Simple Swedish Podcast - #231 - Estoniakatastrofen (svår)

Episode Date: May 29, 2024

Nivå: B1-B2 Den värsta fartygskatastrofen för Sverige i modern tid är Estoniakatastrofen 1994. Under den här olyckan omkommer (dör) 852 personer och omständigheterna är minst sagt dramatiska. Jag var bara fem år då, men jag har ändå någon form av minne av händelsen. Det är en av dessa händelser som när du frågar någon så kan de komma ihåg exakt vad de gjorde när de fick höra om det. Här kommer några länkar för den som vill veta mer: Dramaserie om Estoniakatastrofen på tv4play Dokumentärserie som tvingade fram nya undersökningar av Estonias skrov (svtplay) Spellista på YouTube med intervjuer med överlevare Webbsida med hela händelseförloppet --- För att stödja podden och få transkript till avsnitten - bli patron för bara 5€ per månad – klicka här! Letar du efter en plats dit du alltid kan gå för att träna din svenska varje dag? Har du svårt att få tillräckligt med tid att PRATA svenska? Vi har löst ditt problem, och det heter The Language Gym! Klicka här för att läsa mer! -------------------- To support the podcast and get transcripts to the weekly episodes – become a patron for only 5€ per month - click here! Are you looking for a place where you can always go to practise your Swedish every day? Having a hard time getting enough time to SPEAK Swedish? We’ve solved your problem, and it's called The Language Gym! Click here to read more! ------------------- Instagram: swedish.linguist YouTube: Swedish Linguist Website: www.swedishlinguist.com Language Lock-in: https://www.languagelockin.com/ ------------------- Ett smakprov (sample) på transkriptet:   Hallå, hallå! Välkommen till Simple Swedish Podcast. Och idag har vi ett avsnitt om ett lite svårt ämne. Svårt både för att jag kommer prata lite snabbare, men också svårt för att det är lite allvarligt tema. Det är en fartygsolycka som kallas för Estoniakatastrofen. Det är den största fartygsolyckan i modern svensk historia. Det skedde för 20 år sedan. Det är lite av ett gemensamt trauma för Sverige, Finland och Estland. Så det är en viktig händelse som jag tänkte är bra att prata om, som också är väldigt intressant att höra om. Och eftersom den är lite svårare så kanske det är bra för dig att kolla in transkriptet till det här avsnittet, vilket du hittar på www.patreon.com/swedishlinguist.   Och ja, där blir man då patron, och då får man transkript till alla avsnitt. Och vi har några nya personer som har gjort det. Och det är Jen, Kinga, Jeanine, Mefodiy, O, Mahsa, Markus, Magda, Dominik.   Tack till er för att ni stödjer den här podden. Och jag tror nog att transkriptet kommer komma väl till pass för det här avsnittet. Först vill jag bara nämna en grej som heter The Language Gym. Jag tror att du har hört mig prata om The Language Gym förut. Så om du lyssnar på poddar, tittar på serier, du läser och så vidare, du får input och exponering på svenska. Men du kanske fortfarande har svårt att hitta chanser att prata svenska. Du kanske inte bor i Sverige, eller så är det bara helt enkelt för svårt att prata med svenskar. Och då är The Language Gym för dig.   För vi har grupplektioner varje dag med olika teman. Vi har folk från hela världen som du lär känna och pratar med. Jag är där och är lärare tillsammans med flera andra. Det är ett superkul och spännande projekt. Om du är intresserad av det, gå till www.languagelockin.com och klicka på Language Gym. Så, då ska vi prata om Estoniakatastrofen. Så natten till den 29:e (tjugonionde) september 1994 (nitton-hundra-nittio-fyra), det var då den här så kallade Estoniakatastrofen inträffade.   ....för att läsa hela transkriptet till detta och alla andra avsnitt, klicka här!

Hello, hello! Welcome to Simple Swedish Podcast. Today we have an episode about a difficult topic. Difficult both because I will speak a little faster, but also difficult because it is a bit of a serious topic. It is a vehicle accident called the Estonian disaster. It is the biggest vehicle accident in modern Swedish history. It happened 20 years ago. It is a common trauma for Sweden, Finland and Estonia. So that's an important event that I thought it would be good to talk about, which is also very interesting to hear about.

And since it's a bit harder, it might be good for you to check out the transcript for this episode, which you can find on patreon.com slash Swedish Linguist. There you'll be on Patreon, and you'll get a transcript for all episodes. And we have some new people who have done that, and that is Jen, Kinga, Janine, Mefoddy, Å, there is one who is called Å, Massa, Markus, Magda and Dominik. Thank you for supporting this podcast. I believe that the transcript will be a good fit for this episode. First, I just want to mention something called The Language Gym. I think you've heard me talk about The Language Gym before. So if you listen to podcasts, watch series, you read and so on,

so you get input and exposure in Swedish, but you may still have a hard time finding chances to speak Swedish. You may not live in Sweden, or it's just too difficult to speak Swedish. Then the Language Gym is for you. We have group lessons every day with different topics. We have people from all over the world that you get to know and talk to. I am there and am a teacher together with several others. It is a super fun and exciting project. If you are interested in that, go to languagelockin.com and click on Language Gym.

