1st Deck
Silver Linde : He heard and felt only one crash when he was on the car deck, i.e. about 15 minutes before the heel.
Margus Treu : He heard and felt two or three impacts which were not caused by waves and then the heel came.
Henrik Sillaste : He felt three impacts not caused by waves when he was working and then the heel followed.
Jaan Stern : Immediately before the heavy heel, what he thought were waves beating very hard against the vessel, then silence and then the vessel fell on the side.
Neemi Künno Kalk : Woke up from a loud rushing sound.
Ulla Marianne Tenman : Some time before the casualty heard several hard bangs and something beating against something. Later (when she was up on the 7th deck) she heard a heavy bang and the vessel heeled to starboard.
Carl-Erik Reintamm : He suddenly heard two strong, strange noises, some-thing like scraping noises which came from below (like ice scraping along the vessel's bottom), shortly later the vessel fell on the side.
Carl Övberg : He woke up suddenly from the strong noise of rushing water which he could hear from both sides, but loudest from starboard side; these noises alarmed him;
- in addition he heard quite strong metallic banging noises which definitely had not been there before; he sat up in bed and put his feet on the floor, since the bed was athwartships he was facing the door looking aft;
- he lit a cigarette and listened attentively to the strange and frightening noise scenario;
- after a little while he suddenly heard the starting up noise of an hydraulic pump or pumps followed by the clicking of valves and then the typical noise created by an hydraulic system under load;
- simultaneously he heard the banging of sledge hammers or something like that;
- the noises came probably from forward;
- the hydraulic under load noise faded away and came back again whilst the sledge-hammer banging noise more or less continued. Both the hydraulic noise and the sledge-hammer banging noise continued for ca. 10-15 minutes whilst the other banging noises, then heard already for some 20-25 minutes, also continued;
- the hydraulic noise and the sledge-hammer noise stopped with a short, sharp metallic crash which gave him the impression that something heavy, metallic had broken:
- after a 'silence' of 30-40 seconds the next really extreme crash followed in connection with an abrupt stopping of the ferry which was so 'sudden' that he was thrown against the front wall of his bed; it was a short, sharp intense crash as if the ship had struck against something or was struck by something;
- he jumped out of his bed and put his clothes on very quickly when he realised that all the engine noises had stopped and that the ferry was now making much softer pitch movements; this must have been at about 01.00 hours, ca. 1-2 minutes later the vessel heeled very wide to starboard.
Holger Wachtmeister : Woke up by a scraping noise and a hard bang - the scraping noise continued - left cabin and heel.
Ain-Alar Juhanson : Woke up from heavy metallic bangs. Thereafter the vessel heeled to starboard.
Martin Nilsson : Something was frequently heavily beating against the vessel; 10-15 minutes before the big heel he heard scraping noises, i.e. cracking and scraping; the strong scraping noise was continuously heard also while the big heel occurred.
Jan Gustavsson : "Now we have run aground." So clear and distinct was the noise.
Daniel Svensson : At each pitch movement something was beating against the hull "as if somebody was hammering with a big stone".
Jasmina Waidinger : Heard banging noises which were abnormal, then she heard a rushing sound (water), then heard strong noise above her like something big and strong moving from one place to another; next came the heel.
Bengt Nilsson : Could not sleep because of something frequently beat-ing very heavily against the hull. Later heard roaring squeaking, shrieking and scraping followed by a metallic breaking noise from starboard aft.
Ants Nadar : Woke up due to hard banging noises.
Andrus Maidre : Just before the heel metallic scraping noises and the moving/falling of a heavy object; - just before the heel he heard crashing and banging noises, something like a truck toppling over.
Tambet Herbert Lausma : Woke up from loud rumbling noises.
Ints Klavins : Woke up from a dangerous (evil) noise, such as metal scraping against the bottom.
Gennadi M. Pärson : Heard an unusual, strange noise - had the impression that something like a barrel was rolling against something.
Dainis Sleiners : Heard low indefinable, strange noises before the heavy bang which woke him up completely.
N. Andrejev : Felt extremely hard bang and was thrown against the cabin wall before he was thrown out of his bed due to the big heel; he was unable to identify from where the bang had come, but it felt as if the vessel had collided with something and at the same time came the excessive heel.
Deck 4
Anders Ericson : Ca. 01.00 hours suddenly heard two heavy bangs, one straight after the other which came from nearby his cabin.
Einar Kukk : Heard a strange noise which was very unusual and alarming to him.
Mikael Öun : - Heard continuous banging noises for a long time;
- heard 2-3 severe scraping noises;
- heard a particularly loud bang;
- heard 3 heavy scraping noises from forward, one after the other and the heel followed.
Eckard Klug : Heard many bangs which he had never heard before; then heard one extremely heavy bang, so heavy like breaking of a thick steel plate.
Tony Spuhl : Heard an enormous crash and the whole vessel was shaking/vibrating;
then 2 metallic noises - klonk - klonk - directly after the bow was setting into the waves; then the same noise 3 times, then a rushing noise below his cabin which came from the car deck;
heard the rushing sound once more and big heel.
Morten Boje Jensen : Heard continuous "small banging noises", then 3 bangs, one after the other.
Anneli Konrad : Woke up from a crash and the vessel's shaking.
Wanda Wachtmeister: Could not sleep and suddenly heard one crash or loud bang, a heavy loud noise of the type that made you realise that something is wrong. It came from the bottom of the vessel - a clear distinct "boom" - not rattle.
Marek Kaasik : Heard metallic noises from the upper decks, then the vessel's whole construction was shaking and then the heeling occurred.
