A8-Sunday News, October 12, 1980 Scary moments unt FROM PAGE Ai As seasoned travellers, the Speirs groped in the dark for some warm clothes before leaving their stateroom, but numerous of the older passengers fared less well, emerging in nothing but their sleeping attire and even without shoes. By this time the instruc- tions had been changed and passengers were told to assemble on the main deck. For the next hour or two, said Ken, there were further assurances that the fire was under control and that heli- copters “with additional fire- fighting equipment” were on their way. “We were never told to take lifebelts with us,” he added. Meanwhile, the remaining deck lights failed, leaving the vessel in total darkness. About 3 a.m. the order was given to abandon ship. The Speirs confirm earlier reports of crew members, mostly Indonesians, pushing their way into the lifeboats ahead of the passengers. “That was the one thing that made me pretty mad,” said Ken. Their own boat, with up to 100 people on it, was badly overcrowded. “You virtually had to crawl over people to move at all,” he explained. But luckily the storm of the previous evening had sub sided and the stars had come out. They made the water safely, but there were some scary moments when the pulley blocks from the davits jammed and the lifeboat could not be immediately detached from the holding ropes. Eventually the were freed, though not before the boat had smacked three times into the hull of the Prinsendam, and they were able to pull away. MUSCLE-POWER The boat had no engine — only a muscle-power propel- ler operated by hand levers. Cora helped with the “rowing” for the next 10 hours. The scantily clad pas- sengers suffered from cold and spray, and many of them, together with crew members packed into the overloaded boat, were sick much of the time — though the Speirs’ stomachs sur- vived. It was around noon that they first saw the helicopters and the laborious business of lifting passengers and crew, one by one, from the life- boats on the to U.S. super- tanker Williamsburgh began. “It was the same _ story again with the crew mem- bers,” said Ken. “Numerous - of them pushed and fought their way over the pas- sengers to be first to get into the basket lowered from the helicopter.” Apart from that, both he and Cora had high praise for the way the operation was blocks carried out. The only mishap was when a “grand old lady” in her eighties fell over- board, to be promptly rescued by a frogman. By 1 p.m. they were safely aboard the tanker. The next day they landed in Valdez where they spent a night in a crowded local hotel before flying back to Vancouver Tuesday afternoon. But even the lucky Speirs have been left with their problems — though you'd never guess it, listening in their elegant living room to their calm, often humorous account of the near-disaster. Aside from the warm gar- ments they managed to pull on in the dark, they lost everything. “Including all our best clothes,” said Cora, “because you take a lot of things with you on a long cruise like that.” Nevertheless, their ap- petite for travel hasn't been dampened. “One of our first “~4 ®@ | lifeboat cut free THANKFUL TO BE SAFE HOME, West Van's Ken a nd Cora Speirs — the only B.C. passengers on the ill-fated cruise liner Prinsendam, gutted by fire last weekend in the - Gulf of Alaska. (Noel Wright photo). “ny jobs now,” said Ken,"is to get downtown and apply for new passports.” Garbage problems FROM PAGE A2 He says that industnes create waste and have to dispose of it one way or another but that nobody will talk about it. Meanwhile he thinks politicians are dodging the issue by merely banning the dumping of such _ things without there being an Thanksgiving CARPET SPECIALS ae Sale ends Oct 25/80 alternative. 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