VocalEssence Ensemble Singers

May the eternal light shine upon them, O Lord;
may perpetual light shine upon them.

Over eight hundred people perished in a shipwreck in the northern Baltic Sea.
The car ferry Estonia, en route from Tallinn to Stockholm, was overturned in a severe storm and sank.

Have mercy, O Lord.

There were about 1000 passengers on board. 910 people lost their lives in the wreck of the Estonia; 139 were saved.

They that go down to the sea in ships, that do business in great waters;
These see the works of the Lord, and his wonders in the deep.

For he commandeth, and raiseth the stormy wind, which lifteth up the waves thereof.
They mount up to the heaven, they go down again to the depths;
their soul is melted because of trouble.
They reel to and fro, and stagger like a drunken man, and are at their wit’s end.

Then they cry unto the Lord in their trouble, and he bringeth them out of their distresses.
He maketh the storm a calm, so that the waves thereof are still.
Then are they glad because they be quiet; so he bringeth them unto their desired haven.
—Psalm 107: 23-30, King James version

(The news text is from Nuntii Latini, the weekly news broadcasts in Latin by the Finnish Broadcasting Company. These extracts are from the reports broadcast on September 30, 1994 and October 7, 1994, translated into Latin by Reijo Ptkäranta.)