It was in early May 2001 when Silver Linde via friends in Tallinn indicated that he would be willing to talk to Jutta Rabe which finally took place somewhat later before running camera. During the interview he also declared his preparedness to be questioned in court by a lawyer on behalf of the German ‘Group of Experts’. This took place in the court of Espoo (near Helsinki) on 08.11.01 and the translation of the recorded interrogation is attached as Enclosure 16.
Since the interview is not yet published only those parts shall be quoted below which are also covered by the interrogation before court and the statements of Silver Linde have been arranged as to the following subjects which follow the time sequence:

1. The last watch in Tallinn on 27.09.94 from 10.00-14.00 hours.
2. The time from the beginning of his last watch at sea at 22.00 hours to the pick-up by helicopter.
3. The various interrogations and the forced change of his time.

In detail:

1.   The last watch in Tallinn on 27.09.94 from 10.00-14.00 hours.

• My watch was from 10.00-14.00 hours and 22.00-02.00 hours also in port, i.e. all the time.
  
  
• On the last day in Tallinn the laundry truck was driving on to the ferry. They came every day the Saamaa laundry company and changed the laundry here on the ferry. And then, right under the visor some kind of work was being done, there was a truck with a crane and a certain platform like a basket where a person can stand and work in high places, I don’t remember who was working there. Well, you see, it was some kind of work that was done every summer. Well, rust was covered and painted. At least when I left that place at two o’clock the truck was still there under that visor. I saw a certain commission approaching. A team of three members, one of them was a fat man ... yes, at daytime. The boatswain was very nervous, he was running about and said: “You see, that damn commission wouldn’t let me run my own business!” He had to find some lubricants and cables and was running to and fro, I was on duty then, I was scratching ... well, I was painting those inner bulkheads on the car deck.

That truck, that crane was there all the time, I think that there weren’t any, even the garbage truck didn’t come that day. The visor was open all the time.
The truck was still there at two o’clock.

2.   The time from the beginning of the last watch at sea at 22.00 hours to the pick up by helicopter.

• I went up around ten and well, there was a heavy storm, a heavy storm at ten already. It was blowing so hard that wind-screen wipers could not wipe water from windscreens. Waves, waves were coming like … well, the water flushed over the ferry between the bridge and the chimney. Well, the chimney was hardly seen in the spray. And the commission was on the bridge, Piht was there and others, well, I don’t know. I didn’t recognize anybody else. They were standing and then Andresson, I remember it was Andresson who said that it was practically the first storm that autumn, I was there, but there were people from the commission and I stood in the corner, I looked out of the window not to disturb them. Well, at half past ten I started with my routine rounds and that was it.

Then I went down to the car deck by foot. Well, it was shaking and I was wearing a white shirt and I tried not to touch the cars not to make my shirt dirty. I was walking in a normal way and went to the bow visor. Well, where the control lamps and everything like that, also the control strip was located. Well, the bow was all empty. There were no cars in front of the bow ramp; the cars started from that place where the car deck was divided into two parts. Well, the left and the right. The bow up to that part was empty. I went there to do my routine check and I heard a bang, I went closer and well, I heard nothing more, I phoned the bridge and said I had heard a strange sound. I had been on the ferry for a year and I had never heard a sound like that.

It was like this: the ferry went up and then started to descend and then – upraised very abruptly, like taking off, then started to fall back but somehow it couldn’t descend as ships usually do in waves. It descended a little and kind of threw it up again and I was loosing my balance, I almost fell down, finally I gained my balance again. Yes, at that time there was … well there was a kind of bang. It was strange because there were no cars nearby. If I had been further away I would not have heard that at all. The sound seemed to come from a truck container as if something had gone … But I was over there by the (bow ramp) when I heard that sound.
I was here on the left side, this is the left side. I was on the left side. 
On both sides there are doors that are used to get into the inner parts. There are doors and staircases leading to the forecastle deck and to B-deck like this. It is possible for anyone to go into those inner parts.

Chains of the anchor are there, boxes with the chains of the anchor are in those parts, chains and the anchor itself are right here. No, it was not the sound of the chains of the anchor .. that sound …  it was not the sound of the chains of the anchor.

It was like full metal against full metal. It must have been in a small room because it did not chime. It lasted a moment behind the bow ramp. This is the bow ramp I was standing … here comes the wall. Here is the door leading to those rooms. I was done and I turned around and then the sound came from the side when I was turning around, it was shaking for a while and then the ferry was upraised and then started to descend and was upraised again so that I almost lost the balance, I barely regained the balance. The sound came somehow from alongside.
It was upraised and then rocked a little. As soon as it started to descend it was upraised and then I heard that sound.

It was rocking, I cannot say directly that an explosion is … somehow strange. I have outlived those .. storms, several of them … well, several storms but that was like … well something different.
I started to check, well, I went into those rooms through the doors, I didn’t climb up, I only checked down there. If it had made a hole underneath or something like that … When I heard that sound. All those rooms were at water level. If the water had come in, well, I would have noticed, well, it was between the car deck and those walls. Well, there was no other such place, I was there almost five minutes, I would have noticed if water had come in from some place. Well, but somehow the hole is here and the ferry listed on this side several times. It never listed to the other side. It didn’t go to the other side. It was thrown to this side and back again and to this side again.