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Speaker 1: This episode of Headgame was recorded on gadigal Land Saturday,

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Speaker 1: June sixth, nineteen ninety eight. Matt Lewis has landed his

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Speaker 1: first job out of university aboard the South African fishing

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Speaker 1: boat Suda Havid. They've been at sea around two months

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Speaker 1: and are currently situated two hundred and seventy kilometers off

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Speaker 1: the coast of the remote and uninhabited South Georgia and

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Speaker 1: South Sandwich Islands. The nearest semblance of civilization is the

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Speaker 1: Falkland Islands, sitting more than eleven hundred kilometers to the northwest.

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Speaker 1: As Matt sticks his head out of his cabin, he

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Speaker 1: sees nothing but gray skies as a growing swell rocks

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Speaker 1: the boat on deck, It's minus fifteen degrees celsius with

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Speaker 1: wind till below deck. Though an emergency situation is quietly

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Speaker 1: unfolding as more than more of the almost ice cold

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Speaker 1: water seeps into the boat. When the crew turns on

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Speaker 1: the water pump, nothing happens. As one of the engineers

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Speaker 1: tries to block another pump, the boat tips over, unable

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Speaker 1: to roll back. As chaos descends, it's left to twenty

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Speaker 1: three year old Matt to coordinate the evacuation of the

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Speaker 1: thirty eight crew members. I'm Att Middleton and this is

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Speaker 1: head Game today. Matt lewis on stepping up when it

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Speaker 1: matters and his experience being the last man off a

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Speaker 1: sinking boat in freezing Antarctic waters. First and foremost, Mate,

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Speaker 1: it's great to have you on. Welcome hi, and it's

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Speaker 1: great to be with you today. And listen, Matt. Wow,

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Speaker 1: so straight out of university. I'm literally going to jump

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Speaker 1: straight into it. And it excuse the puns along the way,

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Speaker 1: but you literally dived in the deep end with your

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Speaker 1: dive boots on when you left university with your first

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Speaker 1: job I suppose aboard the South African fishing boats. Suda Javid?

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Speaker 2: Is it?

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Speaker 1: Suder Havid?

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Speaker 2: Yeah? Suder Harvard. Yeah. I was just straight out of

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Speaker 2: you university.

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Speaker 3: So just finished in Aberdeen in Scotland, like just trying

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Speaker 3: to get a first job and just looking to get

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Speaker 3: out into the world.

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Speaker 2: And yeah, I ended up on the suitor have it. Wow.

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Speaker 1: So that was in nineteen ninety eight. So just tell

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Speaker 1: me before did you did you have a normal what

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Speaker 1: bring in did you? Education was okay, you come from

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Speaker 1: a nice family. You obviously went to university how did

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Speaker 1: that look and did you always sort of want to be,

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Speaker 1: you know, offshore. Did you always want to be on

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Speaker 1: a ship or was it was sailing in your background?

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Speaker 1: How does that look growing up?

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Speaker 3: Not to all from Bristol landlocks, but you know they

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Speaker 3: could talk all the time about maritime heritage and things.

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Speaker 2: But from Bristol.

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Speaker 3: I wanted to be a farmer when I was a kid,

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Speaker 3: and then I ended up studying marine biology at university

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Speaker 3: and then ended up in Aberdeen. But yeah, I've done

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Speaker 3: a little bit of sailing and I'd done a bit

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Speaker 3: diving as well, so scuba diving, so I was quite

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Speaker 3: happy being around the water and I just ended up

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Speaker 3: doing marine biology.

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Speaker 2: Kind of wanted to be a vet and then didn't

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Speaker 2: get the grades.

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Speaker 1: Marine biology is fascinating. I know lots of people that

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Speaker 1: you know are fascinated by marine biology. But it goes

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Speaker 1: a lot deeper than you know just just your coal,

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Speaker 1: reefs and your shells, et cetera, et cetera. Just give

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Speaker 1: me like a day in the life of a marine biologist.

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Speaker 2: I don't want to ruin it for.

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Speaker 1: Don't ruin the dream, Matt. Just just you know, don't

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Speaker 1: let lie getting away of a good story.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, so everybody wants to go and study.

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Speaker 1: Dolphins or but that's it.

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Speaker 2: Actually I ended up.

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Speaker 3: Like kind of my interest at UNI ended up being

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Speaker 3: in fisheries, so trying to manage the fishing industry in

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Speaker 3: the world, like sustainably, trying to make sure that we're

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Speaker 3: only catching you know, enough fish that they're still fish

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Speaker 3: left for the future. But actually at we studied everything

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Speaker 3: from like you know, like biology of jellyfish up to

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Speaker 3: behavior of seabirds and even some really cool stuff like

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Speaker 3: you know, poisonous snakes. There were some specialists that you

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Speaker 3: need who did venomous snakes, and I thought that was

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Speaker 3: rather interesting. But it was the fisheries that I thought, right, Okay,

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Speaker 3: I can get a job in that. And I'd originally

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Speaker 3: wanted to work for fisheries protection, but I ended up

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Speaker 3: as an observer instead.

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Speaker 1: Is it closely aligned with with government work the government

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Speaker 1: sort of sort of into and all over marine biology

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Speaker 1: because obviously, you know, fishing rights, et cetera, et cetera.

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Speaker 1: Or is it just is it just you you're quite

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Speaker 1: independent on that front.

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Speaker 3: You're supposed to be and like an independent, impartial observer

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Speaker 3: that part of the world. South Georgia is basically governed

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Speaker 3: by the by the British, by the UK government, so

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Speaker 3: it's a protectorate. But your your the licenses each year

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Speaker 3: issued by the South Georgia government, but they require the

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Speaker 3: boats to have like an independent observer on board.

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Speaker 2: And that was me.

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Speaker 3: So even you know what's called illegal, unlicensed and unreported fishing.

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Speaker 3: It's big and a big issue in marine biology.

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Speaker 2: In fishing.

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Speaker 3: You know, in a lot of places like Australia included,

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Speaker 3: will have like fishing areas that are miles off shore,

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Speaker 3: maybe around some offshore islands that are really hard to

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Speaker 3: keep an eye on, and then fishing boats from other

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Speaker 3: countries will know that and sometimes they will go there

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Speaker 3: to try and you know, basically to poach.

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Speaker 1: How's university life before you jump into your first job,

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Speaker 1: which is aboard this South African fishing boat. Do you

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Speaker 1: just take the first job that's there or you actually,

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Speaker 1: you know, gone out and looked for this fishing vessel,

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Speaker 1: or how did that work? And how was university qualifying

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Speaker 1: as a marine biologist?

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Speaker 2: So I just.

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Speaker 3: Graduated with a master's degree in marine biology from Aberdeen.

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Speaker 3: So there was twenty twenty of us on the course

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Speaker 3: and it seemed like just the way things have worked out.

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Speaker 3: A lot of my other coursemates have gone on to

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Speaker 3: very interesting things like PhDs or jobs, and I kind

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Speaker 3: of felt a little bit left behind in Aberdeen. I

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Speaker 3: was looking to get out and about and just get

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Speaker 3: out in the world. So I ended up like just

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Speaker 3: doing temp jobs, you know. And I think the last

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Speaker 3: job I was doing before I went out to the

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Speaker 3: Seuder Harvard, I was just working in an office delivering

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Speaker 3: paper and moving desks and things like that, and that

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Speaker 3: wasn't what I wanted to do. So when this this

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Speaker 3: call comes through to you know, do you want to

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Speaker 3: work as an observer, I was like, yes, I'm on

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Speaker 3: that straight away. And I think I got the call

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Speaker 3: on the Thursday and I left, like you know, like left.

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Speaker 2: Later that week.

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Speaker 3: It was crazy, like the bleeper went off and you

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Speaker 3: know pages in those days, and so I called this

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Speaker 3: number in London and they said, you know, basically, can

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Speaker 3: you come come down to London in a couple of

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Speaker 3: days time.

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Speaker 1: Did that not raise a few red flags that are

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Speaker 1: like all right, they get first first.

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Speaker 3: It was all explained and I was fine with all that,

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Speaker 3: but yeah, you're right, it was very short notice. And

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Speaker 3: I was good with that. I was ready to go

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Speaker 3: and you know, excited. Went down to London, got all

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Speaker 3: the information, chose which fishing boat I was going to

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Speaker 3: be on, which was to be quite important, almost like

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Speaker 3: the flip of a coin. And then we were in

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Speaker 3: London and off to South Africa.

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Speaker 1: So you go down, you get to choose the vessel

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Speaker 1: that you wan how did you come to that the

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Speaker 1: conclusion that you wanted to jump on this specific vessel.

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Speaker 3: So I met this other guy, Magnus in London. We

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Speaker 3: were the last two observers being deployed onto these boats.

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Speaker 3: These two boats were late leaving for the fishery, so

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Speaker 3: it turned out there were two boats left.

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Speaker 2: Suder Harvard and Northern Pride.

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Speaker 3: Never met Magnus before they explained, you know which boat

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Speaker 3: you want, and they said, well, Suder Harvard is mostly

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Speaker 3: South African officers English speaking, and Northern Pride Spanish officers

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Speaker 3: mostly Spanish speaking, and I just said, you know, want

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Speaker 3: to learn Spanish, I'll take the suit Harvard and Magnus

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Speaker 3: I final Northern Pride, and I regretted that a lot

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Speaker 3: sooner than the last day. But when we got to

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Speaker 3: Cape Town, there we are. We went down to the

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Speaker 3: harbor and there's this massive, gleaming fishing boat, like you know,

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Speaker 3: big bow high above the dock side and I'm looking

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Speaker 3: up on it and that's Northern Pride and there's this little.

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Speaker 2: Rusty tar around it, which is the Soud of Harvey.

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Speaker 3: They're both owned by the same company, but like one

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Speaker 3: was big and gleaming, and I'm like, oh.

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Speaker 2: God, what have I done? And then we got onto

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Speaker 2: the boats.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, I got onto the boats and you know, Northern Pride,

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Speaker 3: big gleaming like big wide corridors and welcoming crew.

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Speaker 2: And I get onto my boat and I'm.

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Speaker 3: Rattling along these little drain pipe corridors and then there's

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Speaker 3: this massive South African guy blocking the way and that's

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Speaker 3: the skipper.

