The story behind the picture
Can you predict what is happening?
The (1)_______ (GUITAR) who saved hundreds of people on a (2)________ (SINK) cruise (3)___________ (LINE)
When the luxury ship Oceanos started taking on water in rough seas during a voyage around the coast of South Africa in 1991, (4)__________ (MUSIC) Moss Hills and his colleagues suddenly found themselves responsible for everyone on board.
It was during dinner that Moss Hills began to realise just how (5)_______________ (SEVERITY) the storm was. The ship's waiters, normally completely adept at carrying drinks and food without spilling anything, were struggling. Moss, a guitarist from Zimbabwe working on board the cruise liner (6)___________ (ALONG) his wife Tracy, a bass player, had never seen the waiters dropping trays before.
Earlier that day, (7)__________ (GALE) winds and heavy rains had delayed sailing for the final leg of the cruise towards Durban several times. But with no sign of conditions improving, the captain eventually decided to lift anchor and the Oceanos, with 581 guests and crew on board, sailed off into 40-knot winds and 9m-high (30ft) waves.
The storm just got worse and worse and suddenly all the lights went out. When none of the ship's officers appeared to issue instructions, Moss, who was not easily frightened, began to feel (8)________ (EASE). Then he suddenly realised he couldn't hear the constant, background noise of the engines. The ship had lost power and was slowing down. Soon the 153m (502ft) Oceanos was drifting sideways onto the crashing waves.
Anxious guests began pouring into the lounge. Moss grabbed an acoustic guitar and began singing with some of the other (9)_____________ (ENTERTAIN) to try to keep people calm. But as time stretched on, Moss noticed that the ship was no longer coming back to a level position when it was being thrown about in the storm.
"Something bad is happening," Moss said to Tracy, "I'm going to try and find out what's going on."
Hanging on to the (10)______________ (HAND), Moss and another entertainer, Julian, a magician from Yorkshire, made their way through the (11)_____________ (DARK) below deck. They could hear excited voices speaking many different languages. Officers were running around, some were carrying bags, some had life jackets on, and some were wet.
"Everyone was pretty (12)_______________ (EYE) and panicked-looking," Moss says. "We were trying to ask, 'What's happening?' but it was like we didn't exist."
Julian and Moss continued down to the engine room - the lowest part of the ship.
"We were way below the (13)_______________ (WATER), in the dark, on our own, and there was no-one there," Moss says. "That would never, ever happen, even when you're (14)_____________ (DOCK)."
The thick, metal doors which acted as a (15)_________ (SAFE) barrier by preventing water moving from one compartment of a ship to another in the event of flooding, were (16)_____________ (TIGHT) closed.
"But it sounded like there was a large body of water (17)_________ (SLOSH) about behind those (18)_____________ (WATER) doors," Moss says.
The Oceanos was sinking.
Back up in the lounge, there had still not been any (19)______________ (ANNOUNCE) about what was going on. Moss found the cruise director who said the captain had told her they were going to have to abandon the ship.
"Then we found out that one lifeboat had already gone with a lot of the crew and senior officers on it," he says.
Moss and the others had no idea how to evacuate a cruise ship, nor how to launch the lifeboats which hung high above the deck along each of the ship's sides, but there was nobody more (20)___________ (QUALIFY) around to do it.
One
by one, they began lowering the starboard side lifeboats down to the
deck.
"We'd let them go, off into the night, and they would just drift away into the (21)_________ (POUND) waves," he says. "The people in the lifeboats had a (22)____________ (TORTURE) time - it was cold and completely dark, but we just had to carry on until all of the starboard side lifeboats were launched."
(23)_____________ (EVENT), he realised it was too dangerous to continue.
"In the effort to try and rescue people we were (24)__________ (POSSIBILITY) going to kill them," Moss says. And time was running out.
(25)________________ (ABILITY) to launch any more lifeboats, but with hundreds of people still in need of rescue, Moss and others made their way up to the ship's bridge - where they assumed they would find the captain and the (26)___________ (REMAIN) senior officers - to ask what to do next.
