Fanny Zellman, left, and Lotta Naumburg, both 17. The students were with 27 others from the Marina Laroverket school in Stockholm on board the Alva as part of a three-week school trip. (Picture by Peter Frankland, 0650903)
STUDENTS aboard the Alva were trying to sleep in their bunks when the drama of their rescue by the St Peter Port lifeboat was unfolding.
The 29 students from the Marina Laroverket school in Stockholm had been on the ship for a three-week school trip during which they were learning about leadership and communication.
Fanny Zellman, 17, said the students had put their trust in the 11 crew members to take care of matters on deck and that there was little they could do to help in conditions she said she had never encountered before.
She estimated that more than 20 of the students had been sitting up suffering from seasickness as the boat swayed violently from side to side. But she insists she was not scared.
‘I wasn’t that worried because I trusted the crew. We talked to them and asked them what was going on and they said it would be fine.’
Article posted on 7th October, 2008 - 2.29pm
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One Article Comment
“ they were learning about leadership and communication”! Bad leadership and bad communication, more like! I’m not impressed by a leader who puts out in an elderly schooner loaded with schoolchildren, despite the clearly forecast bad weather. As for communication, the earlier article states that they were in trouble from 0400 yet presumably failed to contact the authorities until 1900 when the first lifeboat set out, resulting in rescue attempts in the dark and in worse weather. Some leader! Some communicator!
They trusted the crew “because they said it would be fine”! Didn’t it occur to them that the crew were trying to convince themselves that all was well?
These schoolchildren have certainly learnt about bad leadership and bad communication.
Great credit to St. Peter Port Lifeboat crew.