Tuesday March 4th, 2025 Queen Victoria, at Sea, South Pacific Ocean

Awoken at around 6:30AM with an announcement, in the cabin, from the bridge trying to locate a demi-chef who had not turned up for work – the announcement was repeated several times over the next couple of hours. Soon the captain announced that we had a missing crew member and that the ship was turning around to steam back to the location where the crew member was last seen on board.

By early afternoon the ship began to steam in a search pattern at the predicted location for the missing person. Many passengers, including myself, took to scanning the sea to help with the search. Around 5PM I spotted what looked like a large bundle of cloths or fabric floating passed the ship just about 20 yards off our balcony – I immediately called it in, but it must not have been anything as the helicopter assisting us did not change course and the ship kept on with its search pattern.

At about 6:30PM the captain announced that the search had not been successful and that it would soon be dark – he intended to slow the ship down and resume the search at first light tomorrow. However about an hour later the captain said that we had two passengers on board who needed urgent medical attention and so he was going to steam at full speed to a port about 120 miles north of our current position – we assumed this would be perhaps in Ecuador, and that he expected to arrive at around 2AM. The mood on board ship was very somber.