Table of Contents.

MV Estonia - Mass Murder On The Baltic Sea, 1994.



One of the biggest post-war ship disasters occurred on the 28th of September in 1994. The passenger ship MS Estonia was on a cruise on the Baltic Sea from Tallinn to Stockholm. They had departed from Tallinn on the 27th at 7:00 p.m. local time and were scheduled to arrive at Stockholm the morning thereafter at 9:30 a.m. local time. 989 people were on board, of which 796 passengers and 193 were in the crew.


Estonia's route takes the form of a V where she sank.

Its position was now about 35 km southeast of Finnish Utö. Surviving passengers could witness that they experienced a thud in the ship at 0:55 a.m. Around 1:20 a.m. an alarm message was sent out over the ship's speaker system. At 1:22 a.m. an emergency call was sent out from the command line, "May Day", "May Day". All main generators had stopped. The emergency generator started automatically. The ship was now adrift. It took a starboard list. It increased rapidly. At around 1:30 a.m. the ship's entire starboard side was under water. During the final phase, the list was more than 90 degrees. The ship sank quickly with its stern first. About 1:50 a.m. Estonia had disappeared from the radar screens of surrounding ships. The disaster was a fact. 852 people had died. 137 were rescued.

During the following morning,  media reported about the disaster. The reason for the accident was that Estonia lost its bow visor in the rough weather. The average wind was 12 - 20 m/s, hard breeze. It was assumed that the ship's speed had been too high in the rough sea. The strain on the bow visor became too big. The visor separated from the bow and tilted over the stem. The ramp was pulled fully open, allowing large amounts of water to enter the car deck. Very rapidly the ship took on a heavy starboard list. She was turned to port and slowed down. Estonia lost its stability, capsized and sank.

  
The bow visor in folded up position.          Estonia in port. The ramp is folded down.
Just below is a visible part of the ramp.

  
Interior from the car deck.                           The bow visor and the ramp in cross-section. The ramp
                                                                         is sealing against the car deck in folded up position.


Investigating Commissions.
Two commissions have submitted their final reports:

A Swedish consortium called SSPA has submitted a report. You can download it here:

SSPA Research Report No. 134, 2008.   (English)

The following summary is available for reading (page 9):

"The Estonian-flagged ro-ro passenger ship MV Estonia departed from Tallinn on 27^th of September 1994 for a scheduled voyage to Stockholm. At about 0115 hrs, Estonian time, the visor separated from the bow, due to heavy wave loads, and tilted over the stem. The ramp was pulled fully open, allowing large amounts of water to enter the car deck. Very rapidly the ship took on a heavy starboard list. She was turned to port and slowed down. The four main engines stopped and the ship was now drifting. The list to starboard increased and water started to enter the accommodation decks. The ship sank rapidly."

An investigating commission consisting of representatives of the Estonian, Finnish and Swedish governments, Joint Accident Investigation Commission, has jointly submitted a report. You can read it on the Internet:

http://onse.fi/estonia/brindex.html    (English)

The report is very detailed and well written. As to the cause of the accident, SSPA's opinion is shared as above.



               Jutta Rabe.
The German journalist Jutta Rabe is one of the private investigators who sought the truth about Estonia's sinking. In August of 2000, she undertook a diving expedition to the Baltic Sea. The wreck is located on international waters, but the Swedish authorities have done everything possible to prevent interested in investigating it. A law has been established that prohibits Swedish citizens from going down to the wreck. The site is monitored using an electronic buoy. Rabes team got a visit from the Swedish Coast Guard when they arrived. The authority's representative pronounces on threatening terms. He says that "This is a crime in Sweden. You have to think if you come to Sweden on an occation for something, you might risk to get in charge with the Police.”  Rabes team, however, fulfills its mission. She has produced a video showing how the expedition was conducted. At 12:34 min into the video the ultimate evidence that Estonia was sanked by an explosive charge is shown. A hole is located at starboard bow. It is about 2m long and about 0.6m wide. It is clearly below the waterline of the vessel. This is the reason for the rapid progress of the sinking. Here you can watch the video:

MS Estonia - Jutta Rabe - the secret of how the ship got blown up      (German, English)

In the video Rabe submits a theory, that completely disintegrates the statements made by the SSPA and the Joint Accident Investigation Commission, regarding the bow visor:

