It’s tough to imagine what was going through the minds of the young students of the tall ship Concordia during the 40 hours spent in life rafts riding turbulent seas after their ship, school and home capsized and sank 500 miles off the coast of Brazil last Wednesday.
On May 14, 1986, the topsail schooner Pride of Baltimore also sailed into a microburst and sank. Tragically, she lost 4 souls. Next time you are in Baltimore you can visit the monument honoring the lives of Captain Armin Elsaesser 42; Engineer Vincent Lazarro, 27; Carpenter Barry Duckworth, 29 and Seaman Nina Schack, 23.
To get an idea of what might have been going through the minds of the Concordia sail trainees, watch this video of the Pride of Baltimore survivors telling their harrowing sea stories. The video quality is poor but it’s really the audio that’s more important.
Sea-Fever blog 