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.”
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.
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.
“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.”
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.
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.
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.
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.
“The fight between man and beast is going to get worse. Luckily none of us were in the water or got hurt.
“And it’s a lottery as to whether they hit you or not.”
