It’s a very specific question, but in my old workplace I ended up having a lot of quiet evenings.
I ended speaking to an older guy frequently and he opened up that he’d been involved in a ship sinking- another guy remembered the sinking just from just hearing the year alone after he overheard our conversation (he had also lost someone to the disaster). So it’s also clearly well known in British history. I’d love to be able to research it, as talking with him affected me very deeply, in fact it was almost inspiring, as graphic and as raw as the conversation was.
For the LIFE of me, I cannot remember it’s name. I wondered if it was the Princess Victoria (1953) but I’ve seen it had only 44 survivors and that many of said survivors are now dead. He’s very much so alive, and despite some PTSD, quite healthy and a very intelligent, empathetic and wise man. If I could place his age, it would be 60-80. Broad, I know, but he was one of those people where it was very hard to tell.
He stated that (when discussing trauma, we were talking together about therapy and other very deep personal topics) that he could hear the screams of people dying- so I am very sure that this was a sinking with large amounts of casualties. I’m no longer in contact with this man either.
UPDATE: I’m almost 100% it was The Herald of Free Enterprise.
As I was watching a documentary, multiple things came back to me. One being that who he perceived to be the culprit got away unpunished, two, that he waited multiple days for rescue. He also mentioned bodies being trapped underwater. All of this seems to align with what I’ve learned.
Thank you for all of your help! I