Michael Wood,45,speaking to the "source" from police custody on the island of Aegina, described in detail how men, women, children and babies were "stuffed" into the hold of the boat which had berths for only nine people. He is due to appear before a public prosecutor today in the port Piraeus, outside Athens, to face charges of people smuggling.
Mr Wood, from Morecambe in Lancashire, was working as a professional skipper for an Athens based yacht hire company. It was his second voyage.
"When they scrambled on board they rushed inside and were stuffed in cupboards, sitting on the cooker, under the bunks... if the ship had broken down we would have sunk." For two-and-a-half days, Mr Wood said, he heard the cries and screams of women and children behind the hatches. "There was an Iraqi schoolteacher among them who told me they had paid between US $ 2.000 and $ 20.000 each for this journey... It was pure hell. I had no chance to get off the boat or make a cellphone call because I was being watched by George."
Mr Wood said the Greek seamen "lost the plot" when the immigrants began to "riot" in the hold and two men, armed with a meat prong and kitchen knife, threatened them.
The British skipper said it was then he decided to steer towards the port of Ayia on the island of Aegina "whose light we could seein the distance". "I just wanted to get these people off the yacht - and I wanted to tell my story to the police. I was walking to the police with documents and papers when they arrested me. I am very scared. I have not been able to have shower or shave for three days."