Originally Posted by
Jhieminga
I'm not sure if that was the case. Initially 8 crewmembers were hoisted off, with 4 remaining behind to attempt to restore order. When that didn't work, they too were hoisted off with the last one taking a quick dip in the water first. I suspect that the engines were no longer running at that point. When you're the last one on the ship there's no one to steady the line, perhaps they wanted to avoid the risk of him hitting anything due to the ship's motion.
Read a newspaper article somewhere that said they had left it on "autopilot" but found this
here (Maritime Bulletin so probably more reliable than a newspaper) which confirms your version that 4 remained onboard until the engines had to be shut down because of the list. Would prefer to be winched from the deck but understand when a vessel is drifting in those seas it becomes very perilous so going into the water might be the safer option.