Tina Kaiser is an investigative journalist at *stern*. Together with Marc Neller, she covered the case in the seven-part podcast *The Downfall of the Sea Story*. The ship capsized off Marsa Alam.
Tell me, Ms Kaiser … what were you doing undercover at a shipyard in Egypt?
I am a journalist and, together with my colleague Marc Neller, I investigated the fatal sinking of the liveaboard vessel ‘Sea Story’. Egypt is a military dictatorship; freedom of the press exists only on paper. Officially, we would only have been allowed to work in Egypt under the supervision of a state official. In that case, of course, we would not have been able to speak openly to anyone. So we entered the country as tourists and, for the interviews on the ground, posed as wealth managers. Our cover story was that we were there on behalf of a family office to assess whether it was worth building a liveaboard. In this role, we were able to ask a great many questions without immediately arousing suspicion. We wanted to uncover the true causes of the shipwreck whilst on the ground.
What happened on the ‘Sea Story’?
The shipwreck occurred at around three o’clock in the morning. There were 45 people on board in total: 30 tourists, eleven crew members and four diving guides. The passengers were caught unawares whilst they were asleep. Eleven people died. There were also Germans amongst the passengers. A further five people survived for 34 hours in an air pocket inside the wreck. They were eventually discovered by amateur divers. They had actually dived into the wreck because they wanted to search for the bodies of missing friends and colleagues. They had not expected to find any survivors there.
What was wrong with the ship?
The ship was licensed for 34 metres. However, when it sank, it was 44 metres long. It had apparently been extended during the Covid-19 pandemic. As a result, more heavy items had been moved further up the ship. Added to this were a hot tub, a large saloon with heavy wooden furniture, and wooden sun loungers on the sun deck. The furniture was not bolted down and could slide about when the sea was rough.
A former captain told us that he had to steer the ‘Sea Story’ in such a way that the waves wouldn’t capsize it. With a well-built ship, he could simply have sailed in a straight line from Reef A to Reef B. With the ‘Sea Story’, however, he sometimes had to take a different course for as long as half an hour.
The renowned shipbuilding expert Professor Stefan Krüger from Hamburg has calculated, based on the available data, that the ship’s centre of gravity was half a metre too high. As laypeople, our initial reaction was: that doesn’t sound like much. In fact, however, that half a metre could mean the difference between life and death.
Why was a ship like that allowed to set sail in the first place?
It’s hard to say. In Egypt, boat builders book a berth at a shipyard and organise everything themselves: tradespeople, someone to draw up the plans, and, ideally, a naval architect. The latter often doesn’t seem to happen.
Professor Krüger looked at the photographs of the shipyard that we had taken. According to him, the work carried out there is not fundamentally poor. On the contrary: the people there are very skilled craftsmen and are excellent at working with wood. The only thing is: whilst this traditional method of construction may be sufficient for small fishing boats, However, for a 44-metre-long vessel, you need an engineer to calculate whether the ship is not only well-built but also stable on the open sea.
Added to this is the scrutiny by the authorities. Before each voyage, a harbour master usually inspects the vessel. Nevertheless, apparently nobody noticed that the ‘Sea Story’ was ten metres longer than stated in the documents. This would mean that the authorities share some of the responsibility, as they should have spotted the unauthorised modification.
What went wrong on the night of the accident?
Pretty much everything. There had been a severe weather warning, and many other vessels did not set sail that night. Furthermore, the ‘Sea Story’ was not being skippered by its regular captain, but by a stand-in captain who had never sailed the vessel before. According to our investigations, he did not hold the necessary licence for this vessel either.
The ship’s captain even rang him during the night to warn him. He told him not to carry on sailing, but to seek shelter in a sheltered bay or by a reef and only set sail again the following day. The stand-in captain decided to carry on sailing anyway.
When the ship capsized, the lights went out after a few seconds. Apparently, none of the generators kicked in. People had to find their way in the dark on a ship that was lying on its side. In some cabins, the panoramic windows shattered on impact. Water poured in and they drowned. Other passengers were trapped in their cabins and were unable to smash the windows.
On the lower deck, people had to find their way to the exit. They had been told where it was, but there had been no practical training. Several survivors told us that, in the dark, they had absolutely no idea where they were. They simply felt their way forward as best they could.
Did the safety equipment at least work?
There, too, there were apparently major problems. The lights on the life jackets were broken or had no batteries. At the same time, there was hardly any moonlight that night. This made it very difficult to spot people floating in the water.
The life rafts apparently did not have the required hydrostatic release mechanism, but were tied together. A German survivor found one of the rafts, but was initially unable to open it. She had to spend several minutes trying to untie the knot.
The life rafts were also poorly equipped. Zips were damaged, the lights did not work, and there was neither drinking water nor a radio. There were only a few thermal blankets available. Water had seeped into one of the rafts.
How did the search for the survivors go?
According to the Egyptian investigation files, an SOS signal was received by a rescue centre on land at around three o’clock. Apparently, nothing happened initially. Hours later, an emergency call was then sent to the ships in the area.
