When I was aboard the Sea Diamond
By Brigitta Burks, Staff Writer
April 27, 2007 | noon
Walking up the nearly vertical ramp of the Sea Diamond, no forethoughts of wreckage and missing people entered my head. It was about two weeks after high school graduation and the only things on my mind were the sun, not tripping up the ramp and anticipation of seeing more of Greece and Italy.
I had saved all year to go on the trip with some classmates. We would travel for about two weeks with EF Tours. Despite the unbelievable excitement in the air, the beginning of the trip did not go smoothly. We stayed the first night in Athens, Greece, and were to depart for the ship in the morning. The hotel was in a gas station parking lot and had the nice extra feature of bats in the shower cabinets.
A Rough Start
We left early in the morning and waited for what seemed like hours to board the ship. Three girls were assigned to each room. While most of the pictures made the rooms look “luxurious,” our cabins made the Ohio University dorms look like mini Taj Mahals. Each room had four red beds that folded out from the walls. I took the top bunk which you climbed up using a tiny portable wooden ladder. It was good practice for my days as top bunker at college. There was no real separation from the toilet and the shower in the bathroom, ensuring that the floor was usually soaked with shower water.
After settling in, there was a drill for emergency procedures. Passengers were given a short amount of time to find their destination. The three of us scurried off to our location. One of the crew members was barking orders and seemed to be annoyed at all on board. We were all shoulder to shoulder in a tiny corridor, wondering, “How is this safe?” In reality, our proper “spot” was located further down the corridor. Someone remarked, “Good thing that wasn’t real or we’d be dead.”
We returned to our room to finish unpacking, only to be called away a second time — this time for three hours. A voice came over the loud speaker and in several different languages announced that we would have to leave the boat. Once we were evacuated onto a sister ship, rumors began to swirl. There were two popular rumors: The first rumor was that the crew simply hadn’t finished cleaning, and the second rumor, which was more disturbing, was that there was a bomb threat because of tensions between Greece and Turkey. We were allowed back onto the boat, never learning what really happened.
After that the cruise went smoothly. We sailed to the rest of the islands without hitch — on a very similar itinery to the last cruise the Sea Diamond ever took. Mykonos was the first island we visited. It is the Greek Island you always see in the movies — white houses with blue roofs. Rhodes, the next island we visited, is home to the oldest street in the world. (You can also ride donkeys up the hill instead of walking; that would be great on Jeff Hill.) Patmos is a smaller island where St. John wrote revelations in a cave/monastery. Kusadasi, Turkey, is a modern bartering village home to some serious fake purses.
The Crew
The crew on the Sea Diamond was fairly quirky. Within our first minutes on the ship, one of the bell boys growled in my ear and then tried to offer all of us some Starbursts. He later snarled in another girl’s face, tried to get someone else to pay $20 for a broken glass and sat on a suitcase in the hallway talking to people.
The rest of the crew, particularly in the lounges and restaurants, were funny and genuinely interesting to talk to; however, they seemed to need to get used to us before they would smile or crack jokes. By the end of the voyage, one waiter was calling us Spice Girls, what I like to think is a term of endearment.
According to CNN, the crew is under an investigation because of reports that they weren’t exactly helpful. However, some, including the Sea Diamond’s engineer, believe the rescue to be very well handled. I can’t make judgments as to the crew on April 5th, but like any staff, I would believe some would be more or less inclined to be able to handle such a crisis.
The Ship Itself
The Sea Diamond reminded me of what a 1920s train would look like on the inside. A lot of burgundy, dark green and gold furnished the floors, hand rails and furniture. The lounge itself especially looked like a train car when we sat at the old-fashioned booths. The main difference was the dark blue ocean and rock-like islands streaming past the glass windows.
The ride was usually smooth, even comforting. No one in the group ever felt sea sick. The only night where there was ever “turbulence” was when it rained, causing the ocean to splash more than usual outside the window.
By the end of the trip, we had all bonded, switched rooms accordingly, made friends and were generally sad to leave the boat behind. Many would wistfully say a month later, “I wish I was still on the cruise.”
However, no one will ever go back onto the boat. The gold hand rails, the dinky bathrooms and the retro discotheque are resting under water outside of Santorini. What’s more frightening is the possibility that a Frenchman and his 16-year-old daughter may still be there as well.
Controversy, criminal charges and death surround the Sea Diamond today. What I remember is a good, if disorganized, time. I cannot speak for the people on board who feared for their lives. All any of us can do is to hope that in coming years accidents at sea become a thing of the past.