"How could a pilot run a ship onto the rocks, in his own water, in clear weather?"
Sergey Gusev, Second Mate aboard the Mikhail Lermontov
The Mikhail Lermontov was a Russian cruise ship that sank on the 16th February 1986 off the coast of New Zealand. Named after Mikhail Lermontov, a famous Russian poet, she was one of five sister ships built by the Soviet government's Baltic Shipping Company. Her four sisters were also given the names of Russian literary giants. She was launched in 1972, and weighted in at 20,351 tonnes. In the 80s, she underwent a $30 million refit to make her suitable for the luxury cruise market, offering all the comfort and convenience of a small town at sea. The hull was also specially strengthened to break ice, should the need arise. The need never arose; in the Northern Hemisphere's summer she would sail out of Leningrad around the Norwegian fjords. Before winter would set in, she would sail to Sydney and spend the Southern Hemisphere's summer cruising around the South Pacific.
The journey out
She sailed out of Wellington harbour at midnight on the 15th February 1986 with 408 passengers and 330 (mostly Russian) crew. The itinerary was to call in at Picton the next day after crossing the Cook Strait, and then to sail along New Zealand's South Island's east coast, passing through the beautifully picturesque Queen Charlotte Sound, before sailing up the west coast and back to the North Island across the Tasman Sea. At each port of call she would pick up a local pilot to guide the vessel through local waters. The guide into Picton and through Queen Charlotte Sound was Captain Don Jamison, the Marlborough Harbour Master.
The Russian ship's captain was Vladislav Vorobyov, who was a very experienced seaman of many years. Overall responsibility for the ship's welfare lay with him, but a certain amount of trust and deferment had to be given to the local pilot when navigating unfamiliar water. While sailing into Picton on the morning of the 15th, both Capt. Vorobyov and his navigator held their breath and crossed their fingers while Capt. Jamison directed that the Mikhail Lermontov be piloted through the narrow Tory Channel into the Queen Charlotte Sound. This was an unusual manoeuvre for a ship the size of the Mikhail Lermontov to make; it would have been far safer and easier to bring her into the Queen Charlotte Sound through the Northern Entrance. All the while that the ship was moving through the channel, Capt. Jamison gave clear and precise orders to the helmsmen. It was obvious to Capt. Vorobyov that this pilot was not only familiar with this area; he was also a very confident seaman. This was a judgement that he'd regret making.
Elsewhere on the ship, the passengers were in the business of being busy enjoying themselves. The ship was a veritable entertainment centre, with five bars, numerous shops, a swimming pool, a cinema (showing Gremlins, The Goonies, Beverly Hills Cop, The Never-ending Story and other popular films of the time), a library, gymnasium, sauna, the Bolshoi Lounge for evening cabaret, and the Leningrad Restaurant. There were also a variety of activities provided on board to occupy the passengers: squash; deck tennis; various art and crafts classes; and tours and talks about the local areas amongst other things. Many of the passengers were elderly Australians, but there was a range of nationalities and age-ranges aboard. None of them were expecting the events that were to unfold.
On the 16th, the Mikhail Lermontov once again put to sea out of Picton to go explore Queen Charlotte Sound, an area of the Marlborough Sounds, which are a collection of islands and channels of the northern coast of New Zealand's South Island. Capt. Jamison was once again at the helm, and as the weather forecast was agreeable, he was skirting the shore to give the passengers a tour of the local area. All the while that he was piloting the ship, he was also using the public address system to talk about the local scenery, history of, and points of interest in and around Shakespeare Bay and Ship Cove. However, not all was well; twice Capt. Vorobyov was forced to speak out when he felt that Capt. Jamison was too close to the shore line; the Mikhail Lermontov was a large ship, and she had no business being any closer to land than she had to. However, despite his newfound misgivings about the abilities of the pilot, Capt. Vorobyov stepped off the bridge to change clothes for dinner and left Capt. Jamison alone to navigate the ship out of Queen Charlotte Sound and around Cape Jackson. Considering the ultimate responsibility of the ship and its crew and passengers lay with himself, Capt. Vorobyov was a fool to leave his ship under the control of a man whose skills he was starting to doubt.
Bad judgement call
In a move that has left many since shaking their heads in confusion, Capt. Jamison decided to that, instead of piloting the ship around the lighthouse at the end of Cape Jackson, he would steer the ship through the narrow channel between the lighthouse and the Cape. This was not a course that had been planned, and the Russian crew on the bridge could see the line of white water in the channel that signified either a shallow area or opposing currents, both of which were perilous. They appealed to Capt. Jamison to change course, but he assured them that there was no need to change course and to full speed ahead. The Mikhail Lermontov struck a rock in the channel at 17:37, at her full speed of 15 knots.
A local showed me a map of Cape Jackson and the channel where the Mikhail Lermontov met her fate. To quote him: "As you can see, it's theoretically possible that a ship the size and weight of the Mikhail Lermontov could navigate through the channel unharmed; the same way it's theoretically possible to park a car in a garage at a speed of 80mph. You just wouldn't want to do it."
And the band played on...
