Harrison Okene was employed as a chef on the Jascon-4 tugboat near the Nigerian shore when a rogue wave turned the boat over swiftly. Share Article Share Article Facebook X LinkedIn Reddit Bluesky Email Copy Link Link copied Bookmark Comments
A culinary professional aboard a humble tugboat anticipated nothing beyond days filled with hot stoves and ocean views while serving on the vessel—until it capsized.
Harrison Okene was in the restroom when the craft listed, inverting both him and the whole framework, causing him a blow to the head. His final sight was a gathering of his own blood before his vision surrendered to obscurity.
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When an extraordinary wave struck Okene’s vessel, a sturdy boat built to haul weighty equipment like drilling platforms, it overturned instantly.
The then 29-year-old recounted: “I was attempting to release the door to escape, when the toilet came loose and struck me on the head. All surroundings were shrouded in darkness.”
According to The Guardian, water infiltrated the bathroom rapidly – and this occurred “quickly. In “One minute, two minutes,” the craft impacted the ocean floor thirty meters under the surface on May 26, 2013.
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Okene believed that fateful morning would unfold like any other on the Jascon-4, which was stabilizing an oil tanker approximately 20 miles from the Nigerian coastline.
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Okene had finished his prayers and was about to go to the kitchen to prepare breakfast for the team when the incident happened.
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Clad solely in his underwear, he visited the washroom before commencing his morning duties—pondering over his plans for his approaching leave.
At that point, the surge arrived. Water commenced to flood the space, and in a flustered panic, the cook reached out to unlatch the portal. Within the disarray, Okene was baffled and unable to distinguish which direction was up.
He crossed paths with a couple of associates in a hall leading to the watertight gateway that served as a way out. They all struggled to release the hatch as the water levels ascended. “I lacked the patience to linger,” Okene stated.
Instead, he withdrew from the egress and returned deeper into the craft. Remarkably, the force of the water carried him into an alternate lavatory within the engineer’s quarters. The entrance shut behind him as he was swept inside, but the water level stabilized.”, as reported by the Mirror.
“Air was unable to completely vent from the vessel. Some was bound to be contained,” Okene clarified. He would be held inside this four-foot pocket of air for 60 hours. All the remaining 11 of the 12 crew members died. Okene could hear the anguished “cries, cries, cries” from his colleagues, “shouting and sobbing”.
He recollected attempting to revisit the escape hatch and shattering the restroom door handle in his endeavor to depart. Okene conveyed: “But I advised myself, instead of succumbing to alarm, you have to devise a means of exit.
“As one of 13 siblings, Okene was familiar with embracing duties he disliked. He convinced himself amidst this predicament that he was “overseeing the scenario”.
He fractured a vent and employed the steel to force an entrance open. “One by one,” he registered the waning calls of his shipmates. “I could no longer perceive them,” he noted, presuming they had fled.
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He located two life preservers – positioning one torch within his mouth, he swam back toward the escape hatch – yet beyond his toilet, there existed no air space, precluding extended effort. For hours, he alternated between his air bubble and the sealed gateway. “Should you become confined in any section, you were doomed. It was utter darkness; I was disoriented.
Should you not respond rapidly, you risk perishing there,” he said. He came upon some sardines and cola and shredded the covers into strips to produce a guideline. “I was able to use the rope to guide myself back.”
Okene dismantled the wooden panels from the ceiling and reformed them into a raft, enabling him to sit clear of the water within the pocket. Despite essentially residing inside a sensory isolation setting – Okene comprehended his inability to escape through the opening. He declared: “So I needed to divert my thoughts away from that. ‘I will simply remain stationary,’ I contemplated. “
He had imbibed so much sea water that his tongue commenced to peel, and crawfish initiated nibbling at him. The water level persisted in its rise. He recalled considering his mother: “How does she feel? How will the world behave toward her?
“I possessed access to nothing. Everything consisted of considerations and reminiscences playing before my sight.” He sang “numerous religious hymns. ‘Father, while we cannot perceive you, we can witness your marvels.'”
“I endeavored to extinguish the dread facing me. Because one element capable of swiftly ending you is fright. The panic that overwhelms you, it destroys you preceding your actual demise.
“For the instant you begin to panic, you deplete excessive oxygen.”
He discerned what materialized as the sound of a diver establishing a marker buoy atop the vessel to caution other watercraft regarding the debris. He thumped on the craft “attempting to convey a signal to the individual beyond”.
Then he detected a gleam – or “a reflection of light akin to a bubble.” Soon after, he discerned the diver swimming while linked to a lengthy umbilical.
Initially, the diver announced to his operation that he had uncovered another cadaver – whereupon Okene’s hand grasped his.
Okene was conveyed to the divers’ bell and, from there, to a recompression compartment where he would spend an additional three days.
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He could not accept he had been submerged for three days and presupposed it had only been one night. Astonishingly, all of Okene’s vital signs registered as normal. He remarked: “I reflected, that’s abnormal.
“Nonetheless, for Okene, the waking nightmares lingered. He “sensed the bed plunging. I would gather my wife, carry her, and attempt to release the entryway to escape.”.