It depends where they were in the ship. Those on the lowest deck can hear every shift and clunk of the engine and even the waves. For example, Carl Ovberg - (- at about 22.30 hours (Swedish time) down to the cabin and to bed;
- he woke up suddenly from the strong noise of rushing water which he could hear from both sides, but loudest from starboard side; these noises alarmed him;
- in addition he heard quite strong metallic banging noises which definitely had not been there before; he sat up in bed and put his feet on the floor, since the bed was athwartships he was facing the door looking aft;
- he lit a cigarette and listened intently to the strange and frightening noise scenario;
- after a little while he suddenly heard the starting up noise of an hydraulic pump or pumps followed by the clicking of valves and then the typical noise created by an hydraulic system under load;
- simultaneously he heard the banging of sledge hammers;
- the noises came probably from forward;
- the hydraulic under load noise faded away and came back again whilst the sledge-hammer banging noise more or less continued. Both the hydraulic noise and the sledge-hammer banging noise continued for ca. 10-15 minutes whilst the other banging noises, then heard already for some 20-25 minutes, also continued;
- the hydraulic noise and the sledge-hammer noise stopped with a short, sharp metallic crash which gave him the impression that something heavy, metallic had broken;
- after a 'silence' of 30-40 seconds the next really extreme crash followed in connection with an abrupt stopping of the ferry which was so 'sudden' that he was thrown against the front wall of his bed) -
Those on the upper deck, such as Paul Barney - (woke up from a bang/shock and thought there had been a collision;
then he heard cracking and scraping noises and something was gliding along the vessel's hull side) - and Sara Hedrenius (=woke up from two heavy bangs which made the vessel shake (she thought they had hit a rock), vessel moved up and down) - experience it as a collision, with each saying they were woken up by the push, jolt, or noise.
If someone was asleep or falling asleep at the time (12:00/1:00 Swedish/Estonian Time) then their experience will be different from someone already wide awake.
Something like 38 people described either bangs, explosions, heavy noises and or collisions, crashes, a force strong enough to throw their entire body out of bed or off their feet. Thirty-eight people out of seventy-nine is an awfully large amount - 48% - nearly half of all of them.
