Female British sailor’s night of terror as her yacht is wrecked by killer whales

A British sailor has told how she endured a night of terror after her yacht was wrecked by killer whales that rammed into the ship relentlessly for more than an hour off the coast of Spain.

Video shared by 31-year-old April Boyes shows a pod of killer whales approaching the yacht before crashing into the ship with a heartbreaking thud, leaving one crew member to cry out in terror.

The group of predators surrounded the ship off the coast of Gibraltar on Thursday before slamming into the yacht repeatedly in an attack that destroyed the rudder and pierced the hull.

Boyes can be heard shaking, saying, “Jesus, oh my god,” as each thud causes more and more damage to the boat.

“It’s like they’re biting it apart,” the sailor says in the video as the sun sets off the coast of Gibraltar, where a female orca named White Gladis has been teaching orcas to attack ships.

In terrifying scenes, with the predators now covered under the cover of darkness, the attacks became more frequent. A desperate male crew member is heard telling the Spanish authorities, ‘we need help immediately, we are sinking, we are sinking’.

The final attack shows a crew member, with a flashlight on his head, frantically trying to empty the already rising water from the ship’s engine room with a bucket.

After what must have felt like hours, the crew of four could breathe a sigh of relief when they saw the welcome sight of a Spanish rescue ship and a helicopter racing towards them in the middle of the night.

Boyes said of the terrifying ordeal, “What started out as a seemingly unique encounter ended with killer whales breaking our rudder off the boat and then tearing pieces off the boat for an hour.

“A huge hole in the gull caused water to seep into other parts of the boat and into the engine room and I can honestly say it was a scary experience. We’re all safe, I’m thankful for the Coast Guard.”

The crew were rescued by the coastguard and the 20-metre vessel, flying the British flag, was towed to the port of Barbate in Cadiz province for repairs.

The incident follows at least 20 orca attacks on small ships in the Strait of Gibraltar alone this month.

And this week it emerged that a female orca named White Gladis, believed to have been traumatized by a collision with a boat, has been teaching other orcas to attack ships around Gibraltar.

Scientists believe that White Gladis is taking revenge on boats by coaching killer whales, which have already sunk two yachts.

They believe a “critical moment of agony” — in which White Gladis may have collided with a vessel or become entangled in illegal fishing nets — led to her aggression against boats.

With the leader showing other orcas how to ram yachts, sailors may have to fear future orca attacks.

And the latest attack on Thursday shows there is no sign of the orcas stopping in their pursuit of smaller craft.

EEarlier this month, on May 2, about six killer whales reportedly rammed the hull of a Bavaria 46 cruiser yacht in the Strait of Gibraltar.

The ambush lasted about an hour and left a Cambridge couple shocked and confused.

Janet Morris, 58, and Stephen Bidwell, 58, were on the yacht when they were alerted with the cry of ‘killer whales!’

Mr. Bidwell told The Telegraph that it was ‘an experience I will never forget’.

“I kept reminding myself that we had a 22-ton steel boat, but it was disheartening to see three of them arrive at the same time, fast and at the same pace with their fins out of the water.”

“We were ducks,” Mrs. Morris added.

“A clearly larger matriarch was definitely nearby and almost supervising,” Bidwell said before speculating it was notorious leader White Gladis.

The ship’s captain Greg Blackburn, from Leeds, said he had read reports from the matriarch and knew they were going for a ride. He said he lowered the mainsail to make the boat “as dull as possible.”

The group of whales and their gang leader eventually lost interest, after causing thousands of pounds worth of damage.

It is not the first time White Gladis has been suspected of wreaking havoc in the Strait of Gibraltar, the route connecting the Atlantic Ocean to the Mediterranean Sea.

In November last year, a ship off the coast of Viana do Castelo, Portugal, was attacked by killer whales and the hull broke.

A third boat came under fire and was dragged into the water after its rudder turned off near the Spanish coast two days after the attack near Gibraltar.

This time, two smaller whales rammed the ship, copying the tactics of a larger killer whale.

Captain Werner Schaufelberger told Yacht, a German sailing publication, “The little ones shook the rudder at the rear while the big one backed up repeatedly, ramming the ship from the side with full force.

‘The two small orcas observed the technique of the bigger ones and – with a light run-up – also hit the boat.’

The crew were rescued from the damaged boat, but the ship eventually sank in Barbate harbor.

Alfredo López Fernandez, a biologist at the University of Aveiro, Portugal, and member of the Atlantic Orca Working Group, said the attacks are likely the result of past trauma.

“That traumatized orca is the one that caused this behavior of physical contact with the boat,” he said.

A “critical moment of pain” made White Gladis aggressive toward boats — and this is now being learned and copied by other killer whales, the biologist told Live Science.

Killer whales are known to be social creatures and therefore can easily learn from each other. Other scientists suggest that the attacks may be due to the orcas becoming territorial or simply wanting to play.

These attacks are becoming more and more common. In September 2022, authorities in Spain banned ships from sailing from the northwestern tip due to as many as 29 reported orca attacks.