"We looked inside, but there was no one there," Moss says. "That's when we realised - it's just us."
Orangey-red lights blinked in the darkness, but Moss had no idea what most of the equipment was for, never mind how it worked. They took turns trying to use the radio to send an SOS.
"I was calling, 'Mayday! Mayday! Mayday!' and just waiting for somebody to answer," Moss says.
A big, deep, rich voice eventually replied. "Yes, what is your Mayday?"
(27)_______________ (RELIEF), Moss explained that he was on the cruise ship Oceanos and that it was sinking.
"OK. How long have you got left to float?"
"I don't know - we've taken on a huge amount of water," Moss said. "We still have at least 200 people on board."
"OK. What is your position?"
"We're probably about halfway between the port of East London and Durban."
"No, no, no, what are your coordinates?"
Moss had no idea what their coordinates were.
"What rank are you?"
"Well, I'm not a rank - I'm a guitarist."
A moment's silence.
"What are you doing on the bridge?"
"Well, there's nobody else here."
"Who's on the bridge with you?"
"So I said, 'It's me, my wife - the bass player, we've got a (28)___________ (MAGIC) here…'"
Moss was put in contact with two small ships that were close to the Oceanos. They told Moss to find the captain and get him onto the bridge. But Moss had no idea where he was.
"I knew he wouldn't be down below because we were sinking," he says. "I was making regular checks to see where the water level was, and one deck below us was flooded."
Eventually, Moss found the captain, right at the back of the ship, smoking in the darkness. Moss explained that they needed his help - (29)____________ (URGENCY).
"He was just looking at me, wide-eyed and vacant, saying, 'It's not necessary, it's not necessary,'" Moss says.
"I think he was in deep, deep shock."
The two ships close to the Oceanos had only one lifeboat each, so there was little they could do to help. They shared the sinking vessel's coordinates with the South African authorities who began to organise an air rescue mission.
As the storm continued to batter the ship, Moss and Tracy sat together in the near darkness, praying that help would arrive before it was too late.
"I think the ship is going to go down and it's very likely we're going to go down with it," Moss said to his wife.
He and Tracy had a 15-year-old daughter, Amber, who'd been on board the Oceanos for the holidays and (30)__________________ (EMBARK) just days earlier. Amber was now back at (31)___________ (BOARD) school in South Africa.
"She can't lose both parents," Moss remembers saying. "(32)_______________ (WHAT) we do, we've got to make sure at least one of us gets off."
More than three hours passed before the first rescue helicopter arrived and hovered above the ship.
Two navy divers were winched down to the Oceanos' deck. They said they needed help to get everyone off before the ship sank, and Moss was given a five-minute crash course on how to run a helicopter (33)______________ (AIR).
One navy diver went to organise the helicopter rescue at the rear of the ship and Tracy and Moss were to organise a second at the front.
(34)__________ (DANGLE) in mid-air from the helicopter cable, people who Moss was trying to save were being blown against parts of the ship by the strong winds as they were winched into the sky. There was no way of knowing how badly hurt they were and Moss (35)______________ (MOMENT) lost his nerve. But with so many people still on board, he realised he had no choice but to keep going.
In total, five helicopters joined the rescue mission, (36)___________ (SHUTTLE) back and forth, carrying 12 people at a time to safety as dawn broke and the darkness lifted.
(37)____________ (DRAIN) and exhausted, Moss and Tracy were among the last to be strapped into harnesses.
"As we were hovering above the ship it really hit me," Moss says, "I could see the Oceanos was in a (38)______________ (CRISIS) situation. We could see waves breaking over the bow where we had been rescuing people."
When the helicopter carrying Moss touched down on the grass, cruise passengers ran towards him singing and cheering, and reaching out to hug him.
"I started to choke up and sob," Moss says, "and then I collapsed."
On 4 August 1991, about 45 minutes after the last person on board had been airlifted to safety, the Oceanos slipped away below the water. Everyone who had been put into lifeboats was rescued by passing ships and (39)_____________ (REMARK) no lives were lost.