So, then we will talk about the Estonian disaster. The night of September 29th 1994, that's when the so called Estonian disaster occurred. The passenger vehicle Estonia sank in a difficult storm during its journey from Tallinn in Estonia to Stockholm. On board Estonia there were 989 people. At this disaster, 852 people were killed and 501 of them were Swedish. So 500 Swedish and a total of 852 people died in this catastrophe. So it is a very, very big and water came in on one of the boat, that you open up so that the vehicle can get in, so cars and trucks and so on. So that bookmark loosened during this storm and only 137 people survived. 137 people out of 989.

They have explained this area where the vehicle sank as a burial ground today. And I thought I would go through step by step how this happened. Estonia is a vehicle, a ferry, that goes between Tallinn and Stockholm. It has space for about 2000 passengers. It was at about half capacity. We start this at 9.15 when Estonia leaves the port in Tallinn. It blows fresh when Estonia departs from Tallinn to Stockholm at 19.15 on September 27, 1994. She is a quarter late and has 989 people on board. These passengers look forward to good food, drinks and dance. towards good food, drinks and dance.

Yes, none of them know that only 137 of them will survive this journey. And the weather report warns for a storm up to 21 meters per second. But now, at the beginning, it doesn't blow so and the passengers eat at the restaurant on the side. Everything is normal, no one is worried about the weather because the ferries are big and safe. And nothing serious has happened before. But only five hours later, the disaster will be a fact. Okay, now it's 22, at 22 o'clock. The wind is rising and at midnight it's a southwest wind of 18 to 20 meters per second.

So it's pretty strong wind and some some of the passengers start to get seasick. And here and there you hear people wheezing. Many people go to their huts and they lie down and sleep. Because it's a bit difficult to move on board. Because there are very high waves. But certain other people hang around in the bars and continue to party. And this weather, this sea level, they call it sea level,

how the situation is and how the weather is on the sea, and Estonia has only been confronted with such a hard sea only once or twice during its lifetime. So it's not a normal situation. The waves increase in size, they get bigger and the vehicle is turning more and more. The waves are high, the significant wave height is about 4 meters. And individual waves are significantly higher than that. A wave height of 4 meters is unusual in the Finnish Vik, it is called the difficult sea level. The Finnish Vik is the Vik between

Finland and Estonia, which the ship left. from. Then we are at the time 0055 and then the first strike comes. So at about 0055 the vehicle is hit by a big wave and a metallic strike is heard from the foreman. We have a passenger who tells us that we are sitting in the bar and singing and first we hear a bang and I think, oh, that must have been a very big wave.

And then we hear another bang and the boat crashes and I fall handlessly on the floor and many other passengers also fall on the floor and I think that now it is serious, now it is something that has gone to hell. So he tells that he heard the crash and then another one and he just fell on the floor. Many other passengers also do that and he thinks that something has happened. Then, within ten minutes, you hear something like an abnormal noise.

That is because the book visor is loosening from its fastener. And at 1.01.14 the bow visor falls off. So the bow visor and this ramp also falls The boat falls off and that means that there is no obstacle to the waves and large amounts of water just flows into the boat in the fore which means that it is on the sledge, so that it is leaning to the side. The vehicle gets a strong impact side and more water flows in. Some people can no longer move freely and they have difficulty getting out of their huts. The furniture and luggage sometimes block certain doors. So it starts to become chaotic.

We have a passenger who tells us that the boat got a lot of hits and he calls his friend that we have to go out as soon as possible, but it is difficult to get ahead because of the hits. He saw people who could not get out. We have a passenger named Ken Herärstedt who tells us this. There was a nice atmosphere in the bar, people were celebrating, people were laughing, people were singing. And then, in just a few seconds, it became total chaos. Suddenly, the boat just lands on the edge.

These people who work in the bar just get everything over themselves. A lot of people fall into the wall, they break their arms, they break their legs. And for a second, everyone just stands up. Everyone is just surprised. No one knows what happened. People just look at each other and just don one knows what happened. People just look at each other and don't understand what happened. That's what he tells. What happens is that the ship's side is increasing.

People are injured, people are bruised. Many people don't have any clothes on, because many have gone and put on. But people are starting to try to get up. Another passenger told me that she saw that some people were completely apathetic. She said that she saw a woman who was just standing in her trousers and just... What's happening? She told her that we have to get out. Some people just sat down.

Some people just fell. Some people just lay on top of each other. Some were naked. some were easily dressed. And this passenger said that she remembers that people didn't scream, but more just nodded, that nodding is like this humble little... Like that. ... So, well...

