it’s just after midnight at the bottom
of the world the Expedition cruise ship
Ms Explorer is sailing through an ice
field on its way to an Antarctic
Island the 154 people on board don’t
know it yet but in just a few minutes
their bucket list trip of a lifetime
will come to a screeching halt and they
will all be forced to abandon ship in
one of the most hostile environments on
Earth the resulting disaster was no less
than an astonishing sight of a cruise
ship capsizing in the ice the photos of
which were widely shared across the
internet and found in books that I
recall from my childhood but the full
story is sparsely told and for how rare
it is for a cruise ship to sink the acts
of heroin M and sheer luck everyone on
board experienced that night is truly
astonishing join me today as we break
down what exactly happened here and hear
from a passenger who was on board that
fateful night this is the story of the
MS Explorer this video is brought to you
by my second channel Bright Sun travels
my new platform for highquality travel
reviews search it on YouTube or click
the link in the description below it’s
the mid 1960s and accessibility to the
harder-to-reach corners of our planet
have long been a task only for the ultra
wealthy or very special and qualified
people larer lindblad a Swedish American
entrepreneur wanted to change that after
spending years chartering Navy ships to
bring tourists to Antarctica in 1969 he
commissioned the construction of his
travel company’s first purpose-built
Leisure ship at 239 ft long and weighing
in at just over 2, 300 tons the ship was
very small especially compared to the
retrofitted cruise liners of the time
even iconic ocean liners of the past
like the Olympic class the Explorer is
absolutely dwarfed by them regardless
this wasn’t any regular retrofitted
cruise ship or ocean liner of the time
this was the very first purpose-built
expedition cruise ship ever able to
accommodate 104 passengers and 54 crew
it was also a capable vessel able to
sail into hard to reach ports and down
narrow channels but most important was
her double bottom hole a reinforced
plate at the Keel designed to withstand
impacts from icebergs a critical design
Choice which would allow the vessel to
sail into Antarctica the lack of size
and structural Integrity for the time
didn’t compromise in Comfort though as
the Explorer featured a 100 seat theater
a 90 seat explorers lounge and a very
well-appointed dining room this along
with a wide open deck open Bridge policy
and aft swimming pool made this a very
luxurious adventure for her passengers
and as the vessel set sale larer did
exactly that with his new ship the
lindblad Explorer set out for new
adventures and opened up the chance for
regular people to finally visit some of
the most remote places on Earth through
the 70s and into the 80s he and his
company continued to push the boundaries
for the cruise industry even sailing the
Explorer through the notorious Northwest
Passage in fact it was the first cruise
ship to do so these Expeditions became
quite popular for those who sought out
adventure and it really began a new and
modern Expedition industry other
companies would also enter the market
with their own purpose-built ships
notably and maybe infamously the world
discover which would later meet a
striking fate and is a ship I’ve talked
about in an old abandoned episode but
the lindblad Explorer had proven herself
as a reliable and versatile ship not
only sailing special trips through polar
regions but also cruises down the rivers
into the Amazon nicknamed the little red
ship most who sailed aboard the Explorer
loved the Comforts The Vessel offered
over the course of the next few years
the Explorer would change hands a few
times being renamed to the society
Explorer in 1985 this came with a few
improvements to the super structure as
well as the addition of modern Zodiacs
at the top deck F this was all from the
purchase and investment from a German
Expedition company called Society
Expeditions which also ironically owned
the world discover in fact both of these
ships were sent through the Solomon
Islands though only the Explorer would
return home finally though after a few
more Acquisitions the ship would be sold
for a final time in 2004 to a Canadian
Leisure company called Gap Adventures
like the many other companies that had
owned her Gap Adventures was focused
around curated Expeditions around the
world by now the vessel had been renamed
to Simply the MS Explorer and at this
point it was a well-traveled legend of a
cruise ship having completed more than
250 trips to Antarctica Gap performed
some light Renovations and sent the ship
out on Expeditions through the early
2000s sailing her through the Panama
Canal the Amazon River Chilean fjords
and the Canadian Arctic but the most
popular destination was Antarctica and
by November of 2007 the Explorer was
gearing up for 19-day Expedition cruise
that would see it depart from usua
Argentina heading west to the Falon
islands and on to South Georgia Island
and finally into Antarctic Waters where
the vessel would make daily Landings on
the Antarctic Peninsula the total cost
for this bucket list trip would start at
$115,000 based on double occupancy all
the way up to
$29,000 for the sweets Gap adventurers
name this trip the spirit of Shackleton
a tribute to the Explorer whose vessel
