Britons shared a life jacket to stay alive

Britons shared a life jacket to stay alive

JAKARTA (JP): Two Britons who survived the sinking of the KPM
Gurita ferry off Aceh on Friday recounted how they clung to
almost anything that floated to stay alive.

Steve Nicholson and girlfriend Caroline Harrison, both
Londoners and 34 years old, were two of the five foreigners
aboard the ill-fated ferry who survived the ordeal after spending
hours in the sea.

Six other foreigners are believed to have died in the disaster
which claimed more than 100 lives. The Gurita sank on Friday
night as it was sailing from Kreungraya to Balohan in the Weh
Island at the northern tip of Sumatra.

Nicholson told Antara in Banda Aceh that he and his wife were
in the water for about 20 hours before they were picked up by a
Search and Rescue boat on Saturday afternoon.

They managed to stay afloat by hanging on to whatever they
could get their hands on, first a Toyota Landcruiser and then a
rubber dinghy before they finally found a life jacket which they
shared between the two of them.

Nicholson said the Gurita sank quickly after it listed. The
whole thing happened in just over one minute, he said as quoted
by the news agency.

When it happened, the couple were on the passengers' lower
deck. They jumped into the sea.

He said they were floating without any support for a while.

They swam towards a Toyota Landcruiser, the bonnet of which
was visible and to which several other people were also clinging.
This did not last long and the vehicle sank. Then they clung to a
rubber dinghy which was carrying 15 people. This too did not last
long because it deflated. They were lucky to find a life jacket,
which the two of them shared.

Nicholson recalled that they were swimming for 10 hours, not
knowing where they were going because it was so dark. They
eventually gave up because they did not have the strength to go
on.

They were picked up on Saturday afternoon, about 20 hours
after the ferry sank.

Nicholson told Reuters on separate occasion that he and
Harrison had decided to tie the knot while floating in the
Malacca Strait.

"I turned to her and said 'You know, when we get home, we'll
get married, eh?' And she said: 'Yeah, okay.' That was that. We
carried on swimming," Nicholson recalled.

Nicholson said he was a freelance writer who was on his first
trip to Indonesia. He and his fiance had chosen Sabang to observe
marine life around nearby Rubiah Island.

The British couple yesterday were flown to Jakarta before
flying home to London.

Three other foreigners who survived the ordeal were identified
as American Margaret Crotty, 23, German Peter Bremmer, 39, and
Wong Sun Tai of Taiwan.

Crotty, her feet in bandages, told Reuters on Sunday she swam
for about 16 hours after jumping off the sinking ferry.

"Passengers were screaming and shouting. There was panic
everywhere when the boat was about to sink," the New Yorker who
currently lives in Jakarta, said at a Sabang hospital.

"As I was swimming, I kept bumping into others who had also
escaped by jumping into the sea. Some were giving up," she said.

Bremmer, 39, who lost his wife Manuella Helsmit, was still in
shock. "We lost everything we had," he said.

The bodies of two foreigners were found. They were 34-year-old
Helsmit, and an Irish woman identified only as Margaret, 32. The
identities of the other foreigners on board the vessel are
presently unknown. (emb)