1 Only 26 women were among the 137 survivors of the Estonia ferry disaster last year, mainly because they were unable like men to climb walls to save themselves, investigators said Monday.
2 'It was survival of the fittest,' said Kari Lehtola, a Finnish member of the accident investigation committee.
3 The Estonia was sailing from Tallinn, Estonia, to the Swedish capital, Stockholm, on Sept. 28 when its bow door was ripped off in a storm. Water surged onto the car deck, the ferry turned on its side and sank in about 35 minutes.
4 Rescuers managed to save 137 people. Of those, 111 were men, nearly all age 20-44. Rescuers found 94 bodies, mostly male, in the icy seas or on life rafts.
5 Lehtola said 765 people went down with the ship, including 422 women and 23 people under 18.
6 'Getting up from the lower decks was very difficult,' he said. 'Passengers were faced with stairs that were upside-down because of the list. The only way of climbing them would have been to hang monkey-like from the railings which requires strength.'
7 Investigators have discounted the old sea-faring adage, 'women and children first,' because the ship sank so quickly and violently.
8 A few male survivors said that in their panic they rushed past other passengers, mainly women and children. Survivors said they feared for their own lives, and the fact that there were no valiant rescue stories may prove they were right.
9 Lehtola said investigators did not know how many passengers may have tried to help others, or how many men and women survivors came from lower parts of the nine-deck ship.
10 'People were really in shock. Many of them couldn't even remember on which deck they were and what their cabin number was,' Lehtola said.
11 Police believe 996 people were on the ferry. Earlier estimates, based on incomplete passenger lists, had put the figure at 1,049.
12 'The figure may still come down a little from 996,' Lehtola said. 'But I don't think we'll ever know for sure how many people were on board.'
13 Of the 186-member crew, 43 survived. Thirty-one were men.
14 Lehtola denied media reports that the mostly Estonian crew had failed to help passengers.
15 Since October, the three-nation investigation team has interviewed survivors and relatives of the victims in Sweden, Estonia and Finland. Its final report is expected to be ready in the fall.

" It was survival of the fittest , " said Kari Lehtola , a Finnish member of the accident investigation committee .
" It was survival of the fittest , "
What caused it to be survival of the fittest?