‘I told my friend where to find my will’: passenger recounts horror of Saga cruise storm

“I realised we were in deep trouble when the captain shouted, and I mean shouted. He said ‘emergency’ and I think the next thing he said was ‘moment’. ‘Emergency moment.’ And then he shouted: ‘lie on the floor’.”

These are the recollections of a Saga cruise passenger who was on board the Spirit of Discovery, which last weekend got caught up in a major storm in the Bay of Biscay.

The passenger, a British woman aged 68 who wishes to remain anonymous, says that she feared for her life to the extent that she contacted friends at home to make arrangements if she didn’t return alive.

“The unsettled conditions started on the Thursday night, but it got significantly worse by the Friday morning,” she said. “Friday lunchtime I went up to the grill for a snack. They weren’t serving wine, but, daftly, they were serving hot soup, which struck me as really bizarre.” 

All the tables were covered in cling film to stop the food and drinks from flying off, she recalls, but before long they closed service due to the worsening conditions.

“The s**t was starting to hit the fan at that moment. We knew we were in trouble,” she says. By Friday night there was no food served in any of the restaurants. Instead, the crew brought meals to the passengers’ cabins.

“I had, not panic attacks, but bouts of tearfulness, which is just not like me,” says the passenger, who boarded her first cruise aged nine and has been on more than 50 since.

“On Saturday, everything was shut. We could move about the ship, but the advice was to take extreme caution. By lunchtime things started to get really unstable. There were crashes of crockery hitting the floor, glasses smashing. Chairs were going over. People on mobility scooters were falling over. It was just absolute chaos,” she says.

“I heard a couple of shouts, one was Code Alpha: that’s a medical emergency. There were at least three of those on Saturday afternoon,” she recalls. “I think I went into freeze mode. There was a burst upstairs and it sounded like a small explosion.” 

A spokesperson for Saga confirmed that approximately 100 of the 1,000 guests suffered injuries during the storm, with five requiring treatment for more serious injuries.

“When the captain shouted ‘emergency’ and ‘lie on the floor’ I was in the living room on deck five, which is mid-ship, clearly the safest place to be at that point. But at that stage we had flying glass, flying crockery, flying people. Then there was radio silence for quite some time,” she recalls. The next piece of communication was to instruct passengers to return to their cabins, and to remain in there unless told otherwise.

The passenger crawled back to her cabin, but moments after shutting the door she was thrown across the room. Saga confirmed that at one point during the crossing, the ship’s propulsion safety system was activated, causing the ship to veer suddenly to the left and effectively bringing it to a halt.

“There was this mighty lurch of the ship, and I was involuntarily running the length of the cabin. I hit the patio door, thankfully not my head, but my right side is bruised and my right hand is still very sore.”

She knew she had bruised her ribs but decided against going down to the medical centre. “Somebody had said it was like a warzone,” she says.

“There was one point where the ship listed so badly. That moment when you get to the furthest point of the list, it felt like an eternity,” she says. “I really did believe we were going to go down.” It was at this point that she decided to reach out to friends at home.

“I couldn’t phone, but the signal was strong enough to get messages through. I actually messaged my friend who is the executor of my will. And I said: ‘Don’t forget, all the documents you need in the event of the worst happening are in the wicker box in the study.’

“And then I messaged my dog-loving friend and said: ‘If we go down, which looks entirely possible, please find Floozy a home.’ She needed to know I was in that situation.”

After the storm abated, the ship arrived at Portsmouth where there were several ambulances waiting to treat passengers. The passenger spoke to a man who spent his entire life in the merchant navy, who said he had never experienced conditions so bad.

A spokesperson for Saga said the firm would be contacting passengers this week regarding compensation: “Frankly I don’t give a flying fig about compensation, I just want Saga to own the fact that they made the most appalling decisions,” she says. “We were the only cruise ship on the high seas, according to a tracking app that a chap opposite me had.

“I think they’ve behaved disgracefully. They should have admitted they made awful mistakes. They say in their letter [to passengers] that Saga can’t control the weather, but they can control where their ships go in the weather. You wouldn’t go out in a T-shirt in a snow storm.”

Nigel Blanks, CEO of Saga Cruises, said: “Spirit of Discovery has arrived safely back in port and all passengers have disembarked and are on their way home. We have apologised to all our guests who experienced such difficult weather conditions; we know that this was a very distressing experience for them. 

“We operate to the highest health and safety protocols and every decision – particularly with regard to routes and potential ports of call – was made based on advice from the ship’s Master and forecasts from our dedicated marine meteorologists. 

“We did everything we could at all times to keep our guests as safe as possible and to support them through the storm, including expert medical attention for those injured. I want to thank our guests for their patience and understanding and all our crew, who went over and above to care for everyone onboard.”

Despite the ordeal, the passenger says she hasn’t been put off cruising.

“I have one booked next year with Silversea, and another the year after with Oceania,” she says. “But nothing in the history of cats would encourage me to step foot on a Saga ship again.”

She did, however, praise the quality of the crew: “They were magnificent. They were terrific. Kind, gentle people,” she said, adding that – during the height of the storm – the entertainment crew came down to the deck to raise morale.

Now back on the safety of dry land, the passenger says that she plans to book an appointment with her GP. 

“I’m still bruised and sore, and still wobbly. But very, very glad to be alive.”