Disaster
struck the fishing vessel MV Halo, off the coast of Trinidad and
Tobago, in the Caribbean Sea sometime last week, when it was out on a
regular fishing expedition. As a great fire engulfed its engine
room, the 57 year old captain of the vessel, a Chinese national,
clearly saw that there was no other way but to abandon the ship. He
ordered all his crew of 16 men to leave the ship and all of them,
including himself, piled on to a rubber life raft barely three meters
in diameter and perched there precariously.
Next
four days turned out to be days of hopelessness and utter despair for
this hapless captain and his men, as they kept floating on the high
seas watching their stock of drinking water, food and first aid
diminishing continuously. They had number of distress flares in stock
and kept firing them to attract attention of other ships, which could
rescue them from this ordeal. However all their attempts proved to be
futile and in vain. Finally, a stage came on Tuesday, or on night of
20th
August 2013, that only two flares—one hand-held and another
rocket-parachute flare —remained on board ready to go. In a final
desperate bid, they fired both of these in quick succession.
But
finally luck smiled on them. About 2 nautical miles away (more than
three and half Kilometers), an oil tanker, Stena Sunrise, flying a
Bermuda flag and belonging to a Swedish shipping company StenaBulk
AB, was steadily cruising along. This tanker, which had set out on a
43-day voyage to China, was about 150 nautical miles from Trinidad
and Tobago. The sea was absolutely calm and night moonlit. On the
bridge of the ship, stood the captain, “Sadanand Deshpande,” who
hails from the city of Mumbai and lives presently in the Colaba area,
watching the Horizon.
He saw
a faint light on the horizon and started watching the spot though his
binoculars. Within few seconds, he saw a red flare burning brightly
in the sky indicating that it was a confirmed distress signal from
some other ship in trouble. Captain Deshpande immediately decided to
alter the ship's path and get closer to the source. He called all
hands on deck, and within minutes his entire crew of 24 including
Romanian chief officer Dumitru Iordache and British chief engineer
Edward Batt, came out on deck to help.
Captain
Deshpande maneuvered his ship within 20 meters of the tiny rubber
raft and saw those 16 mariners hanging on their life with the help of
the rubber life raft, waiting to be rescued. For the seasoned crew of
Stena Sunrise, the next few moves were just of routine nature. They
did not even have to lower a rescue boat. They sent a heaving line
with which the raft was pulled alongside and a ladder was lowered
once they had permission from Trinidad and Tobago Maritime Rescue
Coordination Centre. The operation was over in 90 minutes and entire
crew and captain of MV Halo was saved from imminent and total
disaster. No wonder that Captain Deshpande says proudly: "It
was amazing teamwork. It was our job as humans to rescue someone at
sea."
The
crew of MV Halo consisted of 13 Chinese and three Myanmarese
survivors with youngest of them was a young Myanmarese of just 22
years of age. All of them were stunned and dazed from their harrowing
near death experience. Meanwhile, Trinidad authorities sent another
fishing vessel, M V Shinshu Maru 62, a sister vessel of the sunken
Halo to Stena Sunrise. Captain Deshpande helped the MV Halo crew to
get transferred to the rescue craft. The survivors reached later the
safety of the shore.
Mr.
Erik Hallen, president and CEO of StenaBulk AB, has been appreciative
of the rescue efforts of Captain Deshopande and his entire crew and
says: "It was a fantastic rescue job. We are proud of our crew
for having executed it so professionally. When you are out at sea
every second counts."
I feel
that this whole operation was the kind of stuff they show in movies.
Isn't it?
27
August 2013
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