Many questions are still unanswered about the sinking of a Greek cruise ship off the coast of South Africa this past weekend - including the exact cause of the disaster. Yet one thing already is clear: The behavior of the captain and much of the crew smacks of cowardice and dereliction of duty.
All of the 361 passengers apparently were rescued, along with the 184 crew members and 26 entertainers and agents from the travel agency that had booked the ship. Thanks to South African military helicopters and several nearby ships, the last people on board were removed just 90 minutes before the 7,554-ton Oceanos sank.The vessel was about two miles off the South African shore when it began taking on water Saturday night in heavy seas. It sank about 15 hours or so later after listing heavily for several hours with frightened passengers being plucked from the tilting decks. Others were rescued from the ocean.
That no lives were lost was miraculous, considering the conditions. It is even more remarkable when taking into account the actions of the crew and ship's officers. Passengers said the crew abandoned them, taking the only two motorized launches and leaving nobody behind who knew how to lower the lifeboats.
When helicopters arrived the next morning, the 16 people to scramble into the first aircraft reportedly included 11 ship's officers, the captain among them. Left behind were hundreds, many of them women and children and elderly people.
An ancient, unwritten law of the sea says that a captain is the last one to leave a sinking vessel, making sure that everyone else is off, even if he has to go down with his ship in the process. That honorable tradition and basic responsibility was clearly violated on the unhappy Oceanos.
The captain, Yiannis Avranas, offered the lame excuse that he had to direct rescue operations from shore.
The real heroes of the disaster were some unlikely people - the entertainers and travel agents of the South Africa firm, TFC Travel. They sorted out confused passengers, calmed any panic and struggled to get lifeboats lowered. One of them, a comedian and magician, took over the abandoned captain's bridge and coordinated the rescue efforts over the ship's radio.
While hearings eventually will sort out the causes and responsibilities, the ship's owners in Athens are only making matters worse by offering ridiculous, self-serving comments. For example, they said the crew was the first to abandon the Oceanos in order to help people into boats and to help them reach rescue ships. They said the fact that no lives were lost showed the wisdom of that "plan."
The Oceanos sinking shows once again that heroes are likely to arise from unexpected sources in a disaster and that in an emergency, ordinary people can do extraordinary things. Medals should go to those level-headed entertainers and travel agents who were on board.