"Their behavior left a lot to be desired," said Pauline Best, 58, of Britain. She accused some crew members of abandoning elderly passengers in lifeboats as they scrambled onto rescue ships.
Hille Sieckmann, 68, said the crew appeared to be inexperienced in launching the lifeboats and the lifeboats themselves "were an absolute scandal.
"There were no supplies, not even a bucket to bail in case we took on water," Sieckmann said. "There were no engines in some of them, no water to drink, no blankets, no nothing."
Sieckmann and her husband, Friedrich, 72, a commercial flower grower from Cape Town, South Africa, said they saw the captain on the bridge of the Achille Lauro for hours as his crew battled the fire that broke out in the engine room early last Wednesday.
"But he never said a word" to passengers huddled on the decks below, Hille Sieckmann said. She said that she and her husband joined about 50 other passengers and three crewmen on one of the lifeboats and were on the Indian Ocean for two hours before being picked up by a rescue ship, the oil tanker Hawaiian King.
"As soon as they drew up, the crew jumped out and there was nobody to help the passengers," she said.
"By now a swell was getting up and it was bad. The boats were banging against the rescue ship. I thought they were going to be smashed to smithereens. They hopped from one boat to the next to the next, up the rope ladder and disappeared," she said, referring to the crew.
The Sieckmanns and Best also complained that most passengers were not given a chance to retrieve personal belongings from their cabins, although many of the crew abandoned ship carrying knapsacks and bags.
"People were coming on board (lifeboats) without their false teeth, their false eyes, their medicine," Hille Sieckmann said. "They could have blown the siren much earlier. If they had just given us a half hour to pack, or a quarter of an hour."
On Monday the 498 passengers and crew of the Achille Lauro were ferried to the docks of Mombasa from four rescue ships in the harbor.
The first of the group arrived just as a heavy downpour was ending. Mostly elderly tourists, they stood on the boat's deck in rain-soaked clothes and orange life jackets, waved to onlookers and sang "You Are My Sunshine."
"We are safe!" exclaimed one as the group was herded past waiting journalists and ushered onto buses that took them to a nearby resort hotel. "It was an adventure," shouted another.
"It wasn't too bad," said a third. "We're all right."
The ill-starred Italian cruise liner, which gained notoriety when it was hijacked by Palestinian terrorists in 1985, was carrying 979 passengers and crew members before it caught fire last Wednesday.
Abandoned, it sank Friday about 200 kilometers off the coast of Somalia.
A Dutchwoman, Evernentia Spiekermann, 74, died of an intestinal ailment aboard one of the rescue vessels Saturday night, the Italian coast guard said.
She was the third Achille Lauro passenger to die. Two elderly men died during the evacuation of the ship, one apparently of a heart attack. Another passenger, an elderly Dutchman, is missing.
A Message from The Moscow Times:
Dear readers,
We are facing unprecedented challenges. Russia's Prosecutor General's Office has designated The Moscow Times as an "undesirable" organization, criminalizing our work and putting our staff at risk of prosecution. This follows our earlier unjust labeling as a "foreign agent."
These actions are direct attempts to silence independent journalism in Russia. The authorities claim our work "discredits the decisions of the Russian leadership." We see things differently: we strive to provide accurate, unbiased reporting on Russia.
We, the journalists of The Moscow Times, refuse to be silenced. But to continue our work, we need your help.
Your support, no matter how small, makes a world of difference. If you can, please support us monthly starting from just $2. It's quick to set up, and every contribution makes a significant impact.
By supporting The Moscow Times, you're defending open, independent journalism in the face of repression. Thank you for standing with us.
Remind me later.