Orca

[Caribou]

Killer whales sink $128K yacht in ‘terrifying’ 2-hour Mediterranean Sea attack: ‘Like watching wolves hunt’​

By
Social Links forKatherine Donlevy
Published July 26, 2024, 9:14 p.m. ET
488 Comments










Orcas relentlessly battered a yacht in a “terrifying” two-hour attack Wednesday that didn’t end until the $128,680 vessel sunk to the bottom of the Mediterranean Sea.
Robert Powell, 59, and his crew were just 22 hours into their 10-day trip from Vilamoura, Portugal, to Greece when the pod set its sights on the £100,000 — or $128,680 — sailing boat.
“To me, they were not playing at all, they knew exactly what they were doing. They knew the weak points of the boat, and they knew how to sink it,” Powell, who was meant to be celebrating his birthday aboard the boat, told SWNS.
“Their sole intention was to sink the boat, and that was it.”
5
Robert Powell was only 22 hours into a 10-day sail to celebrate his birthday when the orcas attacked. Robert Powell / SWNS

The five orcas circled the 39-foot sailing boat and took turns smashing it to bits around 8 p.m. in a coordinated assault Powell compared to the carnage of wolves.

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The IT company owner said he felt the first hit on the bottom of the boat, named the Bonhomme William, and assumed they had run over a rock.
“Whilst I was looking around the boat to see if I could see anything — I was doing about 5 to 6 knots — it got hit again,” Powell recalled.
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Powell said experiencing the killer whale attack “was like watching wolves hunt.” Robert Powell / SWNS
“On the second hit, I looked over the back of the boat, and I could see the dark shape of a killer whale in the water.”
The pod of five first focused on the rudder, rendering the sailboat unable to steer after about 15 hits.
That’s when the orcas separated and each concentrated on their own section of the boat’s exterior, including the keel and stern.
“They were circling. It was like watching wolves hunt,” Powell said.
“They were taking it in turns to come in — sometimes two would come in at the same time and hit it. So obviously pretty terrifying.”
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The pod of five first took out the rudder, rendering the boat unable to steer. Robert Powell / SWNS
It took an hour and a half until the hull finally buckled beneath the whales’ pressure and split, causing water to gush into the main living area of the Bonhomme William.
Though they were just two miles off the coast of Spain — and the crew radioed for help as soon as the attack began — it took two hours before help arrived.
A Spanish salvage vessel fortunately helped them abandon the stricken ship, minutes before it sunk 130 feet below the Mediterranean’s surface.
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The pod relentlessly slammed the vessel for two hours before the hull split. Robert Powell / SWNS
Powell — who lost his birthday trip and his ritzy boat — said he tried everything from dropping firecrackers in the water and turning off the engine to deter the attack, but the pod was determined.
“It was a very long attack, and it was really the violence of the attack that surprised me,” he said.

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The former boat owner believes the pod — which included two juveniles — could be the same group responsible for terrorizing other skippers in European waters in recent years.
“I have a feeling that this group are boat sinkers — I think they knew what they were doing, I’m sure of it,” Powell said.
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The crew was rescued by a passing Spanish vessel just minutes before the Bonhomme William sank. Robert Powell / SWNS
In May, a pack of killer whales sank a 50-foot yacht in Moroccan waters after repeatedly slamming into the vessel.
Orcas also interfered with a sailing race last year when a boat traveling from the Netherlands to Italy had a 15-minute showdown with the mammals. The crew was forced to drop its sails and make a ruckus to repel them.
Some studies suggest orcas are targeting boats for fun.
“It’s only a matter of time before someone shoots one of these killer whales,” Powell ominously warned.

 

[d_marsh]

I love land. Land land land. This is why I live in the middle of land. A black bear might get me but I will at least have a chance to run or shoot.

 

[Caribou]

A friend of mine took his sailboat through the Panama Canal and headed north, when off the coast of Mexico he missed a sleeping whale by inches. The whale found no humor in the event and spent the next hour circling the sailboat. He felt that the whale was sending him a message. Said message was received.

 

[Patchouli]

Maybe they have been trained and once trained, that kind of behavior is gang-related, eh?

 

[Patchouli]

It is becoming more common around the world for orcas to do that. Is it the same group? Some pirate orcas? Terrorist cells? Not kidding. I had to post something because the other post was trying to double post.

 

[Caribou]

Maybe they have been trained and once trained, that kind of behavior is gang-related, eh?

I think critters are like people, some are gentle while others are mean, and everywhere between. I think this guy ran across a mean pod. We all know families where the whole bunch is rotten. I found myself in the middle, surrounded 360º, of a pod of six or eight orcas, when I was in an open skiff. We were headed in the same direction and they just kept trucking past paying me no mind. Perhaps a boat had wounded or killed a family member, who knows.

