that's "nbc nightly news" for their cruise ship. >> my mother said to me, karen, do not get back on the ship. >> more like the titanic. >> he was going, may day, may day, may day. >> and that's when they knew their luxury cruise was officially over. >> right down below now, there's water everywhere. >> water everywhere, but the captain and some of his crew, they'd headed for the lifeboats. >> there was nobody up on the bridge. >> nearly 600 people on a sinking ship in waters notorious for sharks with waves threatening to sweep them away. >> all i heard was mommy, moment, mommy help me. >> and their best hope of survival. >> they said, lorraine, you're

the captain. >> the least likely band of heroes you will meet. >> what rank are you? i'm not actually a rank. i'm a tourist. >> "miracle on the wild coast." captions paid for by nbc-universal television good evening and well in to "dateline." i'm ann cur pep you bring a camera on the vacation to capture the good things. theyened capturing something quite different. the final hours of their ship as it sank. as far as we can tell no other sinking did be recorded by so many cameras as it happened and yet not many people even know the story of oceanos and what it tell us us about human nature. it just may be the most incredible disaster at sea you've never heard of. here's keith morrison. ♪ ♪ ♪ we get it right sometimes, this puny species of hours when we dream up a name for a place and this one is perfect.

in south africa, the wild coast. jagged cliffs tower over fickle seed and untucked beaches shimmer in the sun light and african eden, magnificent, unspoiled. but look at beauty and beware. great white sharks prowl beneath violent storms that batter the rock-studded coast, whipping up waves so massive they swallow ships whole, spitting out their rusty hulls on nearby beaches, the wild coast is a nautical graveyard. >> there's a natural order of things and it seems like there always has been a rule to follow among souls and jeopardy of disaster at sea. women and children first is the rule. it was born not 160 years ago off this very coast when a ship called the birckenhead went down and 400 gallant men went with it, so the women and children could use the few lifeboats available.

the natural order which was about to be broken on a modern cruiser off the very same coast. it was a glistening july day, mid-winter in south africa, in the port city of durbin, an aging cruise ship called the oceanos was heading out to sea. this moment the start of a seven-day sail from durban to cape town and back again with selected ports of call along the way. on deck were vacationers from around the country, camcorders running and happy anticipation. and to look back at this now after it happened. knowing what terror these same lenses would soon record. feels oddly like snooping. here they are smiling, alive, unafraid. there were, for example, gerta walton and her just retired

husband george, keeping a long-ago promise to celebrate more than 30 years of happy marriage. >> he always said he would take me on a boat trip and we were looking forward to it. >> karen winter was excited, too. she'd been on a cruise when she was a little girl, now married with two kids of her own, the chance for some time away with her husband was too good to pass up. >> sometimes you have to escape from your children, right? >> absolutely. you know, your cruise is always the clothes and get out the eveningwear. >> and you were thinking it would be just like the one you were on when you were a little girl? >> yes, i did. >> and at first, it was. the sun, the teaming buffet and the nightly stage shows, comedy, music, magic. robin boltman was one of the magicians onboard. so tell me about the kind of magic you do. >> i'll show you one. i'll show you a little trick. to get a nut off anything. >> yes?

hey, that's pretty good. but suddenly the magic of the trip vanished. it was the half way mark, the weather turned. a vacationer was filming as the oceanos churned out of capetown to an ugly sea. >> you couldn't believe the size of the waves. it was very, very scary to watch. >> then as it retraced its route back up the coast to durban, the oceanos heaved and lurched through massive sails some passengers in the lowest desk began to complain of a rancid sewage smell. >> it wasn't just a light odor? >> no, it wasn't. >> lorraine betts locked horns with an engineer and fix it, she demanded. >> what kind of cruise director are you? >> i was a dragon, really. really. i was very young. >> you were not a shy, retiring girly type. >> no. no. >> her job? to see to the entertainment and well-being of the passengers and deal with the captain and staff of the ship. >> put your hands together for

captain yiannis of a rans on as. >> but that task would not be easy, as she introduced herself to captain yiannis avranas. >> i put my hand out and i said, captain avranas, i'm lorraine betts the cruise director. good afternoon. and he looked up at me and he said if you want to talk to me, you address me as god. >> god. >> so i did a sweeping bow, and i said good afternoon, god. i'm lorraine betts -- >> near the end of the week-long cruise the oceanos plowed into the harbor at east london, not to wait out the weather, but to take on more than 100 additional passengers. a home video camera caught the ship at its berth as they made their way aboard to the final night at sea, 200 miles up the

