12 EDWIN AND LIZ GURD

Passengers Elizabeth Gurd, 58, managed to board a lifeboat after the collision, but it was more than an hour before Mr Gurd, a retired police chief inspector, managed to get on a life raft and make his way to the shore to be reunited with his wife. The couple had been in their cabin, number 1303 on Deck 1, packing because they were to disembark the next day. They had been planning to go for a drink in one of the ship’s bars when there was a tremendous jolt and the lights went out.

Mr Gurd, 64, of Ringwood in Hampshire, said: “We were a little bit concerned, so we picked up our life jackets and started to make our way out. I’m very glad that we did not go back in the cabin, despite what crew members were telling us.” The couple went to their muster point in the middle of Deck 4, where people were struggling against the listing ship to lower the lifeboats (pictured left).

Mr Gurd said: “When the order came to abandon ship, they tried to lower the lifeboats but they had some difficulty – and some actually fell into the sea. My wife managed to get into a lifeboat, after which they said it was full and suggested I tried to find another one.”

Mr Gurd started to make his way to a higher deck. “I was becoming disturbed about how a few male passengers were trying to force their way on to the lifeboats. I think one of the lifeboats must have come back because I suddenly got asked to go to a lower deck and get on a life raft there. I had to crawl along the deck and hold on, to stop falling.”