A powerful low-pressure system moving east from Norway brought sheets of icy rain, strong winds, and 20-foot waves to the Baltic Sea on the evening of September 27, 1994. The Estonia had left her home port of Tallinn 15 minutes behind the scheduled 7 p.m. departure, and now she was slicing through the murky, frigid waters at maximum speed, her engines pushing the 510-foot ship hard as the crew tried to make up time for the morning arrival in Stockholm. As the ship pitched in heavy seas, some of the…