 

[Supervisor42]

I think critters are like people, some are gentle while others are mean, and everywhere between. I think this guy ran across a mean pod. We all know families where the whole bunch is rotten. I found myself in the middle, surrounded 360º, of a pod of six or eight orcas, when I was in an open skiff. We were headed in the same direction and they just kept trucking past paying me no mind. Perhaps a boat had wounded or killed a family member, who knows.

Likely they were just telling him: "Get thahell out of my house! ".
We humans are 'brainwashed' into believing we are the most intelligent species on earth while ignoring simple facts...
Many whales have brains much bigger than us, and are more intelligent than us.
Heck, even look at porpoises and dolphins.
A bigger brain even has room for humor and anger.
I remember our cruise up the Alaska coast, every whale we went by would roll over, stick a long fin high in the air, and wave it back and forth at us!
Nobody taught them to do that.
...Just one intelligent creature saying: "Hey y'all !!!" to another one.

Bottlenose dolphins have bigger brains than humans (1600 grams versus 1300 grams), and they have a brain-to-body-weight ratio greater than great apes.

An orca's brain is five times larger than a human's, but it has many of the same structures that ours do.

'For example, a blue whale has a much bigger brain than humans, but it's much smaller than ours would be if you blew a human up to the size of a blue whale.

(You can clearly see the 'brainwash' part in the last ones)

 

[Patchouli]

Time to watch Day of the Dolphin, George C. Scott.

 

[Caribou]

Likely they were just telling him: "Get thahell out of my house! ".
We humans are 'brainwashed' into believing we are the most intelligent species on earth while ignoring simple facts...
Many whales have brains much bigger than us, and are more intelligent than us.
Heck, even look at porpoises and dolphins.
A bigger brain even has room for humor and anger.
I remember our cruise up the Alaska coast, every whale we went by would roll over, stick a long fin high in the air, and wave it back and forth at us!
Nobody taught them to do that.
...Just one intelligent creature saying: "Hey y'all !!!" to another one.



(You can clearly see the 'brainwash' part in the last ones)

I was sailing along on a 25’ sailboat one day outside of Juneau. A whale of about 40’ swam up alongside us, close enough to spit, and looked us over for a few minutes. I’m sure he was wondering why those humans had their mouths open so wide. He(?) was obviously checking us out. I saw an intelligent being staring back at me.

It is becoming more common around the world for orcas to do that. Is it the same group? Some pirate orcas? Terrorist cells? Not kidding. I had to post something because the other post was trying to double post.

When I was a teen my dad was working on a fish tender. While they were waiting for the fishermen to finish for the day and deliver their catch to the tender he and the captain decided to go sport fishing. Dad was rowing the skiff while the skipper held the fishing pole. They saw a pod of orcas come around the point and Dad started rowing toward the beach. The pod turned toward them and the skipper started reeling in while Dad started rowing a little faster faster. The closer they got the faster Dad rowed and the faster the skipper reeled in. When they hit the beach they both jumped out and drug the skiff out of the water. The pod circled around for about half an hour eyeing them. They don’t call orcas Killer Whales for nothing. The orca is an apex predator. While they normally leave humans alone I would suggest a heavy measure of respect when dealing with them. Some breeds of dogs are more likely to bite, whales are similar. Some individual dogs are more likely to bite that other dogs of the same breed, whales are similar.

Could that pod attack boats all around the world? They certainly travel far enough. Sharks travel a great deal. While certain sharks may attack humans more than once I find it unlikely that all shark bites are from a handful of sharks.

 

[Canon29]

It is becoming more common around the world for orcas to do that. Is it the same group? Some pirate orcas? Terrorist cells? Not kidding. I had to post something because the other post was trying to double post.

"white gladis"

 

[Tommyice]

Maybe they have been trained and once trained, that kind of behavior is gang-related, eh?

Do mean kinda like how our Navy has trained dolphins?

 

[SoulSeeker]

As soon as you put your foot in the water you are no longer at the top of the food chain

 

[Patchouli]

"white gladis"

I don’t know what you mean

 

[Mountain trapper]

I've seen orcas in Antarctica waiting along the edge of the ice for penguins to jump in the water. The penguins knew the orcas were there, but the ones in the rear kept pushing the ones in the front in to the water. Kind of like sacrificial penguins. Interesting critters.

 

[Canon29]

I don’t know what you mean

https://www.livescience.com/animals...een-pregnant-when-she-started-attacking-boats

The likely leader of your orca "cell"

 

[Caribou]

https://www.livescience.com/animals...een-pregnant-when-she-started-attacking-boats

The likely leader of your orca "cell"

There was a pirate working near Gibraltar when I was there, but no mad orcas. I’d have had no choice but to kill a whale that attacked me. That has to be scary, not to mention life threatening.

 

[Patchouli]

Hell hath no fury like a territorial monarch.