The first the passengers knew of the accident was when the ship began to list to starboard. A wine-tasting class was being held in the Bolshoi Lounge at the time, and all the glasses slide off the table. An announcement was made over the tannoy that dinner was to be served late that evening, and the band played on. The Mikhail Lermontov was taking on water, and so all the water-seal doors were shut to prevent the boat from sinking any further. Capt. Jamison sent out a 'Mayday' to Wellington harbour, and a furious Capt. Vorobyov arrived back on the bridge to find that all was not well with his ship. He and the crew made the decision to put the ship aground on a beach in Port Gore on the other side of Cape Jackson. He then, inexplicably, cancelled the mayday distress call, and requested salvage assistance instead. He later said that he didn't believe that the ship was badly damaged, and that it would be possible to repair and refloat it once it had been grounded and the passengers evacuated.
They failed to reach the beach, but did manage to run her aground on a sand bar. Inexplicably, again, he then failed to deploy the ship's anchors to ensure that she stayed grounded; he later explained that because they were still in 12m of water, he didn't want passengers to think it was safe to jump off the ship to swim for shore, which was still too far away. Whatever the reason, the rising tide meant that the ship did not stay grounded and floated back off into deeper water. Another mayday call was put out.
A hard day's night
Thanks to the extraordinary efforts of the Russian crew and Marlborough Sound locals, all the passengers were evacuated off the ship before it sank. It was a long, fraught night, with families and loved ones divided and worried for each other's safety. In the end, only one crew member went down with the ship; a refrigeration engineer called Purvee Zaglyadimov. He was last seen going into the decks going about his normal duties ten minutes before the ship hit the rocks; it is assumed he drowned when the water seal doors were closed to prevent the ship taking on anymore water.
The Ship itself sank at 22:45, rolling onto her starboard side and slipping into the water with a great roar of tortured metal and escaping air that I'm sure still haunts the thoughts of those who witnessed the spectacle. Bubbles of air continued to escape to the surface for hours after, along with deckchairs, personal luggage and anything else on the ship that wasn't fixed down and could float.
The aftermath of the sinking was a melting pot of accusation and rumour. Why had the Ship's course been altered? Why had the mayday call been cancelled? Why had the Captain of the ship not been on the bridge? An inquiry was launched to look into the disaster by a Captain Ponsford on behalf of the New Zealand authorities. He concluded that the accident was the result of a 'sudden decision', and that no further investigation into the incident was merited. The fact that Capt. Ponsford was the best man at Capt. Jamison's wedding wasn't considered to be a conflict of interest; neither was the fact that according to the Ship's log, there was more than enough chance for the skipper to change his mind and avert disaster.
The Soviet government's inquiry was much more thorough. It found fault with the Russian crew for failing to stop Capt. Jamison from piloting the ship so dangerously. In particular, it was felt that Capt. Vorobyov should have remained on deck to keep a closer eye on the pilot, especially considering his earlier concerns regarding his competency. Capt. Vorobyov was officially reprimanded and stripped of his sea-going qualifications. The inquiry concluded that the principle cause of the loss of the Mikhail Lermontov was the reckless piloting of the ship by Captain Don Jamison though the Cape Jackson passage. Capt. Jamison himself has never commented on the incident.
On the bright side
It's not all bad though. The scuba diving community rubbed its hands with glee when it heard of the wreck; lying at 40m, she is easily accessible by recreational divers, and because she hasn't been stripped of salvageable objects, there is a veritable treasure trove of things to find down there. Sadly, three more people have already been claimed by the wreck of the Mikhail Lermontov; wreck diving is potentially very hazardous and not to be entered into lightly. In fact, scuba diving is a potentially hazardous activity full stop, as I discovered. I had my first (and I really hope last) diving accident while diving on the Mikhail Lermontov. The diaphragm in the secondary stage of my regulator perforated at 27m as I reached the wreck on the first dive, giving me a lungful of seawater. This, of course, caused me to choke and take in ANOTHER lungful of seawater. Not fun. Thank-god for alternate second stages; one emergency rapid ascent later and I was on the surface: choking, vomiting and bloody pissed off. My own fault though, as I had noticed it was leaking while I was descending. I was very lucky that it perforated before I entered the wreck; I shudder to think what would have happened to me had I been inside at the time. I was also lucky not to end up bent. Still, we learn from our mistakes, though the learning process can sometimes prove fatal.
The ship is first encountered at 27m, its white hull suddenly appearing through the water. On a good day, visibility is up to 16m; on a bad day you've practically hit it before you see it. I managed to dive it on a great day with 20m visibility; I could see the tanks of those already down on the wreck while I was still in the dive boat. It's lying on its side, and once you're in the wreck, it's very easy to become disorientated as to which way is up. After I'd amused myself swimming in the swimming pool and sitting down at a table in the Bolshoi Lounge, I had a look around the bridge with all its instruments. Because we were diving on such a good day, we were able to take a much closer look than people are usually able to. We found a book with Russian type; a crate of Coke cans; an ashtray; and a pair of waterproof trousers, which we threw back over board because they stank. We kept the rest, especially the book; none of us could read Russian, but we assumed it was probably a Bible from the thickness, and the presence of notches down the side. It also stank, but it was too good a relic to throw back, so we stuck it in a tub of seawater to be dealt with later.
So, a relic of the past visited. A lesson in dive safety well learnt. All in all, a good day's diving.
References
- Guerin M, 1998, "The Mikhail Lermontov enigma : facts after 12 years of speculation!", 1st edition, Chartwell Unternehmen
- O'Connor T, 1999, "Death of a cruise ship : the mystery of the Mikhail Lermontov", 1st edition, Cape Cately
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