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Speaker 2: What have I done?

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Speaker 1: So an observer, just what does that role entail? And

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Speaker 1: what was your specific role as an observer on that ship?

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Speaker 3: So you're not there to enforce, You're just there to observe.

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Speaker 3: Later on your right report that will basically if there's

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Speaker 3: any major emissions you know they've been breaching rules, that

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Speaker 3: will come up and it will affect them getting licenses

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Speaker 3: in the future. But you're not there to enforce stuff,

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Speaker 3: So you're there to watch everyday fishing operations to see

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Speaker 3: what's happening and are they following regulation. So a good

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Speaker 3: example of that is, because of the problems of catching seabirds,

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Speaker 3: then the fishing boats are supposed to put their fishing

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Speaker 3: line into the water at night because the seabirds don't

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Speaker 3: see it. You've got to have your flood lights off,

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Speaker 3: which is quite scary, but basically putting the long line

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Speaker 3: that we were using into the water at night, and

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Speaker 3: if they're doing that, they don't catch anywhere near as

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Speaker 3: many seabirds, So you're watching that are they doing that?

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Speaker 3: And then also you're seeing what are they catching the

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Speaker 3: next day, like how many fish, how big are there

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Speaker 3: other species there is there by catch on the line.

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Speaker 3: So we caught poor bee called shark one day that

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Speaker 3: would go down in the record as being something you

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Speaker 3: weren't expecting to catch caught. But also seabirds we caught,

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Speaker 3: just a few were caught accidentally as the line was

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Speaker 3: being deployed and just a few when it was being

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Speaker 3: brought back on board, and some of those can be

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Speaker 3: released alive.

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Speaker 2: So we're watching that.

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Speaker 3: So basically living with the crew, you're working alongside them,

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Speaker 3: but you're not actually doing the fishing. So I had

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Speaker 3: the easy job like the officers on board, they're in

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Speaker 3: charge of the boat. But I had the easy job

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Speaker 3: of me just watching the fishing. But you know, a

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Speaker 3: couple of hours in the factory, couple of hours out

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Speaker 3: on deck, and a couple of hours watching at night

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Speaker 3: as they shoot away on the line.

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Speaker 1: So you're you're basically the unwanted guy that they don't

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Speaker 1: really want you their matter? Do they there because they

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Speaker 1: know that you're observing that they just want to go

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Speaker 1: about their business. And did you feel that sense of

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Speaker 1: hostility because you're by yourself, because it must be tough

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Speaker 1: going on there by yourself.

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Speaker 3: Absolute opposite of what I expected. I went on their nervous,

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Speaker 3: you know. I was like, I'm not physically an inspiring person.

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Speaker 3: So I went on there thinking, right, I'm in a

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Speaker 3: dodgy position here.

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Speaker 2: And actually they could.

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Speaker 3: Not have been more welcoming, very clear from the off

222
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Speaker 3: set that I was welcome on board and that they

223
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Speaker 3: were going to be trying to basically do the best

224
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Speaker 3: they could, so if I could explain things to them,

225
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Speaker 3: it would help them to stick to regulations.

226
00:11:01,320 --> 00:11:02,120
Speaker 2: They looked out to me.

227
00:11:02,480 --> 00:11:05,600
Speaker 3: I was sharing a cabin with a second engineer called Claire,

228
00:11:05,880 --> 00:11:08,360
Speaker 3: who again was perfectly not everybody was really spot on,

229
00:11:08,960 --> 00:11:11,000
Speaker 3: and the skipper went out of his way to make

230
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Speaker 3: sure that the crew were being nice to me.

231
00:11:12,920 --> 00:11:15,520
Speaker 2: So like like one of the.

232
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Speaker 3: Big South African guys called Danny, like at the time

233
00:11:18,360 --> 00:11:20,600
Speaker 3: when we joined the boat, he wasn't very confident in English,

234
00:11:20,640 --> 00:11:22,439
Speaker 3: and he'd be talking away and then he'd switch to

235
00:11:22,480 --> 00:11:26,079
Speaker 3: Afrikaans and the skipper would yell at him, Danny speak

236
00:11:26,120 --> 00:11:29,080
Speaker 3: English man, No, no, no.

237
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Speaker 1: You could speak Afrikaans, towering South African over you.

238
00:11:33,720 --> 00:11:33,920
Speaker 2: Yeah.

239
00:11:33,960 --> 00:11:36,760
Speaker 3: I felt welcome and on board, and you know, drank

240
00:11:36,880 --> 00:11:40,920
Speaker 3: some drank some booze together, which is unusual. A lot

241
00:11:40,920 --> 00:11:42,800
Speaker 3: of fishing boats a drive, but this one definitely had

242
00:11:42,880 --> 00:11:43,680
Speaker 3: brandy wine.

243
00:11:44,040 --> 00:11:47,520
Speaker 1: What age you when you when you step foot on

244
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Speaker 1: the boat.

245
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Speaker 3: So twenty three when I set onto the boat, turned

246
00:11:52,640 --> 00:11:55,680
Speaker 3: twenty four on the boat. Got awesome hangover from that,

247
00:11:56,880 --> 00:12:00,640
Speaker 3: but playing Rummy Cub with them, and then you know,

248
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Speaker 3: we just were I was twenty three, but I was

249
00:12:04,000 --> 00:12:06,320
Speaker 3: you know, I'd done quite a lot of adventurous stuff before,

250
00:12:06,360 --> 00:12:08,320
Speaker 3: so I'd been traveling a bit. I've done a bit

251
00:12:08,360 --> 00:12:11,440
Speaker 3: of like mountaineering, scoopa diving and stuff like that. You know,

252
00:12:11,520 --> 00:12:14,400
Speaker 3: I hadn't been in the forces or anything like that,

253
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Speaker 3: so it wasn't history of that. But I was quite

254
00:12:16,800 --> 00:12:19,960
Speaker 3: into my things like rock climbing and mountaineering, so I

255
00:12:20,040 --> 00:12:22,320
Speaker 3: was I was okay with the adventures.

256
00:12:22,640 --> 00:12:24,199
Speaker 1: So going onto a boat like that, you sort of

257
00:12:24,280 --> 00:12:26,600
Speaker 1: knew what to expect. You were, you know, you're used

258
00:12:26,600 --> 00:12:29,800
Speaker 1: to the travel, used to communicating with people. And again

259
00:12:29,840 --> 00:12:31,880
Speaker 1: when you get out and about and you traveled, especially

260
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Speaker 1: with your hiking and you're climbing, Yeah, it's just an

261
00:12:35,600 --> 00:12:37,040
Speaker 1: a normal debt the office for you, right.

262
00:12:37,760 --> 00:12:37,960
Speaker 2: Yeah.

263
00:12:37,960 --> 00:12:39,480
Speaker 3: And then yeah, you know, we had a couple of

264
00:12:39,520 --> 00:12:41,920
Speaker 3: weeks where we were sailing down to the fishing ground,

265
00:12:41,960 --> 00:12:45,400
Speaker 3: so we joined the boats in Cape Town. Magnus and

266
00:12:45,400 --> 00:12:48,440
Speaker 3: the Northern Pride toddled off, and then it was a

267
00:12:48,440 --> 00:12:51,800
Speaker 3: couple of days later that we left. And then we

268
00:12:51,840 --> 00:12:53,520
Speaker 3: had a problem with the pumps as we were leaving.

269
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Speaker 3: So literally as we sailed out of Cape Town and

270
00:12:55,440 --> 00:12:57,760
Speaker 3: got like a couple of hours maybe a day out

271
00:12:57,760 --> 00:13:00,640
Speaker 3: of Cape Town, we had to turn around again to

272
00:13:00,679 --> 00:13:03,080
Speaker 3: come back in. There've been a problem with these pumps

273
00:13:03,120 --> 00:13:06,040
Speaker 3: down the factory and it basically the skipper explained that

274
00:13:06,040 --> 00:13:07,880
Speaker 3: the pseudo Harvid needed these pumps because of the way

275
00:13:07,920 --> 00:13:09,960
Speaker 3: she was built. She needed these pumps to rely on

276
00:13:10,200 --> 00:13:12,520
Speaker 3: because of the way that the factory operated. So we

277
00:13:12,559 --> 00:13:15,200
Speaker 3: turned around and had these pumps replaced. But he was

278
00:13:15,200 --> 00:13:18,200
Speaker 3: not happy with the quality of the bubbles had worked

279
00:13:18,200 --> 00:13:21,560
Speaker 3: in mine so in South Africa, and he was carrying

280
00:13:21,559 --> 00:13:23,960
Speaker 3: on about how these pumps should be able to pump sludge. Basically,

281
00:13:23,960 --> 00:13:26,320
Speaker 3: they should be able to pump whatever. And the pumps

282
00:13:26,320 --> 00:13:29,720
Speaker 3: that they put in, he didn't think they were substantial enough,

283
00:13:29,720 --> 00:13:30,440
Speaker 3: not up to the job.

284
00:13:31,000 --> 00:13:34,160
Speaker 1: So you turned around and that was your first again

285
00:13:34,280 --> 00:13:38,520
Speaker 1: talk about another another warning sign and another of red flags.

286
00:13:38,559 --> 00:13:42,840
Speaker 1: So you turn around and do they do you set

287
00:13:42,840 --> 00:13:44,760
Speaker 1: off when when these pumps are happy? Because I know

288
00:13:44,800 --> 00:13:49,840
Speaker 1: the pumps come into the story later on when tragedy struck.

289
00:13:50,520 --> 00:13:52,760
Speaker 1: So I suppose you didn't really realize the importance of

290
00:13:52,800 --> 00:13:55,560
Speaker 1: the pumps at that specific time, but the crew did.

