Estonia
Stephan was only 21 years old when he found himself on the ship that fateful night in 1994. “I was an international truck driver of fruit and vegetables, which I drove to Russia. Every week the same story and the same route, via Estonia and Sweden. We always had a fixed number of Dutch drivers. But not that trip. One was unlucky, the other had gone to help him. A friend of mine was on holiday. This time, we, Tom and I, were the only Dutch drivers. It was a standard trip, nothing special.”
At night, disaster struck: the Estonia was caught in a storm. “The weather was really bad. Everything fell off the table. It wasn’t a normal storm. The paintings were going up and down. The further you got from the harbour, and therefore more out at sea, the worse it got. I was in a cabin with Tom. I was in a bunk bed, but at one point I was on the floor. I thought: this isn’t going well. This is bad business.”
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Ramp
Stephan decides to leave the cabin. “I opened the door and saw water pouring in. There was panic, people were screaming.” He tries to get to the top of the ship. On the way he sees the most horrible things. “I saw an elderly couple, a man and a woman, sitting on the stairs and holding each other… waiting for the end. I saw people sliding from one side to the other, falling through glass doors. Everyone was screaming and crying.”
He eventually manages to get hold of a life jacket. “I was in doubt: should I jump or not? But I saw people jumping and not coming up again. And it was pitch dark, because everything had failed. The wind and the waves made a huge noise. At that moment there was also no help nearby. I thought: now it’s over, I’m drowning.”
