Eyewitness to tragedy

摘要

Iawoke to the smell of something burning. Still groggy from the mid-Atlantic party in MSC Flaminia's officers' mess the night before, I dragged on a jacket and staggered out of my cabin. It was 0500 on a bright and beautiful morning, the wind light, the weather calm. All seemed well, except for that strange burning smell.The fully loaded containership was on a routine eastbound voyage from Savannah and Charleston to Antwerp, and was now midway between America's East Coast and the English Channel, five days' sail from its destination. I had bought a ticket on MSC Flaminia so that I could get to Europe for the summer the old-fashioned way: slowly, by sea. I hate flying - air travel scares me.