‘I knew something was wrong when I saw fish swimming outside my window’: British tourist describes how he survived terrifying ship capsize in Egypt as doomed yacht Carlton Queen slid under the red sea
- A boat capsized with 26 guests and nine crew on board near Egypt in late April
- Tourist David Taylor spoke about his experiences as a guest on the sinking ship
A British tourist who escaped a Poseidon Adventure-style shipwreck in April has recounted the “deep sense of dread” as he watched his ship capsize in the Red Sea.
The yacht Carlton Queen, a 45-meter cruise ship, sank on April 25 after rolling on its side off Hurghada, Egypt.
David Taylor, 53, tourist on the boat, told the Telegraph: ‘I knew something was wrong when I could see fish swimming outside my cabin window’.
He described the “horrible” realization that the ship had capsized, adding: “We were screaming for help and heard it crashing above us and had this deep sense of dread that something terrible was happening. “
All 26 guests and nine crew aboard the Carlton Queen managed to escape from the wreckage, with three taken to hospital for minor injuries.
The ship was en route to the Sinai Peninsula from Egypt when it sank in late April
The image shows the ship on its side as the guests manage to escape with the help of the crew
A dive team stands by a RIB near the sinking boat in Egypt
Mr Taylor described the terror of realizing he and his son, Christian, 21, could not escape down the stairwell and no one had come to help them.
As the ship sank, they encountered Mr. Suarez Meilla, an experienced diver who traveled with them from room to room looking for anyone else trapped in the boat.
Without panic, Mr. Suarez Meilla helped Mr. Taylor and his son out of the hold on the upper deck after discovering that the handle of an emergency hatch was broken.
Unable to pull himself up, the diver told the others to keep going as he looked for another way out.
He eventually found a way out through an open hatch in the bottom of the boat after finding all other routes impossible to cross.
Mr Taylor worried why a newly refitted boat would sink on calm waters.
Reports have suggested the boat, built in 2002 and launched in 2022 After refurbishmentwas ‘SEO‘ – or bow to one side – from the moment the guests boarded, worsening until it capsized.
Christian Hanson, a diver from the UK also on the sinking ship, said he noticed when boarding on April 22 that the boat listed “a few degrees”.
He said he hit 20-30 degrees a few days into the trip as he woke up for an early morning dive.
When the ship sank, guests were stranded without passports or their belongings.
The Carlton Queen was carrying two 20-person life rafts and two Rigid Inflatable Boats (RIBs).
One of the rafts was launched, the other would have automatically deployed and taken away.
Witnesses also said one of the RIBs had run over the other when the vessel capsized.
Hanson said there were more than 30 people in the remaining raft at one point, and the group was lucky that two RIBs from another ship came to evacuate them.
The Carlton Queen was carrying two 20-person life rafts and two Rigid Inflatable Boats (RIBs)
Tourists who survived the sinking of the Carlton Queen near Hurghada in Egypt in April
The Carlton Queen would have sunk in calm waters despite its recent renovation
Talk to Diversnetthe Carlton Queen Red Sea said it would not comment on the cause of the accident until the investigation was complete.
They praised the “effective handling of the situation by the crew members, which spared the lives of all passengers”.
They said in a statement that they were working with Egyptian authorities to determine the cause of the crash.
The divers organized a Fundraising to replace lost property, as well as medical and legal expenses.