wild coast to durban. the sky dark, and the wind skuted across the deck and whipped white caps off the shore and passenger karen winters' mother phoned she'd had a premonition. >> my mothered to me, karen, do not get back on the ship. i said, mom, we're having a wonderful time. i watched the weather and the weather looks bad and i have a bad feeling. please, don't get back on. but anyhow, i didn't listen to her. >> sandra palmer was worried, too. she and her husband were just joining the ship. one night at sea was a special surprise for sandra's three small children, one a baby, but at the pier, the oceanos was hardly the resplintent ship you imagined. >> what you expected was a big, ship. >> yes, a vessel. >> the phrase her husband used was rusty tub. let's go and head for the beast. >> the oceanos was due to sail at 4:00 p.m., the hour came and

went as captain avranas watched the weather. it kn it got worse. now a decision, sail tonight or wait out the wild coast storm? around 5:00 p.m. the captain made his decision. the oceanos headed out to sea. as it turned out, that was the wrong decision. >> there's water everywhere. when "miracle on the wild coast" continues. vo: life can be rough from time to time.

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♪ compared with some of the cities at sea that ply the world's ocean, the greek cruise ship oceanos was less than half the length of the queen mary 2, 500 feet from stem to stern, seven decks, two lounges, a dining room and eight lifeboats and now as she steamed out of east london harbor on an overnight sail off the coast of durban, south africa, she carried 571, living breathing human beings many rolling video cameras. a vicious gale awaited but the captain had a schedule to keep. proceed, he commanded. >> are you enjoying the last couple of days? >> the entertainment began as the cruise got under way, a diversion as the oceanos pitched and rolled as the roaring wind ripped the aung off the pool deck to hurdle into the sea. sandra palmer sensed something was a miss had when she and her family reached her cabin. >> we smelled sewage, and it was

terrible. the cabin absolutely wreaked of sewage. >> out at sea now it was time for the captain's gala dinner, cocktail dresses, suits and ties. pas karen winters struggled from keeping the food from falling off the table. >> we were all basically falling out of our chairs because it was rough. >> so rocky, but festive still. a last night of fun, as some passengers staggered toward the lounge and guitarist moss hills seen here and though he played through plenty of storms began to wonder, is it safe to go on? >> some of the chairs had fallen over and there was a piano onstage that broke free, crashed into the drum kit on one side and suddenly i thought, this is getting worrying now. ♪ >> still, this was show business, no storm could shut them down. and then 9:30 p.m., a passenger was filming the show when in a single moment the oceanos lost all power. >> i want you to imagine if you

can -- passenger pete neiman and his own son peter were in the lounge. >> there was a thus and the lights went out. >> cara walton and her husband george were below decks in their cab cabin. i opened the door and there was this steward taking out life jackets and i said to him, what's going on? what's happening? he said lady, you better get upstairs quickly. >> in her office lorraine betts could feel the ship was dead in the water. she grabbed her radio and rushed up seven flights to the bridge. she was stunned when she came upon one of the senior officers. >> here was this staff captain screaming into the emergency radio, may day, may day, may day, and he was going frantic. i felt myself get very calm, and there was the captain, and i said, what's going on? and he just looked at me.

it was like the lights were on and no one was home. >> back down in the lounge, the emergency lights flickered on, a buzz of nerves went around the room, anxious looks. guitarist moss hills and robin boltman took the stage to try to keep the passengers calm. we were singing songs, keeping them happy and there were a few strange noises above us and one of the guys came to me and said do you know that they're moving the lifeboats over the side. >> lifeboats? now they were spooked. around 10:00 p.m. moss ran up to the bridge where he heard the startling news. the oceanos had lost power in the engines, the captain said, and everybody would probably have to abandon ship. >> i said, wow! are we sinking? no, we're definitely not sinking, we'll do it as a precaution, and i said it's the middle of the night in a very bad storm. okay, fine. he's the captain, i'm a guitarist. what do i know? >> well, they waited for further

instructions from the captain. cruise director lorraine betts, she's the one in the green windbreaker had the entertainers assemble all of the passengers in the loifrj and hand out life jackets and then they waited and waited. >> i kept expecting something to happen, maybe an officer in white will stride into the room and take charge and say, all right, this is what's happening, but nothing happened. >> moss, who doubled as a cruise videographer wanted to know what was going on. his camera was with him as he went below to find out. >> as i was coming down the stairs i could hear water. >> there in the stairwell, five floors down, the unthinkable. >> and right down below now. there's water everywhere. it looks like it's flooding in recently fast and it's sloshing about from side to side. >> i literally could not believe it. i now know we're in deep, deep trouble. >> i guess we're going down. >> why they were flooding he did not know, but it was obvious. sooner or later this ship would sink. >> i went to my cabin.

