Word: purser
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...Soviet freighter Pyotr Vasev suddenly loomed out of the darkness. The Admiral Nakhimov's deck officers warned it off by radio, but the big cargo ship bore down steadily and struck the starboard side of the passenger liner. "I was in my cabin when the blow came," said Chief Purser Victor Prosvirnev. "There was a power blackout. The emergency diesel generator came on, but in two or three minutes power failed again as the feeder switchboard was submerged...
...some implausible, others surreal. There were accounts of the hijackers turning away from stark brutality to administer kindnesses to passengers: fetching a blanket for a young girl with bronchitis, providing cough drops for a passenger with cold symptoms. One terrorist, it was recalled, proposed marriage to the flight's purser; at another point, a hijacker beat a passenger, threatened to shoot him, then apologized and wept with his victim. Passengers became targets in many games of Russian roulette. Here are the recollections of some of the hostages...
...Said Toga: "He took out four cartridges and spun the thing, and then put the gun to my belly and pulled the trigger. The gun didn't go off." Twice more, the captor pulled the trigger, Toga said. Toga disclosed that one of the hijackers proposed marriage to Purser Uli Derickson. Said Toga: "That was the only time she lost control. The guy was serious about the proposal, and it really threw Uli for a loop...
...either CIA or FBI." Carlson was beaten severely over a period of 4 1/2 hours. "They started hitting me on the back of the shoulders with an arm of a chair that was torn off." He remained in mortal danger until he managed, with the help of Purser Derickson, to convince the terrorists that he was not "diplomatic" but Army Reserve, with "a wife and a little baby girl." At that point, his tormentor underwent a dramatic change of mood. Declares Carlson: "He walked over to me, looked down and picked me up and put his arms around me, told...
...communication lines, hot water continuously pumping through their wet suits for warmth. Said Supervising Diver Steve Jennings: "This is the hardest-bad currents, high seas, a rotting ship. The Doria was a weird wreck, very unforgiving." After a week of clearing debris from the first-class foyer and purser's office, the team found two safes. The divers were able to free one, a Bank of Rome safe, with acetylene torches and hoist it on board. They also solved a question that had long haunted Gimbel: Why had the ship gone down so swiftly? Descending through the hulk, Gimbel...