“They said that the water came into the car deck which made the ship capsize, even turning her around onto her top and then the ship sunk like a stone to the bottom of the Baltic Sea, where she lies today. But this is against the law of physics, since there are three more decks underneath the car deck filled with air. That's the reason why a ship is swimming in the first place. When a ship capsizes and topples over, this air stays locked inside and the ship keeps swimming on the surface for hours, sometimes days, as it was in the case with "Jan Hewelius", another shipping catastrophe. Only when the air slowly escapes this trap, the ship will sink to the bottom of the sea. But in the case of Estonia many witnesses, survivors, reported that the ship moved up with her bow one last time before sinking to the bottom of the sea, where until today, she is still lying in the same position. This means water must have been coming into the ship from underneath, from a hole or some kind of opening, through which the ship filled with water and at the same time pressed the air up and out. Only that way it would have been possible for the ship to sink to the bottom of the sea like a stone. So, if we can assume that a damage in the hull of Estonia was the reason for the quick sinking, the next question, of course, is: How did the hull, which consists of one centimetre strong steel, get damaged? There are very few possible explanations. An explosion is one, which should be seriously considered."

The Blow Up.



Several explosive charges were placed in the ship's bow area. The charge that tore up the hole and is shown in the video had been placed where the red square appears. The divers also have filmed explosion charges which were not detonated but still remained inside the bow area. Where the text "Estline" appears, there were two car decks. There were three decks below for engine rooms, fuel tanks, etc. The bulkheads between the car decks and those underlying decks were dense. As the water gushed through the blasthole it pressed the air out through the hole. The ship then became unstable and canted. Above the car deck there were passenger cabins, restaurants, cafes etc.


Estonia as she still in this day lies with the starboard side to the seabed. The location of the
blasted hole is at the red square.


A diver measures the blasthole with a
measuring stick, about 2 m x 0.6 m. Note:
the blasted metal sheet is flared outwards.

During my military service at I 19, Boden, 1966 – 1967, I was placed at an engineering unit. There I learned a lot about blasting technique. With the knowledge I have in the field, I would like to say that it requires expertise to perform a blast like this. My suspicions fall on Nazi elements within the Swedish military.

The passengers.
Which one's were on Estonia on the departure from Tallinn? This is an issue that has not yet been fully clarified. There are reasons to doubt that it ever will be completely resolved. My working hypothesis in this part has been that the Swedish Nazis are behind the sinking of Estonia. In that case, it should mean that the victims were, at least to some extent, those whom the Nazis wanted to see on the ship that fatal night. About two weeks before the disaster, I was suggested by a person in Stockholm to make a cruise with Estonia to Tallinn. It was with some surprise that I received this proposal. I had previously read about the murders of the trade union leaders Bertil Whinberg and Ove Fredriksson in Tallinn, January 1991. Media pointed out that the city was a retreat for the Russian mafia. I had no interest in visiting Tallin.

Tallink, the shipping company in charge of Estonia failed to produce accurate passenger lists after the disaster. The Estonian Ministry of Internal Affairs was then commissioned to make a summary. Several attempts were made but they failed. One reason is considered to be that the mafia each time managed to get names to the list that had not been onboard the boat. Latent there was a risk of insurance fraud with this uncertainty.

In the first place I have taken an interest in the Swedish passengers. I have taken part of a passenger list compiled by the Swedish National Police Office. It contains 989 names. From this list I have compiled a list of those who were registered for census in Sweden on the 28^th of Septemer, 1994. This list contains a total of 562 names. The predominant part is Swedes, but other nationalities are due. In the remark column I have indicated those who have been rescued. Others are fatalities. Street addresses are listed without house number.




The list is produced in Excel format. It is possible to search for specific names as well as doing statistical runs on the population as a whole. You can download the list here:

Estonia - passagerare mantalsskrivna i Sverige den 1994-09-28

Mapping in Google Earth
With the Google Earth free app, I show the passengers' geographical location in Sweden. You can put placemarks in the program. These can be imported into the program by any user. Placemarks have been posted according to the address information in the list.