Moss and Tracy, who now live in Liverpool, continued working as cruise ship entertainers for many years. Even now, three decades later, Tracy prefers not to talk about the sinking or dwell on how close they all came to losing their lives.
But Moss, who's been asked about the Oceanos many, many times, finds it (40)____________ (CATHARSIS) to talk about. He looks back on what happened with great relief.
"I'm not invincible," Moss says, "but if I can get through that, I can get through anything."
There was an inquiry in Greece which found the captain of the Oceanos and four other senior officers (41)_____________ (NEGLIGENCE) in the ship's sinking.
KEY
1. guitarist
2. sinking
3. liner
4. musician
5. severe
6. alongside
7. gale-force
8. uneasy
uneasy: feeling worried or unhappy about a particular situation, especially because you think that something bad or unpleasant may happen or because you are not sure that what you are doing is right. Synonym: anxious. Sp. inquieto, preocupado.
E.g.
She had an uneasy feeling that something terrible was going to happen.
uneasy about something: He was beginning to feel distinctly uneasy about their visit.
uneasy about doing something: She felt uneasy about leaving the children with them.
9. entertainers
10. handrails
11. darkness
12. wild-eyed
wild-eyed /ˈwaɪld aɪd/ having an expression in the eyes of fear, anger, panic (= fear that prevents reasonable thought and action), or insanity (= serious mental illness).
E.g.
A wild-eyed look of desperation.
13. waterline
the waterline: the level that the water reaches along the side of a ship. Sp. línea de flotación.
The ship was struck below the waterline by a single torpedo.
14. docked
15. safety
16. tightly
17. sloshing
slosh: + adv./prep. (of liquid) to move around making a lot of noise. Sp. chapotear.
E.g.
The water was sloshing around under our feet.
18. watertight
19. announcements
20. qualified
21. pounding
pound: to hit something/somebody hard many times, especially in a way that makes a lot of noise. Synonym: hammer. Sp. golpear.
E.g.
pound at/against/on something Heavy rain pounded on the roof.
All she could hear was the sound of waves pounding against the cliffs.
Someone was pounding at the door.
22. torturous
torturous /ˈtɔːtʃərəs/ very painful or unpleasant to experience.
E.g.
a torturous five days of fitness testing
23. Eventually
24. possibly
25. Unable
26. remaining
27. Relieved
28. magician
29. urgently
30. disembarked
31. boarding
32. Whatever
33. airlift
34. Dangling
dangle: to hang or move freely; to hold something so that it hangs or moves freely. Sp. colgar.
E.g.
A single light bulb dangled from the ceiling.
35. momentarily
momentarily /ˈməʊməntrəli/ for a very short time. Synonym: briefly
E.g.
He paused momentarily.
She was momentarily blinded by the light.
36. shuttling
37. Drained
drained: very tired and without energy
E.g.
She suddenly felt totally drained.
The experience left her emotionally drained.
38. critical
choke up to find it difficult to speak, because of the strong emotion that you are feeling.
E.g.
She choked up when she began to talk about her mother.
sob: to cry noisily, taking sudden, sharp breaths.
E.g.
I heard a child sobbing loudly.
He started to sob uncontrollably
slip away to stop existing; to disappear or die. Sp. esfumarse.
E.g.
Their support gradually slipped away.
39. remarkably
40. cathartic
cathartic adjective /kəˈθɑːtɪk/ involving the release of strong feelings as a way of providing relief from anger, mental pain, etc. Sp. catártico.
E.g.
It was a cathartic experience
41. negligent
Adapted from:
Related stories:
BBC Radio 4:
Life Changing: Mayday: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m00162x3
Highlights:
Introduction
Lights go out: min 4. 40
Excerpt at the bridge: min 14.50
Finding the captain: min 19. 22
Helicopter rescue: min 22. 09
Documentary:
OCEANOS
Highlights:
14:00 Water bursts into the ship
25:00 Moss goes down to check the engine room
31:24 Water is rising quickly
35:30 Evacuation begins
46:30 Moss goes to the bridge
50:30 Helicopters arrive
1:05:20 Investigation into the sinking
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