291
00:13:56,400 --> 00:13:58,400
Speaker 3: Yeah, And you know, for me, I thought it was

292
00:13:58,440 --> 00:14:00,680
Speaker 3: just a few extra days, you know, being paid before

293
00:14:00,679 --> 00:14:04,960
Speaker 3: we started work. But you know, watching them there were

294
00:14:05,000 --> 00:14:06,840
Speaker 3: pumps were replacing a very short time and we were

295
00:14:06,840 --> 00:14:09,600
Speaker 3: back out to see the company wanted us fishing. These

296
00:14:09,600 --> 00:14:12,280
Speaker 3: licenses had cost a lot of money and we were

297
00:14:12,360 --> 00:14:14,520
Speaker 3: late to the fishery and traditionally the first few weeks

298
00:14:14,520 --> 00:14:17,320
Speaker 3: of that fishery were good and so they wanted us

299
00:14:17,360 --> 00:14:19,400
Speaker 3: down there. So yeah, to be fair to them, they

300
00:14:19,400 --> 00:14:21,200
Speaker 3: were trying to just get us back out to see.

301
00:14:21,240 --> 00:14:23,760
Speaker 3: But you know, this was the only pumps are available

302
00:14:23,760 --> 00:14:24,520
Speaker 3: at short notice.

303
00:14:33,840 --> 00:14:36,520
Speaker 1: What does life on a day to day basis look

304
00:14:36,640 --> 00:14:40,760
Speaker 1: like is because on these vessels, which a lot of

305
00:14:40,800 --> 00:14:44,160
Speaker 1: people don't realize, it's very very small. You're sharing a bunk,

306
00:14:44,920 --> 00:14:48,200
Speaker 1: you can get cabin fever. Is it quite regimented when

307
00:14:48,200 --> 00:14:51,800
Speaker 1: you're on board? And what's the space like for the crew?

308
00:14:51,880 --> 00:14:54,040
Speaker 3: Oh? Yeah, regiment for the officers not so much. You

309
00:14:54,080 --> 00:14:57,240
Speaker 3: know that officers are on shifts and I was only

310
00:14:57,320 --> 00:14:59,160
Speaker 3: needed to be up when I needed to be observing,

311
00:14:59,280 --> 00:15:02,080
Speaker 3: so they were fine with me. But there was thirty

312
00:15:02,120 --> 00:15:04,360
Speaker 3: eight of us on board the Pseuder Harvard, lots of

313
00:15:04,360 --> 00:15:10,440
Speaker 3: different nationalities like German engineer, Icelandic captain, South African skippers,

314
00:15:10,840 --> 00:15:15,040
Speaker 3: crew from South Africa and Namibia and you know, like

315
00:15:15,080 --> 00:15:17,920
Speaker 3: all over Portuguese deck bosses as well, so you know,

316
00:15:18,000 --> 00:15:20,920
Speaker 3: international crew. Thirty eight of us on board a boat.

317
00:15:20,920 --> 00:15:23,040
Speaker 3: There was forty four meters long, so one hundred and

318
00:15:23,040 --> 00:15:26,400
Speaker 3: forty foot long, So she was big heavy, you know.

319
00:15:27,640 --> 00:15:31,120
Speaker 3: Pseudavid was probably thirty something years old then, but she

320
00:15:31,200 --> 00:15:31,800
Speaker 3: looked older.

321
00:15:31,840 --> 00:15:34,320
Speaker 2: She was rusty and had been changed over the years.

322
00:15:34,680 --> 00:15:38,000
Speaker 3: We were up at first light most days because we

323
00:15:38,000 --> 00:15:41,800
Speaker 3: weren't catching as much fish as they wanted for Bubbles

324
00:15:41,800 --> 00:15:44,880
Speaker 3: and Butty were using trying to hold onto the crew's

325
00:15:44,960 --> 00:15:47,600
Speaker 3: energy a bit, so they were only working one line,

326
00:15:47,640 --> 00:15:50,200
Speaker 3: so we weren't working around the clock in some in

327
00:15:50,240 --> 00:15:50,720
Speaker 3: the same.

328
00:15:50,520 --> 00:15:51,880
Speaker 2: Way that they had in other years.

329
00:15:52,080 --> 00:15:54,040
Speaker 3: So instead they were just working one line, and that

330
00:15:54,080 --> 00:15:57,800
Speaker 3: meant basically up at you know, line coming on board

331
00:15:57,800 --> 00:16:01,680
Speaker 3: at seven or eight o'clock in the morning, working for

332
00:16:01,760 --> 00:16:03,760
Speaker 3: the crew all day to get that line on board

333
00:16:03,800 --> 00:16:06,040
Speaker 3: and then get it rebaited ready to go out at night,

334
00:16:06,120 --> 00:16:09,200
Speaker 3: and then stop, probably stopping at five o'clock at night,

335
00:16:09,840 --> 00:16:11,520
Speaker 3: and then wait a couple of hours, just edge out,

336
00:16:11,560 --> 00:16:14,040
Speaker 3: play some card games, watch some videos with the crew,

337
00:16:14,240 --> 00:16:16,000
Speaker 3: and then the line would go back into the water,

338
00:16:16,560 --> 00:16:19,360
Speaker 3: probably seven till nine pm, and at nine pm the

339
00:16:19,400 --> 00:16:20,200
Speaker 3: crew would be finished.

340
00:16:20,200 --> 00:16:22,840
Speaker 2: They could just edge out and relax until the next day.

341
00:16:23,200 --> 00:16:26,240
Speaker 1: I like that, mate, veg out, vege out. That means

342
00:16:27,880 --> 00:16:33,200
Speaker 1: you haven't exactly got places to go, have you? Is

343
00:16:33,520 --> 00:16:36,440
Speaker 1: it quite? You were fined to like a communal area.

344
00:16:36,840 --> 00:16:39,360
Speaker 1: And then once people would go, they scurry off to

345
00:16:39,400 --> 00:16:41,680
Speaker 1: their bunks. And what was it like sharing a bunk?

346
00:16:43,120 --> 00:16:45,040
Speaker 1: Was it comfortable or did you just get used to it?

347
00:16:45,080 --> 00:16:48,000
Speaker 1: Did your body condition itself to it over the coming days?

348
00:16:49,160 --> 00:16:51,080
Speaker 3: I was fine with it. I had quite a nice deal.

349
00:16:51,240 --> 00:16:53,360
Speaker 3: Like Glenn was on the top bunk, I was on

350
00:16:53,400 --> 00:16:54,880
Speaker 3: the bottom bunk. It was just two of us in

351
00:16:54,920 --> 00:16:59,560
Speaker 3: a cabin and the crew triple decker bunks, so three

352
00:17:00,080 --> 00:17:03,880
Speaker 3: and when one of my crew makes couldn't even turn over,

353
00:17:03,960 --> 00:17:06,359
Speaker 3: so when he slid into his bed, he couldn't actually

354
00:17:06,440 --> 00:17:09,480
Speaker 3: roll over. And because it was so cold, there was

355
00:17:09,560 --> 00:17:11,800
Speaker 3: condensation on the ceiling that used to drip on him.

356
00:17:11,840 --> 00:17:14,480
Speaker 3: So for you know, for the crew, they did have

357
00:17:14,760 --> 00:17:17,880
Speaker 3: a mess like a canteen and they could relax in there.

358
00:17:18,000 --> 00:17:19,280
Speaker 3: But a lot of the time they'd just be hanging

359
00:17:19,280 --> 00:17:22,000
Speaker 3: out in their cabins a bit more like cells, to

360
00:17:22,040 --> 00:17:25,920
Speaker 3: be honest. And some for the the unluckiest crew, right

361
00:17:26,000 --> 00:17:28,240
Speaker 3: down on the engine room deck.

362
00:17:28,320 --> 00:17:30,880
Speaker 2: You know, you're down in the bowels of the boat. Yeah.

363
00:17:30,920 --> 00:17:33,080
Speaker 1: Absolutely, and it just reminds me of I was on

364
00:17:33,119 --> 00:17:37,480
Speaker 1: the Hrems Ocean for about eight to ten weeks and

365
00:17:37,920 --> 00:17:39,679
Speaker 1: a few of the lads would kick off in the

366
00:17:39,800 --> 00:17:41,919
Speaker 1: night because obviously they're trying to get out and then

367
00:17:41,960 --> 00:17:44,760
Speaker 1: they wake up and realize they're in the bunk. So

368
00:17:44,800 --> 00:17:46,960
Speaker 1: I know what these these things you're like. And you

369
00:17:46,960 --> 00:17:50,320
Speaker 1: can imagine having you're having war marines on board in

370
00:17:50,400 --> 00:17:54,200
Speaker 1: a small, confined space, I can imagine that the banter

371
00:17:54,960 --> 00:18:00,320
Speaker 1: is quite similar with the fishermen on board a smallish vessel.

372
00:18:00,560 --> 00:18:00,800
Speaker 2: Yeah.

373
00:18:00,840 --> 00:18:03,199
Speaker 3: I loved that side of the banter. And they're actually

374
00:18:03,280 --> 00:18:05,880
Speaker 3: living with people, you know, around like that. I really

375
00:18:05,960 --> 00:18:09,280
Speaker 3: liked it. The crew were like, you know, good good

376
00:18:09,359 --> 00:18:11,280
Speaker 3: chat as well. So there were a number of guys

377
00:18:11,320 --> 00:18:14,560
Speaker 3: on board that I just you know, got on with.

378
00:18:14,920 --> 00:18:17,399
Speaker 3: So Mark, who I was working opposite a lot. He

379
00:18:17,640 --> 00:18:20,960
Speaker 3: used to gut and head the fish and we would

380
00:18:21,000 --> 00:18:24,400
Speaker 3: be chatting about life back at home for him, ex welder,

381
00:18:24,960 --> 00:18:28,159
Speaker 3: you know, trying to get just down a bit more

382
00:18:28,200 --> 00:18:30,359
Speaker 3: money and things he'd done that. So there were different

383
00:18:30,400 --> 00:18:34,119
Speaker 3: people from different backgrounds. Hannas who is this ex bouncer,

384
00:18:34,920 --> 00:18:38,359
Speaker 3: very charismatic, very loud and that, but but also just

385
00:18:38,600 --> 00:18:42,359
Speaker 3: a good laugh. And I think that atmosphere helped to

386
00:18:42,480 --> 00:18:45,439
Speaker 3: make the challenging conditions easier to bear. I mean, some

387
00:18:45,480 --> 00:18:47,320
Speaker 3: of it's crazy when you think you're working in a

388
00:18:47,359 --> 00:18:49,680
Speaker 3: factory which is roll inside to side, but you can't

389
00:18:49,680 --> 00:18:52,640
Speaker 3: see the horizon and you're doing work where you're trying

390
00:18:52,640 --> 00:18:55,359
Speaker 3: to gut and head of fish or in my case,

391
00:18:55,400 --> 00:18:58,119
Speaker 3: trying to dissect a fish to take a little bono

392
00:18:58,560 --> 00:19:00,640
Speaker 3: like then you're trying to do that when you can't

393
00:19:00,640 --> 00:19:04,520
Speaker 3: see the horizon and the weather outside was just horrible.