A container ship received this distress call, albeit with incomplete position data. The captain did not know exactly where the ‘Sea Story’ was. Together with staff from his shipping company, he worked out where the wreck might have drifted to in the meantime. The container ship eventually did indeed find it.
Two German survivors were sitting on the roof of the upturned wreck. The captain also spotted the life rafts in the distance and reported their position. It was only then that the navy sent a helicopter and a frigate.
A speedboat from a local diving resort picked up the people from the life rafts. The container ship had already made preparations to assist them. The crew had laid out thermal blankets and lowered a rope ladder. The speedboat initially headed towards the container ship as well. Then the skipper received a phone call, turned away and took the survivors to an Egyptian liveaboard vessel further away.
What role did the Egyptian Navy play?
A Navy frigate had been moored alongside the wreck since Monday lunchtime. From what we have been able to piece together, it did not undertake any discernible rescue operations. For example, no buoys were attached to the wreck to stabilise it. Apparently, no dinghy was sent to the windows to search for anyone trapped inside either. The frigate merely accompanied the drifting wreck – at least, that is what our investigations suggest.
Other divers wanted to help. Friends and relatives of the missing crew members were on ships in the vicinity. They wanted to search for survivors and dive into the wreck. The navy prohibited this for around 24 hours. It was not until Tuesday lunchtime that private divers were allowed to enter. There, they found the five people who had been clinging to life in an air pocket for 34 hours.
We do not know why the Navy did not deploy its own rescue divers. It is possible that it did not have suitably trained personnel. However, we were unable to verify this. We had a great many questions on the matter. Unfortunately, neither the Navy, the Ministry of Defence nor the Rescue Coordination Centre in Cairo answered a single one.
Is there any evidence of a cover-up?
There are some irregularities, but no evidence of a deliberate cover-up. Several people told us that the navy had taken great care to ensure that the survivors did not take any photos or videos of the wreck. The crew of the container ship, however, did take some footage. After we managed to track them down about half a year later, we received the first images of the rescue operation and the capsized wreck.
The way the incident was presented to the public was also striking. On social media, the Egyptian authorities praised the rescue operation carried out by the Egyptian Navy and volunteers. No mention was made of the crew of the container ship, even though they had located the wreck and reported its position.
A Belgian couple who were rescued from the wreck voiced a very serious suspicion on our podcast. They speculated that the frigate’s crew may not have been on a mission to rescue people at all. They may simply have been tasked with preventing anyone from photographing the wreck before it sank. We have no evidence to support this. We put this allegation to the Egyptian military and received no response.
What were the consequences of the shipping accident for the operator?
Apparently, hardly any for the operator. As far as we are aware, only the stand-in captain was prosecuted. Experts such as Professor Krüger, however, believe it is wrong to place the blame solely on him. His view is that a ship of this kind should never have been allowed to set sail in the first place. Had it been built correctly, even a navigational error would not have caused it to capsize so easily.
At one point, the operator’s remaining vessels were no longer listed with the Egyptian Diving Federation. However, when we were in Egypt ourselves later on, they were listed there again and tours were once more available to book. We were even told that the operator had built a new, even larger vessel: the ‘Coral Dreams’.
After we had sent our questions to the operator and the relevant authorities, the company’s website disappeared a few days later. A few months later, an almost identical site appeared under a different name. It listed the same telephone numbers and offered the same ships. After a short time, this site also disappeared. We do not know whether the operator has withdrawn permanently or is simply waiting for public interest to wane.
What should travellers bear in mind before going on a liveaboard trip?
According to our information, there are around 180 liveaboard vessels operating in Egypt. Only seven of these are certified. With these seven, we can at least be sure that a professional surveyor has inspected the vessel. The ‘Royal Evolution’ is the only vessel with SOLAS certification. Six others have voluntarily undergone inspection by the Australian certification body Maritime Survey International.
Before booking, I would ask lots of specific questions: What types of life jackets are available? Are they designed to prevent the wearer from losing consciousness? How many life rafts are on board? When were they last serviced? Is there documentation to prove this? Are there a fire alarm system and serviced fire extinguishers on board?
You can often tell from the answers just how seriously an operator takes this issue. Once on board, the first thing I’d do is check the lifejackets and fire extinguishers. We inspected a total of 17 vessels in Egypt, including some undercover, posing as diving tourists. Among other things, we found fire extinguishers that were completely rusted through.
I would also book such a trip through a German tour operator and ask for written confirmation of the safety standards in advance. Even people who survived the accident without physical injury lost all their diving equipment. They received no compensation because, allegedly, there was no insurance.
Where can people find out more about your research?
In our seven-part Podcast In *The Sinking of the Sea Story*, Marc Neller and I reconstruct the shipwreck and the events leading up to it. The programme also features interviews with survivors, and we recount our undercover investigation in Egypt. All episodes are available on stern+ and RTL+, with the first three also available for free on the usual podcast platforms.
You might also be interested in:
David Ingelfinger
Volontär