Raft of Life

Three days out on the seven-day trip from Fort Lauderdale, Florida to Bermuda the small but luxurious cruise ship "Ocean Eco Star" struck an underwater object and started rapidly sinking. Its position was about 700 kilometres from the nearest land, just inside the Bermuda Triangle. It was early evening and most of the 700 passengers, oblivious to the thick fog that had enveloped the ship, were at dinner at the time. The ship started to list severely, rendering half of the lifeboats impossible to launch. In the chaos that followed, a small group of stragglers had to take their chances in the sea eventually finding refuge in an inflatable liferaft. Cut off from the other survivors but, although for the moment safe, anger and stress threatened to make the wait for rescue a troubled time; time to dwell on the discomforts and privations of their predicament. Needing a distraction the senior crew member cajoled her charges to tell the party something of their lives before embarking on the ill-fated trip.