In September 1957, the West German barque "Pamir" (with a displacement of 3100 tons), driven by a fresh wind, with a cargo of grain headed to its native shores - to Hamburg. He was returning from Buenos Aires, and on board were 86 people - 35 crew members and a group of cadets of the nautical school. On the Pamir, they passed their first maritime practice.
The morning of September 21 was gloomy. At about eight o'clock, the wind suddenly increased noticeably and abruptly changed its direction. Still nothing foreshadowed a catastrophe, the sailing ship was, as they say, a solid "vessel", it more than once came out with honor and from more serious troubles and trials. The wind, meanwhile, was gaining strength, inflated the sails and turned them into giant hemispheres.
Captain Johannes Diebitsch was an experienced sailor who devoted 46 years of his life to the sea. Having received a report of an impending hurricane, he decided to force the ship with sails in order to quickly get out of the path of the hurricane. However, this maneuver became fatal for the Pamir. The center of the hurricane unexpectedly overtook him, and the wind hit from the leeward side. The sails lay tightly on the tops, shrouds and forduns.
Furious waves raised by the wind hit the ship, heeling heavily to the port side. A few minutes later the handrails of this side disappeared under water. The roll soon reached 30-40 °, and huge waves rolled freely over the deck of the sailboat. The cargo of grain in the hold moved to the port side and the sailboat capsized.
The situation was becoming extremely threatening, and the captain decided to send a distress signal - SOS. There was no particular panic on the ship yet, but the atmosphere was oppressive. Many sailors have already ceased to hope that the Pamir will straighten up. Then the captain ordered to distribute life jackets to everyone.
Dividing cigarettes and groceries among themselves, the team began to make their way to the lifeboats. However, it turned out to be not so simple and it was difficult to break through. Three boats on the port side were completely submerged. And the starboard boats dangled so high on the raised deck that there was no way to lower them. Then the sailors rushed to the rubber rafts, two of which were also flooded. Only on the remaining three rafts, a few lucky ones managed to get away from the dying Pamir.
At that moment the captain gave the order: “Everyone, leave the ship! Stick together!”- and the sailors began to jump into the water from the inclined deck. The waves, like falling mountains, fell on the dying people, holding onto various debris. To the side could be seen the inverted hull of the "Pamir", and about ten people still tried to cling to it in the hope that the sailboat still would not sink. Not far from him dangled a half-submerged boat, to which several desperate sailors headed against the waves. Among them was Hans Wirth, one of the few survivors, who later wrote about the shipwreck and the sailors' struggle for life.
However, getting to the boat was also not easy. Whenever the waves closed over the heads of the sailors, it seemed to many then a miracle that they would resurface and remain floating on the surface of the sea. But, greedily gasping for air, everyone continued to move towards the goal. Fortunately, by the blows of the waves, the boat drove to Hans, and he grabbed the gunwale. Following him, nine more people managed to get to the boat - their only hope of salvation. There were no oars in the boat, but under one of the seats people found a small bag of canned food and a small barrel of fresh water.
Promotional video:
While sailing, many of the sailors threw off some of their clothes. There, in the stormy sea, she interfered, but now they sat in the boat half-naked and clanged their teeth from the cold. The boat dangled wildly up and down, and from the crest of one of the big waves they saw their Pamir. The rest still clung to its hull, but after a few minutes the sailboat disappeared forever under the water.
There was no one around, only the endless deserted sea … Only once a lifeboat appeared in the distance, in which they could see twenty people, but they did not notice them. Soon she disappeared, and the sailors were left face to face with the angry sea. It continued to rage furiously, and one of the waves hit the boat so hard that it turned it over, and everyone was back in the water. Desperately floundering, they with difficulty restored it to its former position, and pretty much tore off their hands and feet on the sharp edges of the boat. Soon the salty sea water began to eat away at the wounds.
To maintain order, the sailors chose from among their elders, Karl Dummer. He had been swimming for six years and was among the others a "sea wolf". In order to somehow raise the spirits of his depressed comrades, he made available a bottle of gin hidden in his pocket - their only remaining treasure. Dummer decided to keep the last sip, but the oncoming wave knocked the bottle out of his hands, and it disappeared into the raging sea.
And then night fell - the first terrible night after the shipwreck. Without food and water (the barrel was lost when the boat capsized again), half-naked, frozen, already exhausted, they, however, tried to suppress their growing despair and preserve faith in salvation. Moreover, the wind died down and the sea became calmer.
