Passenger Jill Lawrence said she thought at first she was in the middle of a drill.
"And then when they said to go to the other side of the boat, we knew it was real.
"But it was very calm. Everyone seemed very calm and the crew did an awesome job to get us off."
Some of the passengers were snatched from their lifeboats by fishermen on the Lone Star and taken into Hartley Bay, an aboriginal community along B.C.'s rugged northern Inside Passage. Others were ferried there by speedboats dispatched by the community.
In shock and shivering, the passengers were bundled into blankets by community members and served coffee in a local hall.
"Everybody in Hartley Bay was involved in this one, literally everybody from small children to the elders, including some elders that couldn't even walk." said Ernie Westgarth, housing co-ordinator for the village.
"It's incredible."
Westgarth said he got a call at 12:30 a.m. His wife's mother said "get out there and help."
"People ran down (to the shore) with just the shirts on their backs, some of them.
"To see all these people coming off the rescue boats onto the docks was a sight in itself - the young and old, the scared, shocked look on their faces, young children with no shoes.