i shut the door, and my legs started shaking. i've been in some situations, but i knew this was real. i knew it. >> and then lorraine got hold of herself and she says ran back up to see the captain. >> i asked the captain a few times, how closer we to the shore? here's the radar, can you show me? and nothing. nothing was coming from him. >> he just shut down? >> he shut down. >> it was, give or take, 11:00 p.m. lorraine called together her staff including magician julian butler and told him to quietly start moving women and children toward the eight lifeboats, but to their surprise, some of the boats had been commandeered by the ship's crew. >> some of them had their jackets and suitcases and bags and everything, and i went to the staff captain and i said what about passengers and he said bring ten. i said that's all? >> ten passengers in lifeboats

designed to hold 99 souls. >> what comes to mind? >> women and children and get them on. get them on and they're saying no, we're full. we're full. >> were they full? >> no. they weren't full. there was more than enough room to get everyone on the lifeboats. >> the crew was aware of the simple mathematical fact, if they left in half empty lifeboats there would not be room in the rest of the boats for all of the passengers. back inside the lounge mother of three sandra palmer was shocked when the entertainer started ushering her and her children to the lifeboats. >> i thought, we'll have to get off the ship now. where are we going to? who's waiting outside for us? >> reluctantly she allowed herself to be led away from her husband and she and the children stepped out on deck. the gale, torrent, the rain was freezing and the lifeboat was swinging away from the oceanos and crashing back against its side. bewildered and terrified sandra

watched as her two sons were shoved into the boat. i thought there goes my boys. >> they're there and you're on the ship? >> yes. >> 11-month-old lisa was next. >> i remember someone actually forcing, grabbing my baby out of my arms and throwing her to a lady in the lifeboat. >> finally, sandra managed to leap aboard herself and reclaim baby lisa, and she and her children were lowered into the towering waves and swept out into the blackness of the storm. coming up, a band of unlikely heroes takes the stage. >> they said what rank are you? >> i said i'm not actually a rank. i'm a guitarist. >> when "dateline" continues.

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the oceanos was in trouble, battered by a huge storm off the wild coast of south africa, a place notorious for deadly sharks. it was now dead in the water apparently sinking. at 11:00 p.m. a terrified sandra palmer climbed into a lifeboat with her two young sons and 11-month-old baby and out in the dark, riding colossal swells it only got worse. >> one minute we were riding the

crest of the wave and the sea at that stage was 15 meters high. >> 45-foot waves. >> yes. yes. >> and then the people were starting to get sick, like, really getting sick. in the boat, over the side, on one another. there was no dignity. they were just getting sick everywhere. >> sandra clutched baby lisa to her chest, shielding her from the wind and the waves. then to her horror a breaking swell swept 9-year-old jonathan into the sea. >> all i heard was mommy, moment, mommy help me! save me, mommy! and everybody was screaming saying, please someone save him as her son floated away, a fellow passenger lunged once and then twice and then finally caught hold of a life jacket strap and hauled him back from certain death. by midnight back on the oceanos, most of the officer his abandoned ship. many crew, too. >> the first officer, the second officer, the third officer, nobody's there. no officers.

not one. >> it was clear guitarist that the fate of everyone still aboard rested on the shoulders of lorraine betts, her staff of entertainers and the ordinary seamen who stayed behind when senior officers left in the sea worthy lifeboats. >> it was the cruise director, myself as the guitarist and the magician who seemed to be doing everything. >> including the dismal business of separating frightened families. magician robin boltman remembers husbands sending we'ves and children to an uncertain fate in the lifeboats while they remained on ship, perhaps to drown. >> you can see the face of the wife looking at him, him looking at her. is this our last look? our last kiss good-bye? >> inside the lounge, the remaining passengers, hundreds of them, confused and anxious now huddled on the floor and there, gerta's husband made a fateful decision. he and his wife would let others board the lifeboats first.