People began to feel sleepy, but suddenly a light flickered in the distance. It was so obscure that at first it even seemed unreal. And all the same they all jumped up, rustled and screamed like madmen. They were, indeed, almost insane. Two even wanted to throw themselves into the water to swim to the ship. But Dummer held them back, because salvation seemed so close. However, the waves completely hid the boat, and only occasionally did the heads of the people appear above their crests. Finding the boat under such conditions was completely impossible. Searchlight beams fumbled somewhere high above them, and … soon the lights disappeared into the darkness of the night. They were alone again! Several more weary hours passed. Everyone was dozing or had already simply fallen into a drowsy numbness. The head of one of them, Shinagel, hung strangely on his chest, and indeed his whole posture looked unnatural. But it was not a dream:the cold and desperate struggle with the waves broke him, and all efforts to bring Shinagel back to life were in vain. Now there were nine of them in the boat … And then it started raining. They all sat with their mouths open and their tongues out to catch at least a few life-giving drops of fresh water. Dummer forbade drinking seawater, because it can cause a delusional state in a person. But soon the sky cleared and the rain stopped.
Before dawn, another of them could not stand the torment. Holst was very weak: his head was shaking powerlessly from side to side, and he could no longer get up without help. And soon there were eight of them …
The dawn brought no relief. The sea was still deserted, the cold sun sometimes peeped out from behind the clouds, but it could not warm them. One of the sailors - Anders - had the idea to keep warm while floating around the boat. But as soon as he jumped into the water and made several energetic waves of his arms, someone suddenly desperately shouted: “Anders, back! There is a shark! They quickly dragged Anders into the boat and made a noise, trying to scare off the approaching monster with shouts and thuds. However, this did not make the slightest impression on the shark. She circled around the boat, looking at people with small evil eyes and poking her nose into the side. But then she suddenly disappeared.
At about eleven o'clock, the outline of a tanker appeared in the haze of the horizon. Then people pulled off the remnants of their clothes and began to wave them, trying in every possible way to attract attention to themselves. The sailors waved until they had cramps in their hands, but the tanker did not notice them, turned to the south and after a while disappeared. The exhaustion of the exhausted people was so great that no one had the strength to express their despair. All were depressed and silent.
At exceptional moments in life, the human brain begins to work in an unusual way. Hans Wirth later recalled that in those difficult hours, when death lurked them every minute, he was most forced to fight for life by the desire to keep his word - the word he gave to his eight-year-old sister Mika. She had pestered him for a long time with a request to take her to the circus. She even wrote about this to her brother in Buenos Aires, and he replied that they would definitely go to the circus together. As soon as he returns …
Now this promise seemed to him the most important in his life. “I can't deceive Mickey, I have to show her the circus,” Hans kept repeating, and this somehow supported him.
The second night came - the same cold, hopeless and painful. Everyone was so weak that they could hardly hold even while sitting. The skin, eaten away by salt, was white and hung in rags at the sites of bruises and wounds. Little blond Meine began to rave - he looked almost a boy. Shouting "I'm going to the captain!" he threw himself into the water. From the darkness he heard his mad laugh, and then everything was quiet.
Seven … Then six …
By this time, they had almost all half lost their minds, and soon hallucinations began. Tempting pictures began to appear before sore eyes. “Look! Someone suddenly cried out. "We are approaching the ground!" And now the long-awaited land appeared in front of everyone's eyes. The shore and the people waving their handkerchiefs were clearly visible … Klaus Dribelt fell overboard in a half-sleep, and the current carried him into the distance. He soon disappeared into the waves.
On the third day, a ship appeared from the fog like a vision. But no one even got up, because none of them believed their eyes: this, of course, is another hallucination. However, no! A man stands on the deck and waves his hand. And so the boat was lowered from the ship, and she was heading … God, she really was heading for them!
Almost not believing their happiness, they again felt the solid deck under their feet. They were given hot broth to drink, injected with penicillin, smeared with ointment and put to bed. Then from Casablanca they were sent by plane to Frankfurt am Main, and from there each of the five went home, where he found himself in the arms of relatives and friends. Later they learned that, besides them, another sailor had escaped. He was picked up by an American coal miner.
Hans Wirth, as soon as he finally recovered, fulfilled his promise first of all …
From the book: "HUNDRED GREAT DISASTERS" by N. A. Ionina, M. N. Kubeev
