The harrowing story behind the capsizing of the liveaboard vessel Sea Story last November is one of alleged incompetence and lacking in basic safety standards.
Earlier this month, the survivors accused the vessel’s owner and the Egyptian government of covering up key facts about the accident and pressuring them to sign waiver agreements stating that no one was at fault.
The 150-foot/46-meter Sea Story was built in 2022 and based out of Hurghada.
From April 2023 to November 2024, at least three liveaboards in the Red Sea capsized or caught fire, resulting in the deaths of several British nationals.
In a three-part interview with DIVE Magazine being published this week, survivor Dr. Sarah Martin tells a harrowing tale that basically began before the vessel even shoved off.
When she boarded, there wasn’t the traditional introduction to the crew or even a tour of the vessel, she told DIVE Magazine:
“That was one of the things I found really strange, because I’ve done two liveaboards before and every time you come on, you know who all the crew are; you get a tour of the boat.
“We just kind of showed up and we’re all standing around, we didn’t really know what was going on, or who was in charge. We’re all sort of asking, what’s the plan? Who’s in charge here? Who works here? There’s just people around. I thought that was really strange. I still don’t even quite know who the captain is.”
The usual safety briefing didn’t occur until the following day, and even then the passengers weren’t shown how to put on a lifejacket.
While Martin described the briefing as “fairly comprehensive,” a lot of what they were told wasn’t “accurate when it came to the actual emergency.”
She said the briefing was very “fire-focused,” likely due to the sinking of the Sea Legend — also owned by the same liveaboard company — the previous February.
Martin also described her vessel’s instability on the second day of the voyage:
“It felt strange to me that it was that rough, especially given that – we’re skipping forward here – once the accident happened, the water wasn’t that bad – it didn’t seem to correlate with how unstable the boat was, with the actual waves and weather.”
When the Sea Story did capsize, all the lights went out and Martin and her roommate were so disoriented at first that they didn’t realize what had actually happened:
“We tried to find the door, and we couldn’t find the door. I was looking for my phone, looking for the bedside table, but the bedside table wasn’t where it normally was.
“We didn’t realize at this point we were already flipped 90 degrees on our side, so it took a minute or two; I sort of felt along one wall and realized the bedside table was on its side and upturned.
“I managed to get that drawer open and get my phone out, turn the torch on, and that’s when we saw we were on our side. The door was now on the floor, which is why we couldn’t find it, because obviously we were looking on what we thought was the wall, and all of our belongings and everything had just fallen in front of the door.”
Check out the full story of how Martin and her fellow survivors got off the vessel and were eventually rescued at divemagazine.com.