394
00:19:04,600 --> 00:19:07,960
Speaker 2: So all of that the atmosphere on board help.

395
00:19:07,840 --> 00:19:11,480
Speaker 1: That how cold is it? And you know how how

396
00:19:11,520 --> 00:19:13,600
Speaker 1: harsh are the environments when you're out there and you're

397
00:19:13,600 --> 00:19:16,080
Speaker 1: actually grafting. Because it's all will and good, having a

398
00:19:16,160 --> 00:19:19,120
Speaker 1: banter when you're inside out, out of the elements and

399
00:19:19,160 --> 00:19:22,119
Speaker 1: the conditions. But when you're out there and you know

400
00:19:22,520 --> 00:19:26,840
Speaker 1: you're grafting and the fishermen are grafting, it's brutal, isn't

401
00:19:26,840 --> 00:19:28,840
Speaker 1: It can be absolutely brutal out there.

402
00:19:29,520 --> 00:19:29,760
Speaker 2: Yeah.

403
00:19:29,840 --> 00:19:32,240
Speaker 3: I mean I think statistically, if you look like that temperature,

404
00:19:32,760 --> 00:19:36,680
Speaker 3: it's not that bad. It's like mineus six or something

405
00:19:36,720 --> 00:19:41,800
Speaker 3: on a normal day or bobbing around zero. But then

406
00:19:42,160 --> 00:19:45,000
Speaker 3: when you're adding the wind and the spray and the

407
00:19:45,560 --> 00:19:48,199
Speaker 3: you know, the conditions, then it changes it. And the

408
00:19:48,200 --> 00:19:50,320
Speaker 3: fact that you're offshore so there's nothing to stop the

409
00:19:50,359 --> 00:19:50,920
Speaker 3: wind either.

410
00:19:51,000 --> 00:19:53,000
Speaker 2: It's just screaming through like.

411
00:19:53,080 --> 00:19:56,679
Speaker 3: Famously the Southern Ocean, there's the big waves circle around

412
00:19:56,960 --> 00:20:00,480
Speaker 3: the around the Antarctic content there's nothing stop them, so

413
00:20:00,600 --> 00:20:03,800
Speaker 3: the swells build up. So you get these enormous swells.

414
00:20:04,040 --> 00:20:07,560
Speaker 3: Like it's cold, but we were heading into winter. So

415
00:20:07,600 --> 00:20:10,119
Speaker 3: we heading into the Antarctic winter, and you know that

416
00:20:10,320 --> 00:20:16,480
Speaker 3: the seawater you're talking like minus one, so seawater freezes

417
00:20:16,520 --> 00:20:18,520
Speaker 3: at minus one point seven or something. So you at

418
00:20:18,520 --> 00:20:21,800
Speaker 3: that point where you know, you're starting to get very cold,

419
00:20:22,200 --> 00:20:26,840
Speaker 3: and there's not much heating on board the boat, so

420
00:20:26,880 --> 00:20:29,960
Speaker 3: when you're eating your food in the in the canteen.

421
00:20:29,560 --> 00:20:32,479
Speaker 2: Is sub zero as well, so you can see your breath.

422
00:20:32,800 --> 00:20:36,359
Speaker 3: Physically, temperature wise, it was all right, but but you

423
00:20:36,640 --> 00:20:39,800
Speaker 3: just out on deck when you're working on the deck

424
00:20:39,920 --> 00:20:42,880
Speaker 3: in the daytime, you know, in rough weather you've got

425
00:20:43,160 --> 00:20:47,479
Speaker 3: waves actually going, you know, along the deck, so the

426
00:20:47,520 --> 00:20:50,000
Speaker 3: bow of the boat on a rough day would be

427
00:20:50,560 --> 00:20:53,040
Speaker 3: plunging into the waves and you'd get spray and waves

428
00:20:53,119 --> 00:20:56,160
Speaker 3: actually coming back across the deck. So that's the hard

429
00:20:56,200 --> 00:20:57,040
Speaker 3: the brutal part of it.

430
00:20:57,440 --> 00:20:59,920
Speaker 1: Yeah, it is brutal. And having been on ship before

431
00:21:00,640 --> 00:21:03,280
Speaker 1: and worked on a fishing ship as well, I know

432
00:21:03,320 --> 00:21:07,640
Speaker 1: how brutal it can be. But listen, take me back

433
00:21:07,680 --> 00:21:10,840
Speaker 1: to so everything's hunky dory. You've got a nice routine going,

434
00:21:11,240 --> 00:21:13,480
Speaker 1: you're getting on well with everyone, the banter is good.

435
00:21:13,520 --> 00:21:16,919
Speaker 1: You know, you're finding your flow. And then take me

436
00:21:17,000 --> 00:21:22,400
Speaker 1: back to Saturday, the sixth of June nineteen ninety eight,

437
00:21:22,440 --> 00:21:23,400
Speaker 1: to that day if you can.

438
00:21:24,040 --> 00:21:26,840
Speaker 3: Yeah, so I woke up in the morning and stuck

439
00:21:26,840 --> 00:21:28,600
Speaker 3: my head out herd of Winch's wine in which meant

440
00:21:28,600 --> 00:21:30,480
Speaker 3: that somebody was bringing the fishing line on board, and

441
00:21:30,480 --> 00:21:31,720
Speaker 3: so I stuck my head out to see what the

442
00:21:31,760 --> 00:21:32,560
Speaker 3: conditions were going to.

443
00:21:32,480 --> 00:21:33,120
Speaker 2: Be like that day.

444
00:21:33,119 --> 00:21:35,560
Speaker 3: And it was the roughest day we'd had like so

445
00:21:35,720 --> 00:21:37,879
Speaker 3: far that trip. The crew were We're getting washed around

446
00:21:37,920 --> 00:21:39,960
Speaker 3: on deck and that was not a good time. When

447
00:21:39,960 --> 00:21:42,320
Speaker 3: the fishing hadn't even started yet. They were just bringing

448
00:21:42,320 --> 00:21:46,520
Speaker 3: the ankle line up and you know, they not we

449
00:21:46,520 --> 00:21:48,639
Speaker 3: weren't anchored to the seabed, but they were bringing up

450
00:21:48,640 --> 00:21:50,920
Speaker 3: the ankle line that held the fishing line to the seabed,

451
00:21:50,960 --> 00:21:53,800
Speaker 3: and basically I looked out on deck to see my

452
00:21:54,080 --> 00:21:56,760
Speaker 3: crewmates Sween and that were just being washed around, and

453
00:21:56,760 --> 00:21:58,400
Speaker 3: I thought, ah, right, okay, it's gonna be one of those.

454
00:21:58,440 --> 00:22:01,000
Speaker 3: So I put on every layer I had and headed

455
00:22:01,040 --> 00:22:03,119
Speaker 3: out onto the deck. That morning, I was supposed to

456
00:22:03,160 --> 00:22:06,320
Speaker 3: do a couple of hours on deck, and it was

457
00:22:06,680 --> 00:22:10,119
Speaker 3: like a rodeo. Frankly, so the Pseudohavid, you've got a

458
00:22:10,160 --> 00:22:12,920
Speaker 3: bear in mind that she's going up and down.

459
00:22:12,760 --> 00:22:14,720
Speaker 2: With the waves, side to side with.

460
00:22:14,720 --> 00:22:17,679
Speaker 3: The waves, and just just we had to try and

461
00:22:17,760 --> 00:22:20,720
Speaker 3: keep a certain angle to try and get the fish

462
00:22:20,760 --> 00:22:21,200
Speaker 3: on board.

463
00:22:21,320 --> 00:22:24,600
Speaker 1: Oh you're so you're focusing even though the conditions are

464
00:22:24,600 --> 00:22:27,680
Speaker 1: so bad. You're not just focusing on making sure that

465
00:22:27,720 --> 00:22:31,920
Speaker 1: the ship is stacking intact. You're focusing on that and

466
00:22:32,040 --> 00:22:33,960
Speaker 1: on making sure that you can steal fish.

467
00:22:34,680 --> 00:22:34,960
Speaker 2: Yeah.

468
00:22:35,640 --> 00:22:39,560
Speaker 3: Underneath us is a line that's basically fifteen kilometers long

469
00:22:40,000 --> 00:22:43,159
Speaker 3: with fifteen thousand hooks on it. Each one bait with

470
00:22:43,200 --> 00:22:45,600
Speaker 3: a sardine has been in the water overnight. And so

471
00:22:46,000 --> 00:22:48,440
Speaker 3: when we retrieved the boyline and the ankle on the

472
00:22:48,440 --> 00:22:50,720
Speaker 3: next day, basically we're going to be spending the day

473
00:22:51,080 --> 00:22:54,879
Speaker 3: like bringing a fifteen thousand hooks on board, and you

474
00:22:54,960 --> 00:22:57,920
Speaker 3: need to be just over the line when you're bringing

475
00:22:57,920 --> 00:23:00,800
Speaker 3: those on board so you don't knock the fish or

476
00:23:01,080 --> 00:23:03,919
Speaker 3: stretch and break the line. So Butty had explained all

477
00:23:03,960 --> 00:23:06,000
Speaker 3: this to me before, but we were basically holding our

478
00:23:06,040 --> 00:23:11,120
Speaker 3: position in this rough weather. Now I went out and

479
00:23:11,160 --> 00:23:13,600
Speaker 3: when I looked around, my attitude on that boat was,

480
00:23:13,640 --> 00:23:15,320
Speaker 3: if we're fishing, I'm going to be out on deck,

481
00:23:15,400 --> 00:23:18,000
Speaker 3: so you know, if they are expected to work in this,

482
00:23:18,040 --> 00:23:21,359
Speaker 3: then I'm going to go out there and imbrace myself

483
00:23:21,400 --> 00:23:24,879
Speaker 3: in the corner, sort of rap my knee into a

484
00:23:24,960 --> 00:23:27,879
Speaker 3: railing so I could, you know, basically watch what was

485
00:23:27,880 --> 00:23:30,960
Speaker 3: going on without having to sort of cling on for

486
00:23:31,000 --> 00:23:33,199
Speaker 3: dear life. So I'm braced in the corner watching it.

