The captain and crew of the Sabuk Nusantara ferry to its recent owners on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi did the job and more.
The massive red and yellow ship bounced like a basketball as a robust earthquake shook the region and landed in front of a row of homes within the village of Wani, hurled by tsunami waves that the crew said reached 15 meters or more.
Per week after a 7.5-magnitude quake and tsunami struck central Sulawesi, the ferry’s captain and 20 crew remain on board waiting for an assessment team to reach and choose whether the ship, with its propeller protruding above the marina, might be refloated. to the ocean.
During interviews on the bridge, the captain, second-in-command and petty officer recounted minutes of chaos and sheer panic as no less than 10 other ships twisted and collided, and the rapidly retreating tide – a sure sign of an approaching tsunami – sucked the Sabuk Nusantara away from the pier.
“It was just sudden,” said the ship’s second-in-command, Jona Johanes. “We felt the ship move like a bouncing basketball” because the quake shook the region.
The double disaster that hit the town of Palu and other settlements left greater than 1,550 people dead, roughly 70,000 people left homeless and buildings along the coast of Sulawesi destroyed. The city of 380,000 people experienced days without power and water, dry gas stations and a slow flow of aid.
The ferry, inbuilt 2014, moored near Wania because the state-owned company that owned it was delivering it to a brand new owner. It was also unexpected because there have been no passengers on the 63-meter vessel.
It was just sudden. We felt the ship was behaving like a bouncing basketball
Captain Edy Junaidi said the tide receded about seven meters immediately after the quake and he believed the tsunami wave reached a height of 10-15 meters. Petty Officer Imat, who uses one name, said 20 meters, while Johanes estimated it at 15-20 meters.
Their accounts exceed the best estimates of disaster officials, who say the wave might have been six meters or more, on condition that the person survived by climbing a tree. A tsunami warning issued after the quake predicted waves of up to 3 meters.
Johanes was in his cabin turning on the TV when the earthquake struck just after 6 p.m. on September 28. There was a “strong shock”, the sunshine bulb fell out and the air conditioner fell to the ground, he said. By the time he reached the deck, an enormous wave was approaching and the pier had collapsed.
In the last one to 2 minutes, the panicked crew donned life jackets and released all but certainly one of the ship’s mooring lines – the leading line on the front of the ship – which was incredibly tight because the tide went out, forcing Imat to the petty officer to let it go.
“There is no doubt that as a human being I am panicking,” Imat said. “However, we must realize that this is a natural phenomenon. This is God’s will and we sing: God is Great. But without forgetting our position and our duty.
To the crew, the sudden drop in water level was astonishing and it seemed as if the Earth was rising.
“I saw the earth rising higher and higher. It was so high. Then I saw that the pier had collapsed. It was chaotic. I saw a wave, a dark, high wave. I can’t imagine it,” Imat said. “The ship floated all the way back and only then did I realize it was the water that had receded.”
Johanes, who was on the bridge when the wave hit, braced for the collision with the damaged pier.
“I held on. I thought they would throw us out when we hit the pier. That’s when I realized we weren’t kicked out. We were flying,” he said.
The time that passed between the tide receding and the tsunami hitting was “only a matter of minutes,” Imat said. “Maybe it lasted three to five minutes. It was really fast.”
Initially, the crew didn’t realize that they’d been thrown ashore since the ship remained surrounded by water after being lifted and pushed forward through the rough seas.
In hindsight, it was a “smooth” landing and the ship gave the impression to be completely undamaged, Imat said. Captain Junaidi estimated that the ferry was currently roughly 50 meters from its original position within the port.
“We all panicked,” Johanes said. “We have a plan to leave the ship, but we are waiting for the captain’s order. The captain managed to calm us down.”
“We will abandon ship if necessary, but ultimately the ship has not gone anywhere. After 30 minutes we saw solid ground around us. We realized it wasn’t the ocean around us. It’s solid ground,” he said, days later still reflecting on the hardships the crew experienced.
They told dark jokes about their experiences and seemed content to wait for a ship that had none of the deficiencies that characterized nearby villages.
“We can get off the ship, but where? There is no market in the area. Shops are still closed,” Johanes said. “And just a few days ago there was looting in the realm. So we do not know where to go if we come right down to earth.
This article appeared within the print edition of the South China Morning Post as: The ferry crew talks in regards to the horror of the tsunami
