The crews of the South African Navy showed their courage and skill that night. The sea state was bad, total darkness with a 40 knot south-easterly gale, waves of 3 to 6 metres and a sea temperature of about 11 degrees.
The survivors that made it onto the rafts sang songs and told jokes. Those in the water hung onto anything they could find and remained calm, until the searchlight found them, and they were picked up.
The Tafelberg, her icebreaker reinforced bows heavily damaged by the collision, stayed at sea to take part in the rescue.
The President Pretorius and her crew displayed remarkable seamanship. It was an amazing sight to see how the frigate was manoeuvred with such precision to position herself between survivors and the high seas, thereby calming the waves slightly, and then sliding next to the men in the water to pick them up.
