blogspot.com/2024/07/an-encounter-in-baltic-sea.html
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