>> i trusted him because i know he knows what's best for us, so i was quite happy to wait. >> karen winter was waiting in the lounge as well where some of the entertainers tried to keep a sing song going. >> the one woman was singing with me and she was told to shut up. >> that's what they sang on the "titanic." that's right. >> the last star board lifeboat was away. the entertainers and cruise director led everybody to the port side where they began boarding the final three lifeboats and made an awful discovery. >> the ship was now leaning over so far that the lifeboats wouldn't slide down. they were stuck on the side of the ship and then we realized, we've got no more lifeboats and a couple hundred people left onboard. >> ross headed to the ship to find the captain, but when they arrived. >> there was nobody up on the bridge. just a voice on the bridge saying oceanos coming. oceanos coming. >> and the room was empty?

>> not a soul. >> rob and lorraine took turns sounding the s.o.s. through the handset. its captain hit them with a barrage of questions. >> how many hours have we got left to float, and i said to them, i don't know. try and estimate. i said i've got no idea, and he would say, well, what rank are you? i said i'm not actually a rank. i'm a guitarist. it's the entertainment team running the rescue. >> the captain, it turns out, was still on the ship, but according to lorraine betts only because she and one of her staffers happened upon him as he tried to hop into a lifeboat with his dog. i said jordan, we each took a grasp of the strap on his life jacket and held him back. >> wouldn't let him get in. >> i pulled him to the side while the others continued going on. you don't want to create a panic situation, and then we catch him twice more trying to get into other boats. eventually we take him back to

the back deck, and leave him there and he stood there holding on to the railing all night long. >> over the radio, lorraine and company learned that helicopter rescue squadron his been summoned by the south african defense force, but the closest teams were still almost four hours away. >> it was a matter of would we still be around when recovery did arrive? >> hours after sandra palmer's lifeboat was launched into the chaotic sea, the hull of the tanker loomed through the storm. sailors high above on the ship's deck tossed down a harness. the passengers would have to be pulled up one by one. her sons were among the first to go. >> i couldn't look. just tell me if my child is up there safe. >> baby lisa was too small for the harness so they tossed down a bucket. >> they hipped her out of my arms and they forced her into a bucket and they said pull, pull, and turned around like this and it swang up around the side of a tanker and it was like a loose

leaf. eventually she got up there. i can't believe it. >> with her children safe it was at last sandra's turn and she was yanked aboard, moments before her empty lifeboat sank into the sea. wow! we're actually alive, we survived where's daddy? >> the question about her husband she could not answer. coming up, help is finally on the way. >> you hear the noise. is it too late? >> we were 100% for sure that we would not get the people off that ship before it sank. when "miracle on the wild coast" continues. thanks to the new venture card from capital one,

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had been sinking for eight hours. on a nearby tanker a crew than turned his camera on the listing ship. the storm was mercifully breaking. the water was rising in the hull, pulling it down, deck by deck into the deep. most of the officers had arc bandoned ship in half-full lifeboats leaving the fate of hundreds of passengers in the hands of cruise director lorraine betts and the team of entertainers. >> the captain was there, saying nothing, looking mummified holding on to the railing of the pool deck. >> can you help? over? >> a camera recorded robert boltman, the ship's magician on the bridge sounding the alarm. >> national sea rescue need a spare channel. >> rescue helicopters were headed their way, but there was no guarantee the oceanos would still be aboard when they arrived. the ship was listing so badly lorraine decided to move the remaining passengers out from the lounge. when they first walked out of the lounge that's when it really

clicked for them because they were walking up a steep hill. >> it was like that. karen walton and her husband george were hook to fellow pass evenlers so they don't tumble down the deck. >> what did you two say to each other? >> we talked about the kids and the grandchildren that were still small and we decided whatever we decided, if the ship goes down we'll stay together. >> then off in the distance. first the sound and then the specs in the sky. >> to this day i'll never forget it, you hear the noise of the choppers coming through. >> what did that sound like? like the cavalry coming over the hill. we'll be saved. >> 24-year-old navy diver paul wiley prepared to drop on to the deck. his adrenaline was pumping and then a shock. >> i looked down and i saw hundreds of folks and i realized that there were literally hundreds of people on this vessel. >> in fact, afact, almost 240 sd

