Cruise Liner on Fire: Typhoon Incoming

Real Survival Stories

On October 4th, 1980, 48-year-old John Graham, a former US Foreign Service officer turned cruise lecturer, survives a catastrophic fire aboa

Key takeaways

• Calm decision-making under extreme stress can be life-saving even when survival seems unlikely.

Main topics

• Survival at sea
• Hypothermia and human endurance

Notable quotes

"We are in waves that are 30 feet high... I'm beginning to realize that this is an adventure that I may not survive."

Conclusion

John Graham's survival was a combination of luck, preparation, and men

Transcript preview

Speaker 3 (0:02) It's the afternoon of October the 4th, 1980. 140 miles off the coast of Alaska, the sky lowers ominously as strong winds whip and heavy rainfall beats the surf. The sea bucks and sways. Gargantuan waves seem to grow like monsters rearing up towards the murky sky. The timing of this savage storm couldn't be worse. In the middle of the gathering squall, undimmed by rainfall, a thick column of smoke stretches up into the heavens, fed by hungry orange flames. The M.S. Prinsendam is on fire. The blaze crackles up from the bowels of this commercial cruise liner. Only four days ago, it left Vancouver, carrying over 300 passengers and 200 crew, bound eventually for Japan. Around the flaming vessel, lifeboats tumble in the choppy waters. And aboard one of these tenders, wet through and shivering in the arctic air, 48-year-old John Graham clings to the gun for dear life. With a sudden lurch, he lifts himself up, leans over the side of the lifeboat, and vomits into the surf. Speaker 4 (1:16) We're seasick as dogs. We have been from the beginning. But more to the point is that we're all suffering from hypothermia. Now, I've been in mountains a lot. I know a lot about hypothermia. And the way it works is you get really cold. But then, oddly enough, you start feeling warm again. And you go to sleep. And you don't wake up. Speaker 3 (1:37) They were warned of a coming typhoon. Now it's here. Speaker 3 (1:42) John and the seven others on board his life vessel are drenched and freezing, dressed in nothing but their bedclothes, clinging desperately to a dwindling hope of rescue. Speaker 4 (1:53) We are in waves that are 30 feet high, and that's like going up and down on a small boat, up and down the height of a six-story building. The winds are hitting 60 knots, and the lifeboat is rocking and rolling, and I'm beginning to realize that this is an adventure that I may not survive. Speaker 3 (2:19) Ever wondered what you would do when disaster strikes? If your life depended on your next decision, could you make the right choice? Welcome to Real Survival Stories. These are the astonishing tales of ordinary people thrown into extraordinary situations. People suddenly forced to fight for their lives. In this episode, we meet John Graham, who at 48 years old has already lived more lives than most. Formerly of the US Foreign Service and the US State Department, John is now working as a lecturer aboard a cruise ship, the MS Prince and Dam. But on the night of his first talk, four days into the cruise, a fire tears through the commercial liner and more than 500 people are forced overboard. Speaker 4 (3:04) I managed to crawl all the way back up the ship to lifeboat number two. It says on the side that the lifeboat is meant to hold 45 people. Almost 90 are waiting for that lifeboat. People are really getting scared. He fell over into the ocean. Well, it's like in the Titanic. You've got, what, five or ten minutes and you freeze to death because there's ice water out there. To make matters Speaker 3 (3:27) worse, helicopter rescue soon becomes impossible. And John and his fellow survivors must face down a typhoon with nothing but a metal dinghy between them and the roiling deep. As the hours tick by, seasickness and hypothermia aren't their only concern. For John and his companions, time is running out. Speaker 4 (3:48) The real factor that's important is light. The odds on us being found by a Coast Guard cutter are small enough with a bit of daylight left in the storm. But we don't have any lights, no flares, no radio, of course. And it's going to be dark in 45 minutes or an hour. Once it gets dark, we're dead. Speaker 3 (4:06) I'm John Hopkins. From the Noiser Podcast Network, this is Real Survival Stories. Speaker 3 (4:36) It's the evening of the 3rd of October, 1980. In the main dining room of the cruise ship MS Prince and Dam, cutlery clinks, cocktail glasses chink, and the band strikes up for waltz. Waiters clear dessert plates, and the smell of coffee wafts through the large, ornately decorated hall. With dinner coming to an end, the evening's entertainment glides seamlessly from speeches to the more physical business of dance. Couples of all ages rise, take each other by the hand, and shuffle smilingly onto the rapidly filling dance floor. One particularly strapping gentleman catches the eye. Standing six and a half feet tall, his shock of perfectly quaffed dark hair clearly visible above the sea of white and grey, dashing 48-year-old John Graham is having a ball. Speaker 4 (5:29) It's funny because I hadn't realized this, that the shipping company, they're no fools. They didn't only want me to give these lectures. They knew that I looked really good in a tuxedo, which I guess in the day I did. And that part of my job was to waltz little old widows with blue hair around the ballroom and chat them up for the whole summer. I quickly realized that was part of my job too. Speaker 3 (5:53) Dressed to the nines, John Beams, still high on an adrenaline rush. He's just given his first lecture, and judging by the number of women now asking him to dance, it was a success. His own