1 Year Later, Estonians Mark Sinking of Ferry

Flags draped with black ribbons flew at half staff and church bells tolled for the dead Thursday as Estonia marked the first anniversary of the sinking of the ship that bore its name.

As the anniversary of one of Europe’s worst ferry tragedies came and went, people in this small Baltic nation were still struggling to come to grips with the sinking of the MS Estonia.

Experts say building-sized waves, perhaps one decisive “killer wave,” ripped off the bow door as the ferry traveled from Tallinn to Stockholm.

Witnesses described scenes of panic as the ship listed, capsized and sank in the Baltic Sea in 30 minutes. Most victims never made it out of their sleeping cabins.

Of the 989 people on board, mostly Estonians and Swedes, 852 perished.

“Three hundred and sixty-five days and nights have passed, but the pain is not easing,” former Estonian Cabinet Minister Marju Lauristin said. “And the pain makes us ask all over again: How could it happen?”

The nations hugging the Baltic Sea question not only how and why a 15,000-ton luxury ferry could possibly have sunk in 1994, 82 years after the Titanic struck an iceberg in the North Atlantic, but they also ask whether it can happen again.

Unless measures are taken to upgrade safety on ferries worldwide, says the International Support Group, the chief advocacy group for families of the Estonia’s victims, the tragedy could be repeated.

Gunnar Bendreus, head of the 3,000-member organization, said an unwieldy bureaucracy in international shipping and vested financial interests have prevented badly needed safety improvements on hundreds of ships like the Estonia.

“This accident never would have occurred in the car or airplane industry,” Bendreus said. “But in the sea industry, they make their own rules.”

The International Support Group recently announced its intent to sue for negligence the shipyard that built the Estonia and the French-based agency that certified it.

The Meyer Werft shipbuilders, based in Hamburg, Germany, have denied the negligence charge and blamed the Estonia’s operator for poorly maintaining the ferry.

Within months of the accident, most of the ferries plying the Baltic Sea welded their bow doors shut. Experts say that measure should help prevent the huge doors from wrenching open, but it is no guarantee.

While lawyers wrangle about who is to blame, survivors and relatives of the victims are trying to get on with their lives. Many are finding that difficult; most of the dead remain entombed aboard the sunken Estonia.

“Many people are wondering how to cope, without graves to go to,” said Kersti Berendsen, who lost her husband on the Estonia and is now co-leader of the Mare Balticum support group. “Many people still seem to be waiting for something.”

Some of the 137 survivors remain despondent, she said.

“Some of the seamen who survived are saying to themselves, ‘I should have gone down with the ship. My life was there. All my friends are there,’ ” she said.