just two choppers. >> i knew 100% for sure that we would not get all those people off that ship before it sank. >> getting wiley and a fellow diver on to the deck was a near-impossible task, the chopper was shaking in winds up to 07 miles an hour and the ship was shifting wildly in 40-foot seas, but guitarist helped solve the problem by turning himself into an anchor. i found rope on the deck, tied it around my waist and tied it around the railing and was able to get the legs free and was able to grab the legs of the diver as he swung past. you can tell from the water pressure below decks the oceanos didn't have much time. >> for sure that ship was sinking. there was no question and we were in serious, serious trouble. >> they would run two airlifts concurrently, one from the fore deck, one from the rear, each chopper pulling in 20 survivors and flying the three-mile deck to shore to unload and refuel. >> wiley was relieved that nobody seemed to be panicking,

but he'd only sent a handful of people to safety when a man in uniform approached demanding to go next. >> he tried to ignore the man, there were women and children to save, but the man grabbed a harness and strapped himself in. >> it would take more time to undo it and put on someone else and not worth worrying about it and off he went. >> that he later learned was yiannis avranas, the ship's captain, sent to safety. wiley realized he would need help when he saw passenger pete neiman he knew he found his man. >> he was as cool as you can imagine, and i thought i don't know this guy's background, but i have to choose him. he's going to be the one. >> pete and his son peter who were expecting an overnight party and instead spent the night contemplating death at sea. >> did you have a sense that you might be sitting in your own kof snin. >> yeah. obviously you think of things like that. >> even so, they stepped ahead

when the airlift began so others can go first. >> wiley came up to me and said listen, the two of us will get these people. >> peter wouldn't hear of it. >> you've done your little bit. you can go. i said i'm not leaving without you. the guitarist was enjoying much-needed relief and the airlift had only gotten under way when the second navy diver asked him to take over the lift. >> he gave me a very, very crash book in how to operate the signal to give. at first it was seamless and as the morning wore on, moss, untrained and utterly exhausted started to make mistakes. nah? one case, sending two elderly women careening into the ship's hull. the passenger started to scream as two old ladies hit hard into the side of the ship. i realized the enormity of the responsibility i might kill someone just trying to save them. >> by 9:00 a.m. on the rear

deck, george and gerta walton were approaching the front of the line. gerta was apprehensive about the harness from the start. >> it was scary because we've never done something like that before. i have no option. >> then diver paul wiley beckoned and george and gerta crawled over, wiley struggled to get them into the double harness. >> you've got the harness over me and then he tried to put it around george's shoulder and it was a battle because it was shorter than george. >> suddenly the boat swayed to one side and it was tightening the line. the helicopter guy thought we were ready that that was the signal. >> so he lifted us, and as soon as he lifted us i felt that george was very heavy. >> as he began to rise, gerta could tell something was wrong. >> and he said to me, i'm not in the harness, i'm going to fall down, i said you're not going to fall down. you must go up with me.

>> from the deck, paul could see that george was starting to slide. the angle was such that neither the pilot nor the engineer in the chopper could tell what was going on beneath them. >> they were way up and i was screaming to the chop tore bring them down, i realized he's got no more strength. he's going now, he's going to fall. >> george was now almost 200 feet above the ocean. gerta threw her legs around her husband trying desperately to hold on. >> it felt like a life time and he said to me, you'll have to let me go because i won't make it up. and then i let him go. ♪ ♪ coming up, with time running out, the fastest way off the ship is over the side in the waters notorious for sharks. >> i had this bandage soaked full of blood, and i thought -- >> there are sharks in that water. >> when "dateline" continues.las

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from a sinking ship in the south african gale, george walton rose through the air toward a rescue helicopter, hanging on with all his strength to the love of his life, and

then he could hold her no longer. he plummeted almost 200 feet to the indian ocean below and far above, as they pulled her into the choppers his desperate gerta searched in vain for her george. >> i looked through the little windows to see if i could see him, but i couldn't see him. and they airlifted me. >> they had so much to look forward to. george had just retired. they were going to travel ask spend time with the kids and now he was gone. back at the oceanos the airlift was moving as fa fast as it possibly could and they could tell they were losing the battle with time. >> it was obvious look everybody was not going to make it in the helicopters. so i said where's the other navy guide? show him the boats. >> boats? no useable life poets at all, remember? but there were a few inflatable

