21.6
Time Statements of the Big Heel

The evaluation of all the statements taken by the Estonian, Swedish and Finnish police as well as the statements subsequently taken by members of this 'Group of Experts' and/or others reveal that 133 survivors have testified, some several times and sometimes differently.
Only 45 of them have stated the exact or approximate time of the big heel to starboard, when everybody realised that it was then getting serious.
In detail:

before 01.00 hours : 4
about 01.00 or 01.02 hours : 25
at 01.05 hours : 3
at 01.10 hours or about : 4
at 01.15 hours or about : 3
at 01.20 hours or later : 6
=45

Since the electric clock of passenger Mikael Öun fell off the table at the big heel and the batteries became disconnected, the clock stopped at this very moment at 00.02 hours Swedish time = 01.02 hours ship's time. This is supported by the obvious fact that 25 of the 45 have stated the time of the heel to have been about 01.00 hours. It is further confirmed by the evidence of Wanda Wachtmeister who looked at her wristwatch after she had reached the 7th deck from the 4th deck and the time was 01.05 hours.
It can thus be reasonably assumed that the big heel occurred at 01.02 hours ship's time.

 

21.7
The Righting Up after the Big Heel

Thirty survivors have repeated that this big heel was up to 45° or more degrees and that the vessel had almost righted up again, while approximately 40 others have indicated a very big and rapid heel without stating that the vessel came back up. This as well as many other uncertainties in the statements are doubtlessly due to the survivors having been mainly asked by policemen untrained for the questioning of witnesses after maritime casualties.