487
00:23:33,240 --> 00:23:37,120
Speaker 3: And I managed to complete my observations first first hour

488
00:23:37,160 --> 00:23:39,640
Speaker 3: of observations, and then go back in then come back

489
00:23:39,680 --> 00:23:42,440
Speaker 3: out again on deck. And the waves were enormous. I

490
00:23:42,480 --> 00:23:45,159
Speaker 3: mean at ten o'clock in the morning, they were the

491
00:23:45,200 --> 00:23:47,520
Speaker 3: waves were cast in shadows on the deck, you know,

492
00:23:47,640 --> 00:23:50,520
Speaker 3: actually big enough to block out the sun. So I

493
00:23:50,600 --> 00:23:54,000
Speaker 3: reckon that the swells were sort of ten meters or so.

494
00:23:54,200 --> 00:23:58,600
Speaker 1: Wow, you're experiencing that whole impact of ten meters right.

495
00:23:58,640 --> 00:24:01,000
Speaker 1: That's you know, as the swell moves.

496
00:24:01,080 --> 00:24:02,920
Speaker 2: That's especially at.

497
00:24:02,840 --> 00:24:04,879
Speaker 3: The bough where we were near the boar, and you know,

498
00:24:04,880 --> 00:24:06,679
Speaker 3: the bar would be up in the air. As you

499
00:24:06,720 --> 00:24:07,960
Speaker 3: go over the crest of the way, the boar is

500
00:24:08,000 --> 00:24:09,719
Speaker 3: going to be launched up into the air, and then

501
00:24:09,720 --> 00:24:11,840
Speaker 3: when you get to the to the trough at the bottom,

502
00:24:12,080 --> 00:24:15,520
Speaker 3: then the boar would plunge underwater and then you'd get

503
00:24:15,840 --> 00:24:19,320
Speaker 3: green waves actually coming along the boat and you know,

504
00:24:19,440 --> 00:24:21,600
Speaker 3: hitting me on the back, hitting Trevor in the face,

505
00:24:22,040 --> 00:24:23,919
Speaker 3: and sweeping along.

506
00:24:24,440 --> 00:24:27,600
Speaker 2: And we were still fishing that day. Fishing was going well.

507
00:24:27,640 --> 00:24:29,200
Speaker 3: So they were catching quite a lot of big fish,

508
00:24:29,560 --> 00:24:31,080
Speaker 3: you know, looking at bring a couple of tons of

509
00:24:31,119 --> 00:24:33,320
Speaker 3: fish on board. And that fish, tooth fish is called

510
00:24:33,800 --> 00:24:36,280
Speaker 3: or Chilian sea bass. Chilean sea bass is what you

511
00:24:36,359 --> 00:24:38,399
Speaker 3: see in the shops, and that that sells, you know,

512
00:24:38,440 --> 00:24:40,640
Speaker 3: for a very good price. So we were catching well

513
00:24:41,440 --> 00:24:45,760
Speaker 3: and bring the fish on on board, and I just

514
00:24:46,000 --> 00:24:47,159
Speaker 3: thought it was crazy.

515
00:24:47,200 --> 00:24:50,159
Speaker 2: I was surprised we were fishing, but you know, they

516
00:24:50,240 --> 00:24:50,760
Speaker 2: knew better.

517
00:24:51,000 --> 00:24:54,879
Speaker 3: And so when I finished my morning's observations, you know,

518
00:24:56,440 --> 00:24:59,520
Speaker 3: I went and hung my suit up to dry, and

519
00:24:59,560 --> 00:25:01,639
Speaker 3: I was fin up onto the bridge and I was

520
00:25:01,680 --> 00:25:03,479
Speaker 3: just watching the guys down below, and they were just

521
00:25:04,000 --> 00:25:06,160
Speaker 3: the conditions were crazy. People are still having to move

522
00:25:06,200 --> 00:25:08,159
Speaker 3: all this rope to the back of the boat and

523
00:25:08,240 --> 00:25:10,560
Speaker 3: operate on the deck trying to catch these fish. But

524
00:25:10,640 --> 00:25:13,280
Speaker 3: the boat was rolling so much that the bridge went

525
00:25:13,400 --> 00:25:16,359
Speaker 3: over to the side, was very nearly touching the water,

526
00:25:16,480 --> 00:25:18,840
Speaker 3: you know, like the boat bobbed like a duck. And

527
00:25:19,000 --> 00:25:21,600
Speaker 3: watching the lives of the crew being played out on

528
00:25:21,640 --> 00:25:24,080
Speaker 3: the deck below, you just see how crazy it was.

529
00:25:24,280 --> 00:25:27,240
Speaker 3: And then that afternoon I was down in the factory

530
00:25:27,280 --> 00:25:30,719
Speaker 3: for a few hours to watch in process some catching

531
00:25:30,920 --> 00:25:33,639
Speaker 3: and actually watch what was going on. And there was

532
00:25:33,760 --> 00:25:36,159
Speaker 3: water exploding through the hatches because of the way that

533
00:25:36,359 --> 00:25:38,840
Speaker 3: the pseudo Harved had been changed over the years. Basically,

534
00:25:38,920 --> 00:25:41,200
Speaker 3: there were some hatches that came into the factory where

535
00:25:41,240 --> 00:25:44,520
Speaker 3: the line came in and where the fish came in,

536
00:25:45,080 --> 00:25:48,080
Speaker 3: and those hatches had to remain open if we were

537
00:25:48,640 --> 00:25:55,439
Speaker 3: catching fish, and the waves were hitting the winch area outside,

538
00:25:55,640 --> 00:25:57,600
Speaker 3: which was like a bulcony almost in the side of

539
00:25:57,600 --> 00:25:59,840
Speaker 3: the boat, and they were just exploding. So every few

540
00:26:00,119 --> 00:26:01,800
Speaker 3: it was not everywhere, but every few waves, one of

541
00:26:01,800 --> 00:26:03,800
Speaker 3: the waves would hit just the wrong angle and it

542
00:26:03,800 --> 00:26:06,600
Speaker 3: would explode through those hatches into the factory and just

543
00:26:06,920 --> 00:26:12,400
Speaker 3: send seawater like showering across and like freezing cold seawater

544
00:26:12,480 --> 00:26:15,520
Speaker 3: belting across, and you know, you hear squawks and screams

545
00:26:15,520 --> 00:26:16,400
Speaker 3: from the crew when they.

546
00:26:16,280 --> 00:26:17,119
Speaker 2: Got hit by that.

547
00:26:17,880 --> 00:26:20,000
Speaker 3: But the fish were coming in and they were actually

548
00:26:20,040 --> 00:26:22,239
Speaker 3: piling up. So I started working on that, and I

549
00:26:22,320 --> 00:26:23,720
Speaker 3: was working on a hatch in the middle of the

550
00:26:23,880 --> 00:26:26,240
Speaker 3: factory as a big flat area where I could.

551
00:26:26,040 --> 00:26:27,760
Speaker 2: Actually you know, dissect the fish.

552
00:26:28,000 --> 00:26:30,080
Speaker 3: But I'd noticed when I came in that water was

553
00:26:30,160 --> 00:26:33,080
Speaker 3: running backwards and forwards across the deck of the boat.

554
00:26:33,080 --> 00:26:36,000
Speaker 3: This was like a treadplate, so metal treadplate, and you

555
00:26:36,000 --> 00:26:38,960
Speaker 3: could hear the water like tinkling as it went across.

556
00:26:39,000 --> 00:26:41,200
Speaker 3: Quite a nice sound in a way, quite therapeutic.

557
00:26:41,800 --> 00:26:43,720
Speaker 2: But that wasn't normal.

558
00:26:43,720 --> 00:26:45,880
Speaker 3: They were having problems with these pumps that had been

559
00:26:45,920 --> 00:26:49,040
Speaker 3: replaced and they were blocking up with fish.

560
00:26:49,040 --> 00:26:52,080
Speaker 1: They weren't doing their job right, yeah, and the pumps

561
00:26:52,080 --> 00:26:52,720
Speaker 1: weren't working.

562
00:26:53,280 --> 00:26:53,480
Speaker 2: Yeah.

563
00:26:53,520 --> 00:26:55,560
Speaker 3: Melvin, our electrician, had one of the pumps out and

564
00:26:55,640 --> 00:26:57,320
Speaker 3: was trying to fix it. So it was in pieces

565
00:26:57,320 --> 00:27:00,960
Speaker 3: on a bench there, and they just weren't working, so

566
00:27:01,000 --> 00:27:05,760
Speaker 3: they weren't clearing, but we were still fishing. And then

567
00:27:06,240 --> 00:27:09,040
Speaker 3: the water gradually during my time down the factory was

568
00:27:09,080 --> 00:27:13,080
Speaker 3: gradually building up, and then at a point like it

569
00:27:13,119 --> 00:27:15,440
Speaker 3: was more cascade in backwards and forwards, but at a

570
00:27:15,480 --> 00:27:17,600
Speaker 3: point it went over the top of my welly, over

571
00:27:17,640 --> 00:27:19,480
Speaker 3: the top of my boot, and for the first time

572
00:27:19,520 --> 00:27:21,760
Speaker 3: on the boat, I had like freezing cold seawater in

573
00:27:21,800 --> 00:27:23,959
Speaker 3: my boot. And I laughed and said, ah, a lot,

574
00:27:24,000 --> 00:27:25,720
Speaker 3: I've got wet feet. I'm going to stop work now.

575
00:27:26,440 --> 00:27:28,200
Speaker 3: And so I sat up on the hatch in the middle,

576
00:27:29,600 --> 00:27:32,360
Speaker 3: just watching what was going on, and everybody was still working.