famously got stuck in the ice and later
sank no matter though as on November
11th 2007 the MS Explorer left usua with
100 passengers and 54 crew on board I
mean really that’s it’s a place I’ve
been interested in going to see but I
didn’t know that it was possible so I
heard before about like joining research
Expeditions or things like that as far
as going so I kind of thought it was
something that was out of Out Of Reach
for me unless I found some job like that
and then it turns out that a a company I
had intended to do other travel with
organized trips there and you could
actually go as a tourist so I was
surprised to find that out and then and
then I ended up booking this trip and
this is my first time being with a a
like-minded group of people so this was
not luxury travel so this was really an
expedition Explorer type type of thing
and it felt that way and that was my
first time being surrounded by people
who had the same kind of mindset by day
12 the ship was sailing towards the
Antarctic Peninsula intending to make
landfall on the mainland the next day at
the helm was 49-year-old Captain banget
Wiman an experienced master who had an
extensive background with sailing in ice
conditions after years on the bridge in
the Baltic Sea the officers on board
knew that his experience would come in
handy as thick sea ice had formed around
the peninsula essentially impossible to
pass through for such a small ship this
forest and itinerary change which is
common for these types of experiences as
no Voyage to Antarctica will ever be the
same so instead the captain charts a
course for the next best thing picking
an island in the South chetland islands
around 100 km from Mainland Antarctica
so far on this trip the ship had yet to
Transit an actual ice field avoiding
them for the spotty ice and open Waters
as the sun began to set on November 22nd
the ship entered an ice patch cruising
at around 5 knots by Nightfall
visibility was limited the ice in front
of them only illuminated by the forward
mounted search lights while this ice
field was pretty large by 10 p.m. the
captain didn’t seem to be alarmed by the
lack of visibility stating to his
officers that the field they were
plowing through was thought to be firste
ice or thin enough ice for the ship to
safely pass through this however was a
fatal mistake as the ship progressed
through the field the captain could see
Open Water just beyond what looked like
a denser Ridge of ice it was approaching
midnight and as the ship began picking
up speed to gouge their way through the
ice a large shudder and bang
reverberated through the vessel as the
explorer came to an abrupt stop indeed
the ice was thicker than anticipated and
had caused the ship to get hung up on it
we had a a captain’s briefing about
where we were heading and what was
coming up and we were told that it was
going to be a noisy night because we’re
going to be going through an ice field
and I decided for the first time that
night to wear some earplugs the IES
banging along the side of the ship and
then there
was a bigger bang so the captain per his
training backed The Vessel up and rammed
it again until the ship made progress
what they didn’t know however was that
during this a long stretch of the hole
had been breached open and while I was
laying a little while later I started
hearing the sound of running water I
ripped out my earplugs I go to turn on
we have reading lights by our bed and
the reading light won’t turn on but I
touch the wall and I feel water coursing
down the wall in my cabin over my hand
we had another roommate on the other
side of the cabin so it was a triple
cabin but he also had a switch by his
bed that was a master control that could
turn on the lights for the whole room
and he turned that on and we saw that
already our cabin was flooded with with
over a foot of water felt it was serious
I felt like you know I saw the ship was
filling up quickly I was sure we were
going to have to abandon Eli’s room
on 300 deck in Cabin 314 was the first
to report the damage his cabin was
mostly below the waterline and somewhere
behind his wall a steady stream of cold
sea ice was pouring in it wasn’t until
Eli’s alarm that the bridge was actually
made aware that something was wrong crew
and officers quickly made their way down
to 300 deck to discover a large amount
of water accumulating in the hallway and
in the passenger cabins while it was
initially thought to be a small hole
open in just one cabin the rate of water
overtaking the small pumps had confirmed
the crew’s worst fears after personally
assessing the damage and the rapid
influx of water Captain wean declared an
abandoned ship order for all passengers
and crew by now the ship was out of the
ice field but because of the influx of
water
the Explorer was listening all 154
people on board were in a quickly
deteriorating situation and at least 46
km from the nearest land the bridge was
able to make contact with two nearby
cruise ships the National Geographic
Endeavor and the Nord nordch both of
them however were several hours away as
the Explorer was also making contact
with the Chilean and Argentinian navies
there was a major issue looming below
water was now seeping into the separator
room a section where some critical
Machinery like the ows are situated
basically a system that pumps oil to the
