Oceanos: Rescue off the Wild Coast | Into the Waves | 4
Against The Odds
Wondery
4.7 • 7.2K Ratings
🗓️ 1 July 2025
⏱️ 44 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In August 1991, Lorraine Betts set sail aboard the Oceanos as cruise director, overseeing passenger entertainment and well-being. But when the lights went out and the ship began taking on water, it wasn’t the captain who led the evacuation—it was Lorraine and a small group of entertainers who sprang into action. Today, she joins host Cassie De Pecol to share her firsthand account of the night the Oceanos sank.
Later, author Sean Evans joins Cassie to discuss the new Against the Odds book, How to Survive Against the Odds, available now wherever you get your books. Learn more at SurvivalGuidebook.com.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Wondery Plus subscribers can listen to Against the Odds early and ad-free right now. |
| 0:05.6 | Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts. |
| 0:09.6 | A note to listeners. |
| 0:11.1 | Stay tuned at the end of this episode to hear my conversation with Sean Evans, |
| 0:15.1 | the author of How to Survive Against the Odds, |
| 0:18.5 | tales and tips for animal attacks and natural disasters, a new book |
| 0:22.6 | inspired by our podcast. |
| 0:28.0 | From Wondery, I'm Cassie Depeckel, and this is Against the Odds. |
| 1:13.9 | Thank you. I'm Cassie Depeckel, and this is Against the Odds. The Maritime Code, Women and Children First, was established in 1852, after the HMS-Burkenhead sank off South Africa's wild coast. Since then, the Birkenhead drill, |
| 1:20.3 | as it became known, has been a time-honored tradition in disasters at sea. But nearly 140 years later, on that very same stretch of coastline, the cruise ship, Oceanos, set sail into a brutal storm |
| 1:27.1 | with 571 people aboard, and soon it began taking on water. |
| 1:32.7 | When it became clear the ship was going down, it wasn't the captain or his senior officers who upheld the code. |
| 1:39.1 | Instead, it was the ship's 35-year-old cruise director, Lorraine Betts, and her team of entertainers who rose to the challenge, |
| 1:46.8 | organizing the evacuation, launching lifeboats, and ultimately helping to ensure that every passenger survived. |
| 1:54.3 | Hi, Lorraine. Thanks so much for joining me today. |
| 1:56.9 | Hi, Cassie. Thank you so much for having me. |
| 1:59.5 | So take us back to August 1991. You were 35 at the time and already an experienced cruise director. |
| 2:07.1 | What was life like working on cruise ships then? And what exactly did your job involve? |
| 2:12.8 | Well, gosh, 35 plus years ago, working on a cruise ship was a dream. I mean, we used to cruise around the world. |
| 2:20.2 | I worked for an expedition company, a Seattle-based company, and part-timed with this South African |
| 2:25.7 | company. My job involved organizing the entertainment, the passengers would be receiving the embarkation, the disembarkation, |
| 2:36.3 | the type of shore excursions that they would be going on, and coordinating all of that |
... |
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