Forget the academic lectures and classical music that pass as entertainment on Swan Hellenic. What Minerva passengers really want, I discovered today, is a little death and destruction.
No sooner had the Man Overboard! cry gone up than every man, woman and, well, me, was at the port side of the ship, camera at the ready. Where is he? Where is he?
OK, so it was just an exercise, but it was more excitement than Swan usually allows in one day.
No sooner was the dummy in the water, than a rubber ring and orange flare followed, both to mark the spot. The ship started to turn and a boat was lowered into the water - "I suspect he's drowned by now," one woman commented as the boat inched its slow way down the side of the ship - and set off to rescue our hapless victim.
The pictures tell the story. My favourite is the last one. Having been saved from drowning, he is then asphyxiated by the flare.
Jane Archer