Okay. At 0-1-20... ...the engines stop. And another passenger tells us that... ...people tried to help each other in the beginning, organized. But people just got more and more desperate, and eventually it just became the jungle's law where you just think about saving yourself and it was the strong who managed to get caught in a flood and managed to get better conditions. And it is only now that you hear a alarm in the speakers, because before this, there had not even been any alarm.

And then there was a alarm, a kind of signal that you have to get up to the lifeboats. Estonia has 69 lifeboats, which space over 2000 people. So there is more than double as much space than what is needed for these 989 people. But the problem is that these lifeboats cannot be set up in the sea because the vehicle is looting so much. You cannot put these lifeboats in the ocean because the vehicle has so much impact. And it's so windy that many of these inflatable fleets just fly away. People fall here and there, people fall and break their legs. It's really chaotic. At 01.22, Estonia sends out the first emergency delivery, Mayday. So 01.22, half an hour after the first explosion, and eight minutes after the book visor falls off.

Estonia sends out Mayday, and a vehicle, Viking Mariella, responds to this call, but they do not receive any further response from Estonia. Then the last two main machines stop in Estonia, the lamps go out and the vehicle gets blacked out, there is no electricity. The windows are crushed by the waves and the vehicle takes in 20 tons of water per second, so it just pours in water. At 024, the second Mayday call comes, and another vehicle, Silja Europa, responds to this. But because of this blackout, Estonia cannot give up their position. And it's chaos on the boat, no one can leave the vehicle in orderly forms. And the people who have taken to the upper deck, they have difficulty getting on the life jackets. And then we have 01-29, then the radio is completely quiet.

So the last radio message from Estonia that is heard from other boats is the following. It looks really bad here now. It is the last radio message that is being sent from Estonia. 0135, the vehicle capsizes. 0135, Estonia is countering. That means it's completely on the side. It's on the dashboard side. The whole dashboard side is now under water.

And it's a passenger who tells, and this is what I thought was... I got some rashes from this story. He says that he's sitting on the side of the boat and it's like a dove signal rolling out over the sea. A low frequency sound, a dove sound rolling out over the sea from Estonia. The boat was on the side and was on its way to land. to lie down and down. And it felt like he was sitting on a big whale who knew it was going to die and gave himself a last, anxiety-filled comfort.

And then he said, then you felt small. Now it's just me. No one can help me. The whale I'm sitting on is dying and is sinking. I mean... Yeah. A passenger told me that he and another person helped each other to climb through the fence. Because this fence, which is on the side of the boat boat became a kind of roof rack. It became an obstacle that you had to get through to get up on the side of the boat.

They helped each other to climb through the fence to get up on the side. Then they jumped together down into the water. He told me that he was stuck in some kind of line and was pulled down in the depths and he felt that now was my last moment. But it was not because he survived survived and could tell you. Estonia sinks at 0-50. So after 55 minutes after the first hit, Estonia sinks and disappears into the depths. The last people on the boat end up in the water or are dragged down with Estonia. Mariela, the boat that had taken up the first emergency call,

arrives at the accident site 22 minutes later. Then comes Silja Europa. There will be different boats, but it is almost impossible to save people because of the weather. Because it is stormy, high waves and a lot of wind. They have a very difficult time saving people and they need to wait for assistance. Most people are actually saved by helicopters. The first helicopters arrive at 05.00, which is over an hour after Estonia sank. Helicopters from Sweden, Finland, Estonia, Denmark arrive.

The rescue work continued all night. The last people were rescued at 9 a.m., which is eight hours after Estonia sank. In total, 137 people survived from the almost 1,000 people who were on board. Most died of cooling, that is, that you get too cold in the water because it is September and the water is not particularly warm. And the reason for the loss of the vehicle was that the construction and locking mechanism for the bow visor was simply too bad. Plus the ship was too fast.

And yes, this ship was simply too fast for the high and strong waves. And yes. And after this accident, there was a lot of debate about whether to bury the ship and the people. But it was discovered that it was not the right thing to do. and the people. But they realized that they shouldn't do that, instead they should consider the sea as a grave. Both the Swedish and ethnic governments came up with the same result. They decided that the wreck would be protected against possible plunders. So this...

A wreck is this vehicle that is on the bottom. That place is protected and considered a grave site. So yes, as I said, the most difficult vehicle accident in Swedish history and one of them, accident in Swedish history, and one of them in modern history. And one of the most difficult in modern European history, in the time of peace, I would say. Not during the war,

because then, of course, much more things happen. But, yes, so this is a pretty... It's a very, of course, very horrible and sad event that is important to know about, perhaps. So, yeah, I hope you've appreciated this episode. As I said, if you have a lot of input and exposure to Swedish, but have trouble finding the time to actually speak Swedish, or if the time is too advanced,

then Language Gym is for you. So check it out, languagelock-in.com Thanks for listening, see you soon! Take care!