I think he means that the cabin was never pressurised in the first place.
Indeed. So what actually happened was, aircraft climbed, cabin pressure dropped - it de-pressurised from sea-level to 10K or whatever.
Having said that, hard to see how they could ignore the "cabin alt" warning that comes long before the rubber jungle drops (warning at 10K from memory, rubber jungle at 14K).
Sounds as though the antique pressure controller failed during the climb. This can happen if one of the internal bellows ruptures.