generators as water filled this room
however the Machinery shorted out and by
2 a.m. the Explorer had lost all power
and thrust the wind was now pushing the
vessel back into the ice field and
launching lifeboats into shifting ice
would be extremely dangerous chief
engineer yvy pavloski work worked
quickly to make a sort of makeshift pump
that would allow him to manually pump
oil into the generators and restore
power with the engines back online the
crew and passengers began their
evacuation while some confusion ensued
over the next hour or so nearly all
passengers and crew boarded the
Explorer’s four lifeboats and were
lowered into the icy waters members of
the Expedition team meanwhile began
launching the inflatable Zodiacs turning
the expedition pleasurecraft into
tugboats for the 152 people now in the
open ocean the captain and a member of
the Expedition team remained on board
attempting to get the vessel systems
back online and steer The Vessel into
safety he was still under the impression
that the ship wouldn’t fully sink by
this point however a significant amount
of water had seeped into the engine
rooms and without the engineers to
manage the systems below the waterline
the engines were now malfunctioning on
the bridge the captain had little to no
control over the rudder or power to the
propeller the ship was basically out of
control running full of stern moving at
around 8 knots in circles any hope to
save the Explorer was lost by this point
and despite the captain pressing the
emergency stoppage button on the helm
there was just no response from the
engine so the last two people aboard
disembarked the out of control cruise
ship via zodiac and the Explorer was
left sailing a drift so too were the
passengers and crew huddled together on
four open a lifeboats the air was frigid
and the Seas were rough the little boats
barely handling the large swells most
passengers and crew didn’t even find the
onboard safety kits filled with
seasickness tablets and emergency
blankets for up to an hour at Sea I
don’t know if we were overcrowded as far
as the official capacity but the life
booat was packed there wasn’t room to
move on it this wasn’t these it wasn’t a
covered life boat so being off the coast
of Antarctica in a in a rowboat is not
the way you want to be there wasn’t
anyone taking charge I don’t know what
was going on on the back of my Lifeboat
um but the crew member at the front was
just huddled down beneath the edge of
the boat anyway and he was obviously
scared and it was freezing cold so when
they went to drag us using the Zodiac
sprays coming on us there was a bit of
sleet and rain that that fell on us and
it was freezing I was freezing
ultimately the 154 people aboard the
lifeboats bobbed around on the open
ocean for around 4 hours finally though
one of the cruise ships that had been
contacted earlier that morning had
arrived it was the MS Nord Nord which
quickly sent down lifeboats and began
faing passengers from the Explorer’s
vintage boats on board the ship soon
after that the National Geographic
Endeavor had also arrived on scene
astonishingly all
154 people who were on board the MS
Explorer had been safely brought on
board the Nord orch and as they sailed
by the Explorer one last time to salute
the stricken ship they made way for King
George Island just as a gale was
starting to pick up there the Explorers
passengers would disembark and be
evacuated by air back to South America
as the res cruise ships left the scene
the winds began picking up and the now
powerless Abandoned Ship had drifted
back into the icefield while the
Explorer was designed with watertight
compartments the ship could stay afloat
if only one was breached the reality of
the situation though was that once water
began penetrating hold four the water
then made its way down into the deck
below the engine room the watertight
doors between the separator oil pump
room and the generator room was
apparently leaking from that point both
compartments in the engine room had been
compromised and water would have then
flooded the onb sewage tanks which would
have caused water to stream back up the
pipes and overflow the toilets and sinks
in the cabins above we saw a similar
situation with the oceanos where water
had been forced back up into the cabins
which ultimately caused an extreme list
and eventual sinking the same situation
was happening here as water was being
sent up above the water line making the
ship very topheavy and causing a huge
list the crew on the Explorer were only
using two portable pumps as well as the
internal Bild pump to drain the water
out and while initially it seemed as
though they were making progress there
was really no chance at keeping the
flooding at a controllable rate once the
Water started streaming through the
cabins it would be free to fill other
compartments and eventually take the
whole ship down though at a very slow
rate by 3:30 p.m. on November 23rd 2007
the water had reached a critical point
on the saloon deck and the Explorer
began to roll over on her starboard side
the rate of flooding then accelerated as
the ship likely capsized and slipped
beneath the icy waters above around 14
hours since the Collision happened these
were the last photos taken from the site
and it doesn’t seem like anyone was
actually there to witness the final
moments for the ship Explorer had been