577
00:27:32,480 --> 00:27:35,959
Speaker 3: People were trying to get these pumps fixed, but nobody

578
00:27:36,040 --> 00:27:38,199
Speaker 3: was panicking. So I thought, right, I won't either. I

579
00:27:38,200 --> 00:27:39,639
Speaker 3: didn't think at that point it was going to get

580
00:27:39,640 --> 00:27:41,360
Speaker 3: out of hand, but I did think, right, we need

581
00:27:41,359 --> 00:27:43,480
Speaker 3: to get this sorted. So we had discussions about, you know,

582
00:27:43,520 --> 00:27:47,840
Speaker 3: people going up to see the skipper, and so several

583
00:27:47,880 --> 00:27:51,640
Speaker 3: people like Charlie, who was like the sort of factory bowsain,

584
00:27:51,880 --> 00:27:55,240
Speaker 3: like the factory boss, at one point went up to

585
00:27:55,280 --> 00:27:57,360
Speaker 3: try and get some help from the engineers or from

586
00:27:57,400 --> 00:28:01,520
Speaker 3: the bridge and over then the timers that were built up.

587
00:28:01,880 --> 00:28:04,680
Speaker 3: We'd been to the engineers in the engine room, we'd

588
00:28:04,720 --> 00:28:07,960
Speaker 3: been to the bridge to try and get bubbles and booty,

589
00:28:08,200 --> 00:28:11,720
Speaker 3: but they wouldn't come. The engineers wouldn't come, and the

590
00:28:11,760 --> 00:28:13,600
Speaker 3: bubbles and body wouldn't come down to check what was

591
00:28:13,600 --> 00:28:16,199
Speaker 3: going on. So even though, so Charlie went up and

592
00:28:16,240 --> 00:28:19,840
Speaker 3: then one of the other guys went up to go

593
00:28:19,880 --> 00:28:21,439
Speaker 3: and see and try and get help, and then they

594
00:28:21,440 --> 00:28:24,600
Speaker 3: said you go. So I went to try and get

595
00:28:24,640 --> 00:28:27,480
Speaker 3: help from the engine room, couldn't find anybody, went to

596
00:28:27,560 --> 00:28:29,159
Speaker 3: the up to the bridge.

597
00:28:29,600 --> 00:28:31,320
Speaker 2: Eventually went up to the bridge.

598
00:28:31,280 --> 00:28:34,399
Speaker 3: And I said, Skipper, you know we've got a bit

599
00:28:34,440 --> 00:28:37,240
Speaker 3: of water in the factory. And he said yes, Matt

600
00:28:37,280 --> 00:28:40,520
Speaker 3: shut the door any way out and like I just,

601
00:28:42,640 --> 00:28:44,959
Speaker 3: you know, I was so embarrassed, like you know, like

602
00:28:45,000 --> 00:28:48,160
Speaker 3: I was mortified. I turned away and walked away and

603
00:28:48,200 --> 00:28:51,680
Speaker 3: went out, and like, to my to my regret, I

604
00:28:51,720 --> 00:28:56,040
Speaker 3: didn't like say no, no, come and look please, you know,

605
00:28:56,160 --> 00:28:59,040
Speaker 3: like I should have done anything to get them down there,

606
00:28:59,040 --> 00:29:01,280
Speaker 3: because if they just come down two flights of stairs,

607
00:29:01,280 --> 00:29:04,080
Speaker 3: they would have seen that the factory was basically a

608
00:29:04,320 --> 00:29:07,560
Speaker 3: wash with water that we had. We could not get

609
00:29:07,600 --> 00:29:11,200
Speaker 3: this that Melvin couldn't get the pump mended. And eventually,

610
00:29:13,000 --> 00:29:16,560
Speaker 3: like one of the engineers came into the to the

611
00:29:16,560 --> 00:29:22,240
Speaker 3: factory and then you know, you think, right, okay, everything

612
00:29:22,240 --> 00:29:24,800
Speaker 3: would bear a cane now, but it wasn't.

613
00:29:25,880 --> 00:29:26,120
Speaker 2: I think.

614
00:29:27,440 --> 00:29:32,040
Speaker 3: I found my cabin mate, Glenn in in the in

615
00:29:32,160 --> 00:29:35,400
Speaker 3: the in the cruise mess and he was just trying

616
00:29:35,400 --> 00:29:37,360
Speaker 3: to get some oilskins, and I said, come into the

617
00:29:37,360 --> 00:29:40,520
Speaker 3: factory now, and he came in and we waded through

618
00:29:40,560 --> 00:29:42,840
Speaker 3: the water to get to these pumps, and he showed

619
00:29:42,880 --> 00:29:46,080
Speaker 3: me how to clear the bottom of the grill on

620
00:29:46,120 --> 00:29:48,520
Speaker 3: the bottom of one of the pumps. So reached down

621
00:29:48,520 --> 00:29:50,880
Speaker 3: and I thought that there was a macerator like a

622
00:29:51,400 --> 00:29:52,760
Speaker 3: blade on the bottom. I was going to get my

623
00:29:52,760 --> 00:29:54,680
Speaker 3: fingers ripped off, but he said, you know, explained that

624
00:29:54,680 --> 00:29:56,720
Speaker 3: there was a grill and if we reached underneath, and

625
00:29:56,920 --> 00:29:58,640
Speaker 3: he was doing it clear and underneath the pump, and

626
00:29:58,680 --> 00:30:05,680
Speaker 3: we you know, we were clearing this pump and the

627
00:30:05,920 --> 00:30:09,400
Speaker 3: water rolled over and he just disappeared like the boat. Sorry,

628
00:30:09,400 --> 00:30:11,600
Speaker 3: the boat rolled back and the water came came over

629
00:30:11,760 --> 00:30:15,440
Speaker 3: and Glen just disappeared underwater. So I picked him up

630
00:30:15,600 --> 00:30:18,479
Speaker 3: put him on his feet. He was gasping, and I said, right,

631
00:30:18,560 --> 00:30:20,800
Speaker 3: I know what to do now, you know, And so

632
00:30:20,920 --> 00:30:23,440
Speaker 3: I started doing it. I was so pleased because at

633
00:30:23,480 --> 00:30:25,640
Speaker 3: one point in between the ways, I managed to clear

634
00:30:25,680 --> 00:30:27,520
Speaker 3: the bottom of the pump and I watched the water

635
00:30:28,000 --> 00:30:30,560
Speaker 3: around the pump go down within the well it was

636
00:30:30,600 --> 00:30:32,840
Speaker 3: sitting in, and I thought, brilliant, I've done it.

637
00:30:33,880 --> 00:30:34,640
Speaker 2: This is magic.

638
00:30:35,040 --> 00:30:37,480
Speaker 3: And then I realized that the water hadn't come back

639
00:30:37,520 --> 00:30:41,080
Speaker 3: down back across the factory, like instead of rolling and

640
00:30:41,120 --> 00:30:44,400
Speaker 3: the water swishing side to side, the pseudo had had

641
00:30:44,680 --> 00:30:47,160
Speaker 3: fallen to one side, like she'd fallen to starboard, so

642
00:30:47,200 --> 00:30:49,120
Speaker 3: she'sly on the right hand side and the water wasn't

643
00:30:49,120 --> 00:30:52,960
Speaker 3: coming back over. So that moment of thinking, wow, brilliant,

644
00:30:53,280 --> 00:30:56,280
Speaker 3: I've solved them problemly. Yeah, you know, I've got one

645
00:30:56,320 --> 00:30:58,000
Speaker 3: pump which is working, and then.

646
00:31:00,200 --> 00:31:01,520
Speaker 2: It was it was useless.

647
00:31:10,600 --> 00:31:13,640
Speaker 1: Is that when you realize how bad the situation was

648
00:31:13,720 --> 00:31:16,120
Speaker 1: and what happened and what did you do there after?

649
00:31:17,000 --> 00:31:18,680
Speaker 3: Yeah, when we looked around the factory, it was me

650
00:31:18,720 --> 00:31:22,080
Speaker 3: and Glenn and then it was probably six of the

651
00:31:22,120 --> 00:31:24,240
Speaker 3: crew were down there, and you know, they've been working

652
00:31:24,280 --> 00:31:27,600
Speaker 3: so hard. And I looked around and saw life jackets

653
00:31:27,600 --> 00:31:31,320
Speaker 3: being thrown across the factory and I thought, what arm bells?

654
00:31:31,400 --> 00:31:33,600
Speaker 1: This is? This is poperbly, this is things have just

655
00:31:33,640 --> 00:31:35,040
Speaker 1: got serious right now, right.

656
00:31:35,680 --> 00:31:39,200
Speaker 3: And where's mine? You know, there weren't enough life jackets

657
00:31:39,240 --> 00:31:41,000
Speaker 3: have been passed down, so there wasn't one for me.

658
00:31:41,040 --> 00:31:42,479
Speaker 3: And I said to Glenn, like, you know, we need

659
00:31:42,480 --> 00:31:44,280
Speaker 3: to get out of here now. So we went out

660
00:31:44,360 --> 00:31:46,920
Speaker 3: and the corridor was on the boat, on the side

661
00:31:46,920 --> 00:31:49,440
Speaker 3: of the boat that was lower, so the escape corrier

662
00:31:49,440 --> 00:31:51,600
Speaker 3: was on the side of the boat you needed to

663
00:31:51,640 --> 00:31:53,960
Speaker 3: go along was basically deep in water, so we had

664
00:31:54,000 --> 00:31:57,560
Speaker 3: to climb up on a bench and walk along. The

665
00:31:57,880 --> 00:32:00,040
Speaker 3: water was hitting the hitting the fluorescent lights of the

666
00:32:00,080 --> 00:32:03,280
Speaker 3: top up on the ceiling, and they were flickering and spluttering.

