Survivors of the Costa Concordia disaster have been reliving their terror after the luxury cruise liner they were on was rescued off the Italian coast.
Those aboard the stricken vessel included 35 British nationals - 23 passengers and 12 crew members - who have begun to return home.
Surviving passengers' accounts of the crash came as the liner's owners suggested the ship's captain was at fault.
Among them was Rose Metcalf, from Wimborne in Dorset, who told Sky News she had written a note to her mother in case she did not survive.
The 23-year-old was one of the last people to be rescued by a helicopter after she clambered from deck four to deck five.
"There was just so much panic so I decided to wait until the water was high enough so I could jump or swim, but I didn't want to be inside," she said.
Passengers of various nationalities were among those on board
"I was just keeping practical. I was making sure the people on my life raft had their jackets done up.
:: How The Costa Cruise Ship Horror Unfolded
Miss Metcalf said she used her watch to time how quickly the water was creeping up the side of the ship, and estimating what degree the vessel was lying in the sea.
"We had already judged where we were going to swim to on the shore," she said.
"Thank god we were near the shore."
She turned to her mother and said: "I had written you a note."
Phoebe Jones, 20, from Walton-on-Thames in Surrey, was on stage performing a magic show and was about to climb into a tiny box when the ship ran aground.
"Suddenly there was a blackout and everything from the stage crashed to one side," she said.
"The ship went on a huge, huge lean. Some people started to panic, but I was fine.
"Even though I was so scared, I was so content, but so scared, I still didn't really get what was going on.
"When I got onto the ferry and realised I was actually on a hard surface and safe, that's when I realised.
"We watched everything from that ferry and that night we just watched the Concordia sink."
Many of the British survivors were taken from the liner to hotels in Rome before heading back to the UK.
CRUISE SHIP SURVIVORS: IT WAS PANDEMONIUM
John and Mandy Rodford, from Kent, were on the Costa Concordia celebrating their fourth wedding anniversary.
"The boat came to a halt and tipped one way slightly and we asked the waiters what we had to do. They said it was fine, it was just the engines and we'd be back on our way in five minutes," Mr Rodford told Sky News.
"Then it tilted the other way. which is the way it is going down in the papers, and thats when they told us we had to abandon ship."
Mrs Rodford said the situation was made all the more "terrifying" by the fact that she can barely swim.
"I was looking down at the water thinking I might have to jump in that. I just thought that by the time I hit the water I probably wouldn't be alive anyway because of the fright."
She said that the radio on their lifeboat did not work and there was no one with any authority on hand.
With no luggage or passports, they had to be escorted through immigration at London's Heathrow Airport as they arrived back in Britain.
They said they would "never, ever" set foot on a cruise ship again.
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