companion on the ship can't get a look in right now. Instead, she watches from a nearby table with a smile of embarrassed pride. The Princeton Dam is four days into its journey to the Far East. There are more than 500 people on board, passengers and crew. So far they've enjoyed the frigid beauty of the Alaskan coastline and are now 140 miles into the North Pacific. It's a long way to Japan. There'll be many more nights like this. Outside, the prow of the ship continues to plow through the dark, icy depths. Within, a glassy-eyed, lightly perspiring John decides to call it a night. Speaker 3 (6:47) He retires to his cabin and is soon snoring contentedly, but he isn't asleep for long. Speaker 4 (6:55) About midnight, there's a loudspeaker voice over the intercom system, and a voice says, we're very sorry, wake you up, but there's been a small fire in the engine room, and we put the fire out, of course, but unfortunately, there's a lot of smoke in the ship, and we're going to have to use fans to clear the ship of smoke, and we urge you all to please come up to the ship's lounge. We'll be serving free drinks. Speaker 3 (7:21) For a moment, John sits in bed, perfectly still. He cocks his head, considering. Then, with a yawn, he rolls over and goes back to sleep. Speaker 4 (7:31) The voice did not seem at all panicked or anxious. To hell with it, we can deal with a little smoke. And about 20 minutes later, the voice comes back on. This time it wasn't so placid. And it says, no, please, please, you have to come up to the ship's lounge now. And so, okay, fine. Speaker 3 (7:47) John's large frame moves with reluctant stiffness. He stands and goes across to the cabin door. Speaker 3 (7:55) Still yawning, he opens the door and is immediately forced backwards, coughing and spluttering, squinting through an invading fog. Speaker 4 (8:03) Sure enough, the corridor outside our stateroom is full of smoke. Speaker 3 (8:08) Wafting the smoke with his hand and stooping to avoid the worst of it, John hurries into the corridor, straight into a dead end. Speaker 4 (8:16) The fire door just forward of our cabin had automatically slammed shut. This is the main route we use to get up to the deck. Speaker 3 (8:26) With this much smoke, the fire must still be burning somewhere on the ship. A small voice pipes up beside John, asking what he thinks they should do. John's jaw tightens. He's been in dangerous situations many times before. But this is different. This time, he isn't alone. Speaker 1 (8:51) I'm Julie Andrews, and it is my great pleasure to return to Jane Austen Stories. This time, I'll be reading another beloved classic, Emma. Join me as we step into the village of Highbury, home to the handsome and clever Emma Woodhouse. But as new visitors arrive and quiet mysteries unfold, what will our strong-willed heroine learn? both of the secrets of others and of her own heart's desires. Listen to Jane Austen Stories now wherever you get your podcasts. Speaker 3 (9:33) This September on the Noiser Podcast Network. On Jane Austen Stories, Dame Julie Andrews continues to bring Austen's beloved classic, Emma, to life. On Short History Of, we're in medieval England for the fascinating story of the Peasants' Revolt, and 25 years on from 9-11, we're on the ground in New York City. On Real Survival Stories, we're on a luscious winery in Northwest America, and venturing into a missile silo in the dead of night as the U.S. is threatened with nuclear disaster. And in Sherlock Holmes short stories, get two episodes each week as Hugh Bonneville explores Conan Doyle's great novel, A Study in Scarlet. Get all of these shows and more early and ad-free on Noisa Plus. John grew up in Tacoma, Washington State, near the Canadian border. It was a quiet city and he enjoyed a quiet childhood. albeit one not without its difficulties. Speaker 4 (10:33) In middle school and high school, I was badly bullied. So it was a pretty miserable mid-teens and teen age for me. Speaker 3 (10:43) Trying to move on from a tough time at school, John quickly threw himself into another challenging environment, though this one was very different. Speaker 4 (10:50) I actually got a job working on a freighter. Freighters in those days, this is like 1959, were not container ships. They were just big ships, and they were run by 50 or 60 really tough guys with muscles and tattoos and everything. They took one look at me. at this scraggly, know-nothing kid. They said to themselves, wow, we've got life lessons to teach this kid. Speaker 3 (11:16) Work on the freighter took John to the Far East, where he learned about the world in ways he could never have imagined growing up in suburban Tacoma. His time with the ship's crew toughened him and gave him an appetite for thrills and adventure. He spent his college holidays hitchhiking around Europe. And it was while in Switzerland, as he was preparing to climb the Matterhorn, that something caught his eye. Speaker 4 (11:42) I picked up a newspaper in the youth hostel, and it said that there was a war going on in Algeria, and that a bunch of rebels were trying to take control of the country from the French colonials. And I said to myself, wow, a war? I'd never been in a war before. Speaker 3 (12:00) With all the naivety of youth, John hitchhiked to Morocco and walked across the border into Algeria. He wore an American flag on his chest so as not to be mistaken for a Frenchman and shot on sight. He was picked up by rebels, who turned out to be surprisingly welcoming, even helpful. They secured John lifts wherever he needed to go, albeit in a manner that was less than polite. Speaker 4 (12:26) The rebels were really kind to me. They would stop cars going in my direction at gunpoint and then tell the driver to take me