Rescue of mv Oceanos Cruise Liner

The Oceanos was a Greek registered ship, en route from Cape Town to Durban on a pleasure cruise. Early in the morning of August 4th, 1991 the Oceanos encountered adverse weather conditions and rough seas. The vessel began to take on water, an SOS was sent soon after, and she started to sink.

All the passengers and crew aboard (571) were saved through the use of liferafts and by waves  of 16 South African Air Force helicopters, a dramatic rescue operation  in appalling conditions.  It is amazing that not one life was lost,  making it  one of the largest and most successful sea rescues ever performed.

The first helicopters started airlifting at 7am completing  225 people when the last survivors were rescued at 11.30am of that morning, a mere 25 minutes before the ship sunk.

The scale of lives saved can also be credited to the actions of a husband and wife team from the ships orchestra and a magician. In the apparent absence of the vessels crew, these three individuals took it on themselves to send the SOS and then organise passengers to muster stations and into lifeboats and, later after the most rudimentary instruction from SAAF rescue divers, getting people into strops for winching off the deck.