Magnus Lindström : At midnight he heard strange noises which came from the car deck, something was rolling over the car deck; then he heard one heavy bang and the vessel heeled.
Kerim Nisancioglu : The vessel began to roll equally in the waves from side to side and he assumed that the seas did not come anymore from ahead, he did not feel the engine, in connection with the rolling the vessel heeled to starboard and he heard something sliding over to starboard below them - some large object - then came the heel.
Hannu Seppänen : Sometime just after midnight he felt an unusual shaking/vibrating in the vessel's hull and a little later came the heel.
Deck 5:
Birgit Eriksson : Woke up by noises indicating that steel was knocking against steel almost immediately followed by the heavy heel.
Leif Bogren : Heard at about 00.40/45 hours for the first time the unusual bom-bom noises, which repeated, next came an enormous VROM-BOOM followed by a CRASH and the engines stopped - ca. 1 minute later starboard heel; subsequently Bogren gave an additional explanation: - the sound was like somebody beating with a sledge hammer against vessel's hull; - he noticed the noise three times within 2 minutes, - the noises came from forward port side and below.
Pierre Thiger : 15 minutes before midnight (Swedish time) when he heard 3 bangs with 15-20 seconds in between, metal to metal and thought it was a collision, the ship was shaking and vibrating differently than before, shortly afterwards he noted that she was pitching more, but made much slower and deeper movements, there were no more bangs but suddenly he felt vibrations in the aft ship which made him think that they had turned the stern into the sea and the pitch was on astern, he could not see anything out of the window, he felt the vibrations from the propeller (glasses were clinking) and then he heard the strange noise: A very low noise and simultaneously the pitch movements stopped as if a wave had struck under the stern, then all vibrations stopped and in the same second she continued to pitch again, however, without any noise (i.e. with 0-pitch or stopped engine), for about one minute she was only pitching, then pitching and rolling, and then only rolling - she made two full swings - more to starboard, less to port, and the third time she heeled over deep to starboard, did not right up again and then fell abruptly to about 40°/45°, this was just before midnight (Swedish time) and came almost back to upright position.
Deck 6:
Per-Erik Ehrnsten : - Tried to sleep, but was kept awake by hard noises created by the ferry slamming into high seas, however what kept him awake, in particular, were the indefinable shocks, which deviated from the normal noises of the ferry,
- the shocks and the noises repeated themselves indefinably, regularly 4-5 times. "Tong-tong, tong, tong"; noise, short pause and the same again,
- he got up and started to dress when the ferry suddenly heeled to starboard and the furniture was sliding against the door,
- the mentioned noise came from below and from forward,
- the noise was not caused by the sea and also was not a sudden sound like an explosion but it was regular, each unit - tong, tong, was equally strong, a little pause and the same regularity,
- it was no impact noise (collision, grounding).
Marianne Ehn : Lots of noises in the vessel woke her up, she asked her husband for the time and it was 00.00 hours (Swedish time);
- something was beating heavily against the vessel;
- shortly afterwards the vessel was diving into a deep wave trough, there was a heavy bang - the vessel heeled severely and the engines stopped.
Mihai Turdeau : In the casino he suddenly heard a strong metallic noise followed by 3-4 bangs one after the other which appeared to come from down below - heel.
Deck 7:
Peeter Tüür (2nd engineer) : Heard metallic bangs apparently caused by objects hitting against each other.
Andres Verro (reefer engineer) : Heard strange metallic noises.
Aarne Koppel (car deck worker) : Heard a low breaking sound.
Elmar Siegel (motorman) : 3-5 minutes before the heel he heard noises like someone beating against the vessel's hull with a large hammer - it sounded as if the vessel had hit something with the bow.
Andres Vihmar (purser) : Heard - what he believed were heavy seas - beating against the vessel's bow.
In summary of the above it can be concluded, that
(a) the noises heard and observations made by the survivors depend on the deck they were on and whether they were forward or more aft on that deck; the survivors from decks 1 and 4 (forward part) having been closest to the action heard more and more detailed noise scenarios than those from decks 5 and 6;
(b) there had been heard low banging noises from the foreship area already during the evening hours which had continued all the time.
(c) some survivors have noted that the vessel behaved differently at about midnight;
(d) all survivors having testified in this respect had heard and felt either one - two - or three major bangs, crashes combined with shaking/vibrating of the vessel shortly before the big heel - even Ulla Marianne Tenman on the 7th deck.
(e) since 10-15 minutes before the big heel some survivors from the 4th deck, but in particular those from the 1st deck, heard very clear and distinct "scraping sounds" from below, a noise which is heard when a vessel runs aground or proceeds through ice. The noises continued even after the heel;
(f) about 15 minutes before the heel, 3 sharp metallic bangs were heard with 15-20 seconds in between and thereafter steel knocking against steel noises respectively metal against metal noises or sledge-hammer noises or stone against the hull noises were heard which ended in the 2 or 3 big crashes shortly before the heel;
(g) hydraulic noises were heard by one possibly two passengers on the 1st deck, which were clearly identified by one passenger and explained by the other to sound like roaring, squeaking and shrieking and which were combined with the sledge-hammer noises and ended together with them in the first of the two major crashes shortly before the big heel;
(h) some survivors from the 1st deck had heard rushing water sounds about 30 minutes before the heel and later again, and then shortly before the heel also survivors from the 4th deck heard sounds of rushing water from the car deck;
(i) some survivors from the 1st deck and 4th deck had heard something heavy and large "rolling - moving" on the car deck to starboard before the big heel;