My assumption is that the Swedish Nazis "recruited" many people to the fatal journey. When you look at the map images around the placemarks you can get guidance. It is obvious that the people who selected the victims have had access to overview maps. Google Eart was not available in 1994, but other computerized map databases may have been used. As an example, the map image of the Ola Söderlund placemark can be shown. Söderlund was resident at Kartstigen, Vilhelmina.


Map image for the Ola Söderlund placemark.

The program's menu allows you to click on a placemark. Then the current location is displayed. In most cases, you can go down to the ground level to review the surroundings.

Here you can download the placemarks:

Platser-Estonia.zip    (562 off)

NOTE! The files are compressed in zip format. Before you can use them, you need to unpack them. This can be done using WinZip software: http://www.winzip.com/win/se

Tip: If you have previously downloaded placemarks for murder victims (yellow) from this website, you can easily compare them to Estonia's (red). If you want other colors, you can edit in Google Earth:

1. Right-click a placemark in the menu on the left.
2. Select Properties.
3. A dialog box appears.
4. Click the placemark icon in the upper right corner,
5. Select a placemark.
6. Click OK.

The crew.


             Carita Barasinski

Estonia's crew consisted of the majority of Estonian citizens. Here I let the Swedish representation consist of only one crew member. Her name was Carita Barasinski (1965 - 1994). She was married to Peter Barasinski. They worked with management and training of newly employed staff. Peter was not in service at the sinking. He died in cancer in 2006.

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MS Estonia - facts
Departure from Tallinn: 1994-09-27 at 7:00 p.m. local time.
Scheduled arrival to Stockholm: 1994-09-28 at 9:30 a.m. local time.
Average speed to keep the schedule: 16.5 knots (30.6 km / h).
Vessel: Length: 155.4m, Width: 24.2m.
The vessel was certified for 2000 passengers.
989 people were on board when departing from Tallinn, of which 796 passengers and 193 were in the crew.
The sinking started 1994-09-28 at 00:55 a.m. Survivor passengers have testified that they felt a thud in the ship.
Position: about 35 km southeast of Finnish Utö.
The ship had sunk completely at 1.48 a.m. at the depth of 85 m. Position: 59°23'N 21°42'E
The time of sinking was less than 1 hour.
Significant wave height: 4 - 4.4 m.
Average wind: 12 - 20 m / sec.
Air temperature: + 8° C to + 12° C.
Water temperature at the sea level: + 12° C to + 13° C.
852 fatalities , of which 501 Swedish citizens. 137 rescued.
In January 1993, the ship was sold to the Swedish company Nordström & Thulin, partner of Estline, together with the Estonian State's Estonian Shipping Company, and was registered both by Estline and Cypriot Estline Marine Co. Ltd in Nicosia due to claims from the lender, The European Bank for Reconstruction and Developmen (EBRD). She now got the name MS Estonia and was entered on the Tallinn-Stockholm route.

Military insanity at Lake Armasjärvi in 1940.


Map view of Armasjärvi (The Lake Of Love).
Photo: Google Earth

Lake Armasjärvi and the small community of the same name are located in Torneådalen, near the Finnish border. It is about 5 km long and 1 km wide. Near the middle of the lake there was a ferry in traffic in 1940. The following is available for reading in Wikipedia:

"The Armasjärvi accident is one of the hardest accidents that hit the Swedish defense in peacetime. The accident occurred during the days of military preparedness in the hours of the evening of October 24th, 1940, on Lake Armasjärvi in ​​Torneådalen, where a ferry sank and 46 men were killed. The accident happened when an engineering company from Boden's engineering regiment was to be crossed from the west to east side of the lake, where their accommodations were located. Two platoons, about 100 men, were ordered to step on the ferry, even though the ferryman protested and claimed that the ferry was only dimensioned for about the half. The ferry capsized halfway on the 1 km wide lake. The water was ice cold, the soldiers were heavily equipped and it was also a hard wind. 46 men were killed, 44 of whom were soldiers and two civilians."

This "accident" occurred about 8 months after the blow up of Norrskensflamman. The platoons that were affected came from the same regiments, Ing 3, as the responsible Second Lieutenants at Norrskensflamman. The responsible commander at Armasjärvi was Ivan Pellijeff, a Second Lieutenant. He came to be charged with "unrest in service" but was acquitted.

Some victims:

     


The capsized ferry.


The ferry is inspected.


Memorial at Lake Armasjärvi.