Abandon Ship: The Sinking of the SV Concordia recounts the events of February 17, 2010, when a freak weather phenomenon called a microburst hit the tall ship, causing her to capsize with 64 souls aboard. With her captain below deck, no way to send a distress call and only four life rafts, the crew barely escaped with their lives. As the rafts drifted away from the floating debris, they had no idea if anyone knew they were alive or would ever come to rescue them.

“For a few hours I experienced my worst fear: that I had lost my daughter. I imagined her funeral, her empty room, her last moments. I imagined the horrible time in Canadian history that this would be, a modern day Titanic, a black mark for 64 families… forever. In those dark moments you pray, you hope, you beg. And for all of us those prayers were answered.”

This is a particularly personal story for the director, Dianne Carruthers-Wood, as her daughter Natasha was among the students on board the ship. The SV Concordia was a floating high school, home to hundreds of students over the years. In their wildest dreams, none of them ever thought their journey would end like this.

“I am haunted as we shoot the film and tell this story that we could be doing it in memorandum of these brave people, but the silver lining in the story is that this crew wasn’t out to save themselves, they saved each other…”

The gratitude and relief that followed gave voice to this film, which is dedicated to the 64 survivors and their rescuers, the crews of the Hokuetsu Delight and the Crystal Pioneer.