A few weeks ago a dramatic story was making headlines on the Icelandic news.

An Icelandic trawler sank off the coast of Norway.

The only surviving crew member, a young Icelander, gave a TV interview where he retold the events of the accident.

You can watch the interview here with English subtitles.

Just very shortly after the boating accident, which occurred at the end of January, the surviving crew member, Eiríkur Ingi Jóhannesson, appeared on the show Kastljós to tell his story.

Eiríkur Ingi, a 34-year-old family man, began his story at the very beginning of his tragic journey when he and the three other fishermen met up on board at Siglufjörður in North Iceland.

The trawler, the Hallgrímur SI-77 headed off on Saturday 22 January and was supposed to go on his last trip to be sold as scrap iron to Norway.

According to Eiríkur Ingi everything went just fine and boat and fishermen were equally well prepared for the voyage.

Eiríkur Ingi described the daily routine of the men on board and their chores which makes you really connect and get a feeling for the situation and people on the trawler.

His descriptions are astonishingly vivid and precise; he even remembered what they had for dinner.

Of his fellow fishermen he told endearing anecdotes, for example, Gísli Garðarsson took over the role of the chef, because “he enjoyed cooking”; Magnús Þórarinn Daníelsson was telling stories and Einar G. Gunnarsson was “the fountain of wisdom and quite knowledgeable”.

The atmosphere and mood was good and the men had a lot of fun together even when Eiríkur Ingi got a bit seasick.

After a while they encountered very bad weather when approaching Norway but they had been prepared for this.

Eiríkur Ingi then gave an account of a chain of small accidents that led the tragedy unfold.

Power failures, short circuits, and failing pumps caused the trawler to slowly fill up with sea water when being in the middle of a fierce storm with 70 knot wind and being hit by waves of 15 meters.

The men set off a Mayday but aren't sure if it worked and anybody heard their call for help.

Then it was Eiríkur Ingi who realized first they had to abandon ship when the boat was already heavily tilted.

He made his way out on deck and helped the other men, who were all over the age of 60, reach the deck.

He was concerned to see that he and Magnús Þórarinn Daníelsson, called Maggi, were the only ones wearing the life saving floatation suits.

There they were, four fishermen on a sinking trawler in the middle of a deadly storm in the ice cold sea.

They were fighting to get into the life raft, but the big breakers threw them down over and over again.

When they finally make it into the raft, their oldest crew member Einar has lost the fight for his life. The men try to resuscitate him but without success.

It's heart breaking to watch Eiríkur Ingi tell how he was holding his dead friend and teacher in his arms realizing that they have lost him.

After this shock the two men in the floatation suits, Eiríkur Ingi and Maggi, try to warm and support Gísli who is fully exposed to the deadly cold by only wearing a T-shirt and trousers.

Meanwhile, the young fisherman tries to find the rescue transmitter on the raft because it was uncertain if they managed to send of the emergency signal before the trawler sunk.

Huge waves throw them off the raft and then the sea swallows Gísli.

Eiríkur Ingi and Maggi try to reach the raft which is drifting away. Maggi shouts at Eiríkur Ingi over and over again to get into the boat, it seems as if the older man wanted to make sure his young companion survived.

The heavy waves tear the men apart and Maggi vanishes.

Now it's just Eiríkur Ingi alone.

He described to Kastljós how he tried to keep himself warm and how to save his powers.

Whenever he was losing his hopes and desperately thinking about his crewmen he told himself to be brave and hopeful. “I have to get back home to my children and wife.” was his mantra.

To keep himself jolly he started singing his heart out.

Then, after hours in the water, a helicopter appears and spots Eiríkur Ingi.

The Norwegian coast guard had finally come to his rescue.

I cannot even imagine the terror he must have endured.

Escaping the sinking trawler, being thrown around on sea in a fierce storm, seeing his friends die in front of his eyes and then being out there alone for hours.

I have the utmost respect for Eiríkur Ingi and all other fishermen who take this risk.

And my heart goes out to the families of Gísli Garðarsson, Magnús Þórarinn Daníelsson and Einar G. Gunnarsson.

The whole story sounds like the summary of a film script from Hollywood, but it's just about real people and real events.

Some of my friends actually knew one or another of the crew members.

I've heard from a friend who works at the TV station RÚV that recorded the interview, that almost the entire studio was in tears while Eiríkur Ingi was telling his story.

It is also amazing that Eiríkur Ingi talks for over 80 minutes without any break or interruption by the interviewer. He just sits there and remembers.

I admit I shed a tear myself when I watched the interview.

A few facts that came to light after the accident:

The automatic emergency call was successfully transmitted from the trawler to the Norwegian search and rescue center at 1:14 pm.
As soon as it was possible to fly due to the fierce storm two helicopters were sent to the scene late arrived at 4:30 pm.
A half an hour later Eiríkur Ingi was found in the ocean.

That he survived is considered very lucky and is probably thanks to his good physical condition and to his experience as diver.

According to how quickly the ship disappeared from the surveillance system it is believed to have sunk rapidly.

This interview was the talk of the week and it was something that I will probably not forget in a long time.

It has deeply moved and impressed me.

In fact, it has touched a lot of people.

Katharina Hauptmann – katha.hauptmann@gmail.com