667
00:32:04,800 --> 00:32:06,960
Speaker 3: But that was the point when we left the factory,

668
00:32:07,480 --> 00:32:09,880
Speaker 3: you know, there was at that point there were fewer

669
00:32:10,040 --> 00:32:12,000
Speaker 3: probably I suppose by that point fewer than six of

670
00:32:12,080 --> 00:32:14,240
Speaker 3: us left in the factory out of thirty eight. I

671
00:32:14,280 --> 00:32:17,040
Speaker 3: hadn't quite clicked that everybody else had gone. And when

672
00:32:17,040 --> 00:32:18,160
Speaker 3: we got out into the rest of the boat, you

673
00:32:18,200 --> 00:32:20,680
Speaker 3: suddenly realized what angle you're at, because things like the

674
00:32:20,760 --> 00:32:23,959
Speaker 3: curtains in the cabins, you know, they're hanging away from

675
00:32:24,000 --> 00:32:27,480
Speaker 3: the wall, and the staircase to get up to my

676
00:32:27,680 --> 00:32:31,120
Speaker 3: cabin was suddenly very easy because it was not sloping

677
00:32:31,120 --> 00:32:33,600
Speaker 3: as much because of the till of the boat. And

678
00:32:33,640 --> 00:32:36,520
Speaker 3: I stuck my head out on deck and there's everybody

679
00:32:36,600 --> 00:32:40,160
Speaker 3: else there lined up with all their oil skins on,

680
00:32:40,360 --> 00:32:41,160
Speaker 3: life jackets on.

681
00:32:42,680 --> 00:32:46,360
Speaker 2: I said to Trevor, what's happening? Are we abandoned? Now? What?

682
00:32:46,520 --> 00:32:48,960
Speaker 2: He said, Yeah, we're going.

683
00:32:48,800 --> 00:32:51,920
Speaker 1: Oh you didn't even know that they were going through

684
00:32:52,000 --> 00:32:55,360
Speaker 1: the emergency besieges of abandoning ship.

685
00:32:55,440 --> 00:32:58,040
Speaker 2: Yeah, there was no emergency procedure. They just the decision

686
00:32:58,040 --> 00:33:00,200
Speaker 2: had been made. But there was no life jacket.

687
00:33:00,280 --> 00:33:02,320
Speaker 3: You know, there was a there was a tunnel here

688
00:33:02,480 --> 00:33:05,200
Speaker 3: public announcement system on the boat, but it hadn't been used.

689
00:33:05,200 --> 00:33:07,240
Speaker 3: There'd been no like plaques or anything like that to

690
00:33:07,240 --> 00:33:08,760
Speaker 3: tell us to abandon ship. It had just been the

691
00:33:08,800 --> 00:33:10,920
Speaker 3: last minute decision. And when the boat had rolled to

692
00:33:10,960 --> 00:33:13,800
Speaker 3: the side and wasn't coming back up, I you know,

693
00:33:13,840 --> 00:33:16,560
Speaker 3: we were right to get out of there. It was

694
00:33:17,000 --> 00:33:20,840
Speaker 3: just how you know, like the big waves were rolling

695
00:33:20,880 --> 00:33:23,240
Speaker 3: in hitting the side of the boat. The wind was

696
00:33:23,920 --> 00:33:26,800
Speaker 3: basically tearing the swells apart, so you had foams streaking

697
00:33:26,840 --> 00:33:29,400
Speaker 3: down the side of the swells, and I you know,

698
00:33:29,520 --> 00:33:31,520
Speaker 3: at that point, I remember looking out onto this like

699
00:33:31,680 --> 00:33:35,040
Speaker 3: gray heaving seas, just being torn apart by the wind

700
00:33:35,080 --> 00:33:36,920
Speaker 3: and just thinking, what the hell are we going to

701
00:33:36,960 --> 00:33:39,960
Speaker 3: do now? You know, we are in the middle of nowhere,

702
00:33:40,160 --> 00:33:43,280
Speaker 3: like South Georgia is a remote island, but we were

703
00:33:44,240 --> 00:33:46,640
Speaker 3: I know, it was one hundred and something miles off

704
00:33:46,680 --> 00:33:50,120
Speaker 3: of the off of the land. The nearest rock was

705
00:33:50,200 --> 00:33:52,520
Speaker 3: twenty something miles away, and I didn't even know that

706
00:33:52,600 --> 00:33:55,000
Speaker 3: was actually a rock sticking out of them, just cold

707
00:33:55,040 --> 00:33:56,360
Speaker 3: showed rocks. But I didn't know if it was a

708
00:33:56,400 --> 00:33:59,720
Speaker 3: natural rock or not. We were middle of nowhere, didn't

709
00:33:59,720 --> 00:34:02,160
Speaker 3: know where the nearest boat was. You know, you look

710
00:34:02,200 --> 00:34:05,160
Speaker 3: out and there's it was a storm. That's like there's storm.

711
00:34:05,240 --> 00:34:10,239
Speaker 3: There's snow showers blowing through. It's like snow flurries blowing through.

712
00:34:10,600 --> 00:34:14,520
Speaker 3: The wind is just screaming. And then on the sheltered

713
00:34:14,520 --> 00:34:16,480
Speaker 3: side of the boat where the crew were actually it

714
00:34:16,560 --> 00:34:19,680
Speaker 3: felt right. You could actually have a conversation and you

715
00:34:19,760 --> 00:34:21,719
Speaker 3: said about you know, them preparing to abandon ship. But

716
00:34:21,719 --> 00:34:23,680
Speaker 3: basically the crew were lined up there their life jackets

717
00:34:23,719 --> 00:34:26,680
Speaker 3: on I managed to find a life jacket. They somebody

718
00:34:26,719 --> 00:34:29,120
Speaker 3: had knocked the life jackets were kept in a locked

719
00:34:29,160 --> 00:34:32,440
Speaker 3: cupboard to stop them from being stolen, and somebody had

720
00:34:32,480 --> 00:34:34,319
Speaker 3: knocked the lock off with an axe because nobody could

721
00:34:34,320 --> 00:34:36,680
Speaker 3: find the key, and so they're all spilled out on

722
00:34:36,680 --> 00:34:38,000
Speaker 3: the floor. I found one of those, and I just

723
00:34:38,040 --> 00:34:41,319
Speaker 3: had this moment when I thought, right, one moment, I

724
00:34:41,400 --> 00:34:44,280
Speaker 3: ducked into my cabin and just tried to calm myself

725
00:34:44,320 --> 00:34:48,160
Speaker 3: down because I could feel, like, you know, this situation

726
00:34:49,280 --> 00:34:53,520
Speaker 3: of panic and yeah, and I thought, I need my suit,

727
00:34:53,560 --> 00:34:56,040
Speaker 3: my deck Suit's my best chance. And then I thought

728
00:34:56,400 --> 00:34:58,960
Speaker 3: there have been stories that if we had to abandon ship,

729
00:34:59,000 --> 00:35:01,560
Speaker 3: that the crew would fight knives for a place on

730
00:35:01,600 --> 00:35:05,080
Speaker 3: a raft, and I thought, oh, maybe they'll take try

731
00:35:05,080 --> 00:35:05,640
Speaker 3: and take it off me.

732
00:35:05,719 --> 00:35:07,480
Speaker 2: Do I get it. No, it's my best chats, I'll

733
00:35:07,480 --> 00:35:07,840
Speaker 2: grab that.

734
00:35:08,520 --> 00:35:11,240
Speaker 1: And so this was going through your head like Survival

735
00:35:11,280 --> 00:35:12,760
Speaker 1: of the Fittest basically.

736
00:35:12,960 --> 00:35:15,839
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, because Danny had sort of warmed me about that,

737
00:35:16,600 --> 00:35:20,240
Speaker 3: there's been a situation just before that when I suppose

738
00:35:20,520 --> 00:35:22,759
Speaker 3: one of the moments when I really knew that the

739
00:35:22,800 --> 00:35:24,759
Speaker 3: things were hit in the fan was was we've been

740
00:35:24,800 --> 00:35:26,759
Speaker 3: down in the factory when this whole thing with the

741
00:35:26,760 --> 00:35:29,959
Speaker 3: pumps had happened, and Darny had said to me, Matt,

742
00:35:30,120 --> 00:35:32,239
Speaker 3: have you got a knife. I said, yeah, yeah, sure

743
00:35:32,280 --> 00:35:35,320
Speaker 3: and handed him a big fileting knife and he stabbed

744
00:35:35,360 --> 00:35:37,520
Speaker 3: it in the wooden block next to him and said there.

745
00:35:37,920 --> 00:35:40,880
Speaker 3: Now we're ready. And I and it was him saying,

746
00:35:41,280 --> 00:35:46,080
Speaker 3: you know, there's a risk of us happening to do this,

747
00:35:46,160 --> 00:35:46,960
Speaker 3: Something's going to happen.

748
00:35:47,400 --> 00:35:47,640
Speaker 2: Yeah.

749
00:35:48,040 --> 00:35:50,719
Speaker 3: I was not ready for that. So I decided I was,

750
00:35:50,760 --> 00:35:56,080
Speaker 3: you know, and actually you know, I decided I was

751
00:35:56,080 --> 00:35:57,839
Speaker 3: going to go and get my deck suit. Nearly got

752
00:35:57,880 --> 00:36:00,839
Speaker 3: stuck in the in the chimney stack trying to get it,

753
00:36:00,880 --> 00:36:02,960
Speaker 3: which is ridiculous, but I was stuck in my in

754
00:36:03,000 --> 00:36:05,640
Speaker 3: my decks. So now I'm wearing lots of layers. Got

755
00:36:05,680 --> 00:36:08,719
Speaker 3: this this this Dex the best chance. And we we

756
00:36:08,800 --> 00:36:10,520
Speaker 3: then went to launch the life rafts. And I'd never

757
00:36:10,560 --> 00:36:13,480
Speaker 3: launched the life raft before. I hadn't done any survival

758
00:36:13,480 --> 00:36:17,920
Speaker 3: training like that. Shaquim next to me experience twenty five

759
00:36:18,000 --> 00:36:20,399
Speaker 3: years at sea Portuguese and he hadn't either.

760
00:36:20,520 --> 00:36:20,880
Speaker 2: So we.

761
00:36:22,480 --> 00:36:26,320
Speaker 3: Cut the lines that hold the canister and then released it,

762
00:36:25,400 --> 00:36:29,520
Speaker 3: and the first one we rolled into the water, hit

763
00:36:29,560 --> 00:36:32,640
Speaker 3: the water, and then nothing happened. Somebody pulled the rope

764
00:36:32,640 --> 00:36:35,200
Speaker 3: on it. They're supposed to make it discharge and inflating.