zodiacs tucked away on the bow. despite conditions julian butler and the second navy diver were able to get one launched. >> now passengers had to jump in and they would then be pulled into the zodiac, but could they persuade passengers to jump into the freezing sea? karen win the her spent a long night in the lounge pondering what it would feel like to drown. >> do you pass out first? does your heart stop? is there pain? >> you really thought you were going to die. >> absolutely. >> as she waited for her husband. >> lor inbetts approached and she pointed to my husband and said you take that one, that one, that one and that one. make your way to the front of the ship and you get them to jump. >> jump? that was not something karen was willing to do, besides she cut her foot and it was bleeding and this coastline was notorious for sharks. >> i had this bandage soaked full of blood and i thought -- >> there are sharks.

>> sharks. >> saw between swells, the navy divers circling in the dinghy below and then her turn came to jump and she couldn't. >> my husband said you must come now. i said i cannot do this. the ship is not sinking and i would rather go in a helicopter. he said no, no, no. it is sinking. you have to jump. >> the only way to get karen off the ship, he decided, was to jump first and he just disappeared. he jumped. to this day i just cannot believe that he actually left me there. >> so now she took a breath and steeled herself and jumped into the sea. >> what was it like going into the water? >> it was freezing. >> she tried swimming away from the towering oceanos, but each swell pinned her back against the hull. you try and swim and swim and swim, a swell comes and pushes you back and you look up and here's this massive line, ready to suck you under. >> then she heard an engine and the arm of a navy diver pulled

her into a dinghy. >> i thought this is wonderful, i'm safe. >> they knot into a live boat, a container ship that responded to the oceans on to the s.o.s. call, but the only way to get on was to climb on to the lifeboat's roof and be hoisted up with rope it is. i thought, i don't believe this. i thought everything was great and now i've got to do this. >> karen managed to get to the roof, but the boat was tipping wildly from side to side in the surf. the crewmen pleaded with her, get up, but karen had shut down. >> i just said to the fill pinot man that was trying to help me, pleased just leave me, let me go. just leave me. >> you were ready to give up? >> totally. i couldn't take it anymore. it was just too much. >> with the help of the crew, karen winter was saved. >> did you happen to see the picture of yourself when you had just gotten on to that? >> yes. i looked shocking. shocking.

>> back above the oceanos, one of the engineers in the chopper was motioning for diver paul wiley to hurry, time was running out. >> he was telling me hurry up. what else could i possibly do? we couldn't go any faster. >> the choppers were packing survivors in beyond capacity and there weren't enough seats for the daunting number of people down from the ship. >> every time i climbed back to the main deck it looked worse and worse. there were so many folks. >> on the bridge, magician robert boltman was working the radio, keeping a head count and the rescuers informed when an unexpected voice popped on the line. it was the captain calling from land. >> so you're on the bridge. where the captain belongs and he's onshore. >> he said robin, what degree are we listing at now. >> what do you mean we? where are you? >> at last, the numbers were dwindling. most of the remaining passengers had paired up for the airlift, but there was one elderly woman who didn't have a partner, pete

beckoned to his son peter. i said to him, now you'll have to go because this little old lady hasn't got a partner and he said no, dad, i don't want to go. he didn't want to go without me and all of a sudden he said, okay, dad, i'll go. >> she grabbed him around the waist and that's when my son was gone. coming up, she watched her husband slip from her arms and fall 200 feet into the sea. had she really lost the love of her life? when "miracle on the wild coast" continues. allergies put scott in a fog.p so i got him claritin. now i'm claritin clear. (woman) claritin's our choice because it works hard to relieve his worst symptoms for a full 24 hours.

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>> at midday off the wild coast of south africa, the stricken passenger cruiser oceanos, like a huge, dying animal was

breathing its last. maybe diver paul wiley felt it. a shuddering death run. >> leaving the vessel, and i realized this is it. >> from a dinghy, a navy diver motioned for those remaining on the bow to jump. julia butler was standing next to a distraught member of the kitchen staff. >> he looked at me with tears in his eyes and said i can't swim. so i grabbed a hold of his life jacket and we both jumped together. cruise director lorraine betts followed. >> i didn't even feel cold. it was fabulous to be off. >> and then magician robert boltman and the guitarist joined aboard for the final airlift. >> and the feeling. >> there was the immense flood of relief and now there were two left on the ship, and diver paul wiley, passenger pete meman, they searched the corridors below one last time. >> it seems to me you stopped along the way somewhere? >> we couldn't find a beer and we would settle for a coke.