sailing the Seas for 37 years only to
meet an Abrupt and sad end in the
environment she was designed for the
final report for the disaster puts the
initial blame mostly on the captain he
was experienced navigating through ice
but mainly in the Baltic Sea where the
ice is often very thin he mistook the
field the Explorer had been traveling
through as firste ice when in reality it
was much thicker and posed a serious
threat to the vulnerable hole he was was
also likely moving too fast through the
ice field and the danger was compounded
by the fact that it was nighttime but
once the damage was done the crew were
praised for their Swift and professional
actions in fact the report notes several
instances where the chances of death
were extremely high if it were not for
certain heroic acts and just sheer luck
if the ship had remained powerless and
the wind drifted the ship back into the
field launching into the ice would have
been nearly impossible it also meant
they wouldn’t have power to the cranes
that would be necessary to launch The
Zodiacs the chief engineer is really a
hero for his Ingenuity and quick
thinking but really if the captain had
decided to delay the evacuation instead
of mustering all the passengers at a
precaution the list of the vessel would
have likely prevented the Portside
lifeboats from being launched trapping
at least half on board the ship if the
rescue cruise ships took slightly longer
to reach the sights and those gale force
winds moved in it would have been very
likely that many of the passengers in
the open air life boats would have
succumbed to hypothermia with those
scenarios and many more in mind it’s
truly astonishing and really a miracle
that everyone had been saved we were
very lucky with the rescue I I didn’t
think I was going to make it I thought
that was that was it from at the
beginning you know going I just thought
this is what we need to do I had felt
for a while that we would need to
abandon ship um but when we were out
there and I was freezing and I couldn’t
feel my feet
anymore yeah it look like the end to me
so I’m very glad to be rescued and still
be here but people would ask oh how does
this change how you think or something
like that or your perspective you know
when they were asking that right after
we’re rescued it’s like I’m not sure not
sure what to say to that question but
when I got home it was very clear you
see people so caught up in their
day-to-day problems and a lot of its
just little inconveniences on the road
or at a grocery store or with I don’t
know in other situations it’s not it’s
not something to be so consumed
by as for the ship itself well the MS
explorer was truly a Trailblazer it was
the first of its kind and helped pave
the way for the entire sub industry of
expedition ship travel for those who
sailed on her throughout the nearly 40
years she lived the explorer was truly
that a passenger ship that could go
nearly anywhere and bring like-minded
average people to new and exotic places
all in comfort for that reason many
adored The Vessel and for decades it was
revered as an icon of the oceans but at
the same time it was an aging ship and
by 2007 modern Expedition Cru ships were
already traversing the same Waters that
at one time only the Explorer could
could so it was a matter of time before
the vessel was scrapped maybe then it
was fitting that the Explorer took her
final Plunge in the waters she was
designed to sail there is a weirdly
peaceful thought that the Shipwreck will
likely never be discovered again and the
Explorer will forever be intmed below
the icy waters while the wreck was found
in 2008 by the Royal Navy at a depth of
3,700 Ft it’s unlikely that it will ever
be explored thereafter today the
Expedition Cruise Market has grown
exponentially with several new Cruise
Lines starting up in recent Years and
New Ultra luxurious purpose-built ships
now sailing the waters in all honesty
they look pretty spectacular especially
a few of them and the opportunities they
afford regular people at least those who
are going to Fork over the cash all of
these new ships open up the Less
Traveled parts of the planets and give
people the opportunity to see them
there’s even a voyage to go see the
wreck of the world Discoverer but as
this industry evolves and likely gets
larger and hopefully safer we’ll have to
look back and remember where it all
started with a little red
ship I have a brand new YouTube channel
called bright Sun travels it’s a place
where I put together highquality and
thorough reviews on all types of
experiences from Virgin voyages new
cruise ships to a castle in bamp and who
knows maybe even an Antarctic Expedition
I unironically really do want to try out
Vikings Expedition ships very bad but if
you instead want to watch me potentially
suffer I also have a voyage coming up
aboard the Margaritaville Paradise so if
that’s something you’re interested in
subscribe to the new channel search
Bright Sun travels on YouTube or click
the link in the description below of
course if you also like these types of
videos subscribe here on Brighton films
too I also want to give a special thanks
to Mike from oceanliner designs and his
team for dreaming up the animated
visuals in this video a link to his
channel will also be in the description
below anyway guys my name is Jake and
thank you very much for