765
00:36:35,719 --> 00:36:38,920
Speaker 3: Nothing happened. That's just a big fiberglass capsule floating there

766
00:36:38,920 --> 00:36:40,600
Speaker 3: with forward.

767
00:36:40,800 --> 00:36:44,680
Speaker 1: Bad to worse mate. And how are you communicating? Do

768
00:36:44,719 --> 00:36:47,600
Speaker 1: you do you feel the hostility of it's every man

769
00:36:47,640 --> 00:36:50,920
Speaker 1: for himself or are you actually coming together you communicating,

770
00:36:50,960 --> 00:36:53,280
Speaker 1: are you working as a team or is it literally

771
00:36:53,360 --> 00:36:56,440
Speaker 1: what you were joking about is actually transpiring right now?

772
00:36:56,480 --> 00:36:59,600
Speaker 1: It's like every every man for himself done?

773
00:37:00,480 --> 00:37:03,360
Speaker 2: You know, given me that sign, I suppose signal.

774
00:37:03,760 --> 00:37:07,160
Speaker 3: But actually after that moment, none of that happened, you know,

775
00:37:07,800 --> 00:37:11,880
Speaker 3: like everybody was not everybody was everybody was. I was

776
00:37:11,880 --> 00:37:13,520
Speaker 3: going to say everybody was helping each other, but they

777
00:37:13,560 --> 00:37:16,879
Speaker 3: weren't because importantly the officers were nowhere to be seen,

778
00:37:17,239 --> 00:37:20,680
Speaker 3: like the guys were still on the bridge. Nobody was

779
00:37:20,719 --> 00:37:23,439
Speaker 3: telling anybody where to, you know, what to do. But

780
00:37:23,560 --> 00:37:25,719
Speaker 3: when when I asked people for help with stuff, or

781
00:37:25,760 --> 00:37:28,280
Speaker 3: when we when I was yelling at people to do stuff,

782
00:37:28,400 --> 00:37:31,360
Speaker 3: it happened, and people were really good. So when Shakim

783
00:37:31,400 --> 00:37:35,120
Speaker 3: and I lifted went to push the next life wrapped

784
00:37:35,160 --> 00:37:38,279
Speaker 3: into the water. We mistimed it and it landed just

785
00:37:38,320 --> 00:37:40,040
Speaker 3: in between some of the people on the deck below.

786
00:37:40,280 --> 00:37:42,759
Speaker 3: Hit the deck cracked open, and then very quickly they

787
00:37:42,800 --> 00:37:45,200
Speaker 3: bundled it over the side and it inflated. So we

788
00:37:45,239 --> 00:37:48,080
Speaker 3: had one life raft for thirty eight guys, and these

789
00:37:48,120 --> 00:37:50,759
Speaker 3: life rafts are designed to hold, like, you know, either

790
00:37:50,800 --> 00:37:51,920
Speaker 3: fourteen or twenty people.

791
00:37:52,000 --> 00:37:53,040
Speaker 2: So it's not enough.

792
00:37:53,640 --> 00:37:56,640
Speaker 3: And so I turned to Bubbles, the skipper, and I said,

793
00:37:56,680 --> 00:37:58,839
Speaker 3: we'll launch the other life rafts. No, and he said, no, no,

794
00:37:59,040 --> 00:38:01,279
Speaker 3: that would be enough. No, no, no, We'll go and

795
00:38:01,360 --> 00:38:03,920
Speaker 3: launch the other one. So we went around and Shiquima

796
00:38:03,920 --> 00:38:05,960
Speaker 3: and I launched the other two life routes. They inflated

797
00:38:06,000 --> 00:38:07,799
Speaker 3: and the crew got them to the stern of the boat.

798
00:38:07,840 --> 00:38:10,200
Speaker 3: So there's three life routes at the stern of the boat.

799
00:38:11,440 --> 00:38:13,120
Speaker 1: What moment, Matt, did you feel like that you had

800
00:38:13,160 --> 00:38:15,680
Speaker 1: to take charge that, you know, if you didn't step

801
00:38:15,719 --> 00:38:19,520
Speaker 1: in and really, you know, make things happen, that you know,

802
00:38:19,800 --> 00:38:22,800
Speaker 1: things weren't going to happen. You know, it almost sounds

803
00:38:22,880 --> 00:38:25,120
Speaker 1: like that you were forced to step up and take

804
00:38:25,160 --> 00:38:29,600
Speaker 1: some kind of leadership role because things were obviously chaotic

805
00:38:29,680 --> 00:38:33,080
Speaker 1: and going from from bad to extremely bad.

806
00:38:33,640 --> 00:38:36,120
Speaker 3: Yeah, very much so like it was just bubbles, and

807
00:38:36,120 --> 00:38:38,600
Speaker 3: but it just hadn't come down and to the factory

808
00:38:38,640 --> 00:38:40,839
Speaker 3: and even seen what was happening on their boat.

809
00:38:41,320 --> 00:38:42,160
Speaker 2: I didn't understand that.

810
00:38:42,239 --> 00:38:45,080
Speaker 3: But also the other guys, like the other experienced deck

811
00:38:45,120 --> 00:38:48,879
Speaker 3: bosses were nowhere around, like Charlie who was the deck

812
00:38:49,040 --> 00:38:51,399
Speaker 3: bows and like the South African guy. He was trying

813
00:38:51,400 --> 00:38:53,440
Speaker 3: to help and get people organized, and I think he

814
00:38:53,520 --> 00:38:55,080
Speaker 3: was one of the ones who got them organized on

815
00:38:55,120 --> 00:38:58,880
Speaker 3: the deck, but no everywhere else or the engineers nowhere

816
00:38:58,880 --> 00:39:01,279
Speaker 3: to be seen. When we were having problems with the

817
00:39:01,800 --> 00:39:04,520
Speaker 3: with the pumps, and that Klaus, the chief engineer, was

818
00:39:04,560 --> 00:39:06,799
Speaker 3: still in bed. It only appeared late in the day,

819
00:39:07,120 --> 00:39:09,640
Speaker 3: so there was nobody and all they experienced people who

820
00:39:09,719 --> 00:39:11,919
Speaker 3: I'd thought would guide us through this, they would nowhere

821
00:39:11,920 --> 00:39:13,640
Speaker 3: to be seen. There was a moment we just launched

822
00:39:13,680 --> 00:39:16,600
Speaker 3: the life routes and increasingly I'd had to be what

823
00:39:16,719 --> 00:39:19,160
Speaker 3: the one doing stuff and getting people to do things,

824
00:39:19,200 --> 00:39:22,080
Speaker 3: and I was going to go down the stairs at

825
00:39:22,080 --> 00:39:23,600
Speaker 3: the back to the life routes.

826
00:39:23,640 --> 00:39:24,879
Speaker 2: We just launched them, and.

827
00:39:24,840 --> 00:39:26,359
Speaker 3: I had this moment when I was on my own

828
00:39:26,920 --> 00:39:30,799
Speaker 3: and I thought this could be it, right, I need

829
00:39:30,840 --> 00:39:34,040
Speaker 3: to get as many people off this boat as possible.

830
00:39:34,200 --> 00:39:36,279
Speaker 3: We might not make it, but I don't want to

831
00:39:36,320 --> 00:39:38,479
Speaker 3: embarrass myself. Let's get as many people off this boat

832
00:39:38,480 --> 00:39:40,839
Speaker 3: as we can, as safely as we can. Let's give

833
00:39:40,840 --> 00:39:45,799
Speaker 3: ourselves the best chances. So started barking orders basically, and

834
00:39:46,200 --> 00:39:49,040
Speaker 3: we got all the crew were magic, We got the

835
00:39:49,400 --> 00:39:51,560
Speaker 3: life routes to the back of the boat, they lined up,

836
00:39:52,080 --> 00:39:54,400
Speaker 3: they were We tried to check them over to make

837
00:39:54,400 --> 00:39:56,400
Speaker 3: sure they were ready to go, and then when the

838
00:39:56,440 --> 00:39:59,640
Speaker 3: signal didn't come from the bridge, we started just yelled

839
00:39:59,680 --> 00:40:01,600
Speaker 3: and stuff, getting people to board the rafts at the

840
00:40:01,640 --> 00:40:05,360
Speaker 3: back to abandoned ship, which was not my place to

841
00:40:05,400 --> 00:40:10,080
Speaker 3: be doing that, and they started going no knives, no

842
00:40:10,200 --> 00:40:15,560
Speaker 3: fighting into the rafts, and you know, going along just

843
00:40:15,680 --> 00:40:18,680
Speaker 3: checking people were okay and ready, and actually catching myself

844
00:40:18,920 --> 00:40:21,319
Speaker 3: like going back to my lifeguard training from when I

845
00:40:21,360 --> 00:40:24,040
Speaker 3: was fifteen years old and saying literally yelling out to people,

846
00:40:24,239 --> 00:40:27,279
Speaker 3: don't panic, it will be fine. And I remember, like,

847
00:40:27,360 --> 00:40:29,200
Speaker 3: you know when you do that and you think, yeah, yeah, whatever,

848
00:40:29,239 --> 00:40:31,080
Speaker 3: you're going to like You're like you're going to stand

849
00:40:31,120 --> 00:40:32,600
Speaker 3: there and yell, don't panic, it will be fine and

850
00:40:32,600 --> 00:40:33,839
Speaker 3: actually don't help.

851
00:40:34,040 --> 00:40:37,040
Speaker 2: It'll be fine. We're good, you know, And yeah it helped,

852
00:40:37,560 --> 00:40:38,840
Speaker 2: so fall back on your training.

853
00:40:39,239 --> 00:40:42,280
Speaker 1: So how many people enter the life the life rafts?

854
00:40:42,280 --> 00:40:45,440
Speaker 1: Did do all thirty eight of you end up on

855
00:40:45,560 --> 00:40:47,719
Speaker 1: these life rafts? And how does the story and how

856
00:40:48,400 --> 00:40:50,840
Speaker 1: what happens to the actual vessel itself?

857
00:40:51,719 --> 00:40:54,080
Speaker 3: So I thought we all did get off into the

858
00:40:54,120 --> 00:40:58,120
Speaker 3: life raffs now like basically, I think we lost some

859
00:40:58,400 --> 00:41:01,560
Speaker 3: in the boarding, were in the maleey around the end.

860
