500 People, a Burning Ship, and a Perfect Rescue

Around 1 a.m. on October 4, 1980, the Holland America liner Prinsendam went dead in the water in the Gulf of Alaska, roughly 120 miles from shore, with an engine-room fire her crew could not put out. More than 500 people were aboard, and before the day was over nearly all of them were in open lifeboats and rafts.

A Ship Full of Older Travelers

The Coast Guard's own account says most of the passengers were elderly Americans. The ship had left Ketchikan two days earlier.

Firefighting pumps were among the first equipment the blaze knocked out. About half an hour after the fire started, the radio call went out: "SOS! SOS! This is the Prinsendam. We have fire in the engine room and we are dead in the water."

The tanker Williamsburgh, the closest ship, turned toward the liner. Coast Guard helicopters from Air Station Sitka were airborne within 29 minutes of the first report.

One Basket at a Time

Helicopters from Sitka and Kodiak, an Air Force helicopter from Anchorage and two Canadian Forces helicopters gathered at a staging area in Yakutat. The ones in the air faced a worsening storm.

The Coast Guard's Commandant's Bulletin describes the work plainly: "One by one, the helicopters covered a lifeboat, dropped a sling or a basket, and hoisted until they met their weight limit." Then they left the survivors on the Williamsburgh and went back for more.

Passenger Lois Berk described her boat: it was so crowded that at first there was no room to lower the basket. After a few passes, people in the stern made space, and nine people were raised one at a time.

"The 'copter came back five times before I was lucky enough to be helped into the basket," she wrote.

In the first hour, 150 people were airlifted to the tanker's deck. By then the swells had reached 25 feet and the wind was blowing 50 knots. NOAA's account puts the seas as high as 35 feet, while one aviation history gives 12 to 15, so the figures vary by source.

Counting Twice

The rescue lasted about ten hours. The 1,095-foot Williamsburgh turned back toward Valdez with more than 450 survivors packed into its decks and passageways. The rest rode the Coast Guard cutter Boutwell to Sitka.

Nobody trusted the number at first. Some people, among them the entertainers and cruise staff, who had escaped in a lifeboat of their own, were not on any list. The Coast Guard went back to every lifeboat and raft for a second check, marking each one with paint.

Two Air Force paramedics who had been dropped to the ship earlier were not found until 2 a.m. on October 5, when they spotted the Boutwell, fired flare guns and were picked up. Accounts of the total aboard range from 519 to 524. All were rescued, and NOAA notes it happened "without a single death or significant injury."

The burned ship did not survive. She sank days later while under tow.

The Letters

Berk wrote to the Coast Guard Commandant afterward: "I just wish I knew the number of the copter which rescued me and the names of its crew to express my tremendous gratitude for a job done beyond belief of ordinary service."

The Bulletin reported that most survivors intended to write their representatives in Washington to praise the Coast Guard.