>> i was thinking maybe good scotch or something. >> there wasn't time for that. >> paul and pete strapped each other in and off they went. and then as if she had patiently waited for this very moment, the oceanos thrust her stern into the air and slid nose first into the sea. its back rail slipped silently beneath the waves and the oceanos, lady of the sea, was gone. ♪ ♪ >> at the rescue staging ground a few miles down the coast the mood was celebratory. chopper after chopper touched down, with blanket-wrapped survivors. when pete neiman survived he gave his son the biggest hug of his life. >> i think my son is a brave lad because he preferred staying with his dad, just helping out. give us a hand and making it easier for us. that's my son. ♪ ♪ >> when the entertainers hit the

ground, they received a hero's welcome. >> we're heroes, baby! absolute heroes. >> moss hills was so exhausted, paramedic his to put him on a stretcher and insert an iv. not even was celebrating, however. karen winter had a chest full of broken ribs from her ordeal, but still had to endure a pointed reminder of her mother's premonition about the oceanos. >> whatdid your mother say to you after this was over? >> oh, my good not gracious. i told you so. i told you so. i just said, ma, just don't start now, please? we're alive. yes, i know, but you could have saved yourself a lot of trouble if you'd listened to me, you know? >> on the freight, sandra palm her refused to watch the oceanos' final moments. >> i thought i would be watching at my stage drowning in front of our eyes. >> she had not received word about her husband, and the next day as survivors converged at the airport in east london she frantically searched the crowd.

everyone was so happy at reunion and he wasn't there. >> then another flight came in and there he was. we had all survived. just wonderful. >> but then there was gerta walton whose husband george had plummeted into the ocean from an almost certainly fatal height, had she really lost the love of her life? >> i hit the water, and everything turned black. >> in fact, no, she had not. george came to as he surfaced desperately checking for gerta. she was just being hauled up into the helicopter. i felt my fingers and my legs and it all felt okay, and nearly burst out into song. >> i'm alive! >> i'm alive! then i saw this figure coming towards me and it was paul wiley. >> navy diver paul wiley leapt into action when he saw george fall, diving off the back deck of the oceanos and into the sea. >> i swam and suddenly realized there was no chance of finding

this guy. there was just too much spray. >> minutes went by and then, there like a needle in a hay stack, was george. >> he was in pretty bad shape, i would say. >> 30 hours later, george and gerta were finally reunited. george had suffered severe internal bruising, but somehow he was alive. >> what was it like when you finally saw him again? >> it was wonderful. he was hurt and he was in pain, and he was alive. it was all that what matters. >> off the coast of south africa. >> authorities in south africa continue their investigation -- >> the sinking of the oceanos made news around the world. the most remarkable part of the story? not a single life had been lost, all 571 souls survived. >> i couldn't believe it. >> the press dubbed it a miracle at sea. lorraine and her staff were instant celebrities, heroes.

the oceanos' greek crew, however, was considerably less fortunaters especially captain yiannis avranas who admitted leaving without passengers and ordered no apologies. >> when i say abandon ship, abandon is for everybody, if someone like to say, they can stay. >> he declined dateline's request for an interview. he said the lack of communications onboard meant he could better run the rescue from shore. >> cruise director lorraine betts said while the captain and the ship's officers deserve criticism, other members of the crew actually deserve praise. >> there were many greeks who stayed and helped us. all night long. >> in fact, says lorraine, the legacy of the oceanos should not be about culpability at all, but rather a life lesson, that people, no matter who they are, working together can make a miracle. >> people against all odds can

be so amazing. >> is that why everybody lived? >> i think we all have a survival instinct and it showed, it came out and it came through in all of us that night. >> and so, on a day when sea faring tradition was abandoned, the will to survive and the courage to be selfless turned disaster at sea into one of the greatest maritime rescues in recorded history. >> it doesn't feel a specifically heroic thing. it just feels like that's how humans should be. if you're on the street and someone stumbles and falls, you're not going leave them there. you're going to help them and once you're doing that, you have to see it through. so we did. a greek naval board of inquiry found the captain and four top officers of the oceanos negligent in the ship's sinking. the board did praise the rest of the crew for their efforts in the rescue. that's all for this edition of