Things started to unfold about an hour later when a single passenger standing port side abreast of the mainmast heard a noise from aloft but dismissed the noise as normal for a wooden vessel and did not discuss the sounds with any other passenger or crewmember.

“It is an unforeseen circumstance. No one trains to have a giant mast break on a schooner. Everyone acted with professionalism. Everyone was doing the best they could with the gifts that they had.”