“I knew something was wrong when I saw fish swimming outside my window”: A British tourist describes surviving the horrific shipwreck in Egypt when the doomed Carlton Queen yacht sank in the Red Sea
- At the end of April, the boat with 26 guests and nine crew members on board capsized near Egypt
- Tourist David Taylor shared his experiences as a guest on the sinking ship
A British tourist who escaped a Poseidon-adventure-style shipwreck in April told of feeling “a deep sense of dread” as he watched his ship capsize in the Red Sea.
The Carlton Queen yacht, a 45-metre liveaboard, sank April 25 after rolling on its side off the coast of Hurghada, Egypt.
David Taylor, 53, a tourist on the boat, told The Telegraph: “I knew something was wrong when I saw fish swimming outside my cabin room window.”
He described the “terrifying” realization that the ship had capsized, adding: “We were calling for help and hearing crashing overhead and had a deep sense of dread that something terrible was happening.”
All 26 guests and nine crew members on board the Carlton Queen were able to escape the wreck, three were taken to hospital with minor injuries.
The ship was en route from Egypt to the Sinai Peninsula when it sank in late April
The picture shows the ship lying on its side while the guests managed to escape with the help of the crew
A diving team stands near a rigid inflatable boat near the sinking boat in Egypt
Mr Taylor described the horror when he realized he and his son Christian, 21, were unable to escape down the stairs and that no one had come to help them.
As the ship sank, they met Mr. Suarez Meilla, an experienced diver, who went with them from room to room looking for other people trapped in the boat.
Without panicking, Mr Suarez Meilla helped Mr Taylor and his son from the hold onto the upper deck after realizing the handle of an escape hatch was broken.
Unable to lift himself out, the diver urged the others to keep going while he looked for another way out.
He eventually found a way out through an open hatch on the bottom of the boat after realizing all other avenues were impossible.
Mr Taylor raised concerns about why a recently converted boat would sink in calm waters.
Built in 2002 and launched after a 2022 refurbishment, the boat was reportedly “listing” – or tilting – from the moment guests boarded, which got worse until it capsized.
Christian Hanson, a UK diver who was also on the sinking ship, said he noticed when boarding on April 22 that the boat was tilted “a few degrees”.
He said it had hit 20 to 30 degrees a few days into the trip when he woke up for an early dive.
When the ship sank, the passengers were stranded without a passport and their belongings.
The Carlton Queen was equipped with two 20-person life rafts and two rigid inflatable boats (RIBs).
One of the rafts was launched and the other was reportedly automatically deployed and swept away.
According to witnesses, one of the RIBs had crushed the other when the ship capsized.
Hanson said there were at times more than 30 people on the remaining raft, and the group was lucky that two RIBs came from another vessel to evacuate them.
The Carlton Queen was equipped with two 20-person life rafts and two rigid inflatable boats (RIBs).
Tourists who survived the sinking of the Carlton Queen near Hurghada in Egypt in April
The Carlton Queen is said to have sunk in calm waters, despite a recent refit
Speaking to Divernet, the Carlton Queen Red Sea said it would not comment on the cause of the accident until the investigation is complete.
They praised the “crew members'” effective handling of the situation, which saved the lives of all passengers.
In a statement, they said they were working with Egyptian authorities to determine the cause of the accident.
Divers have organized a fundraiser to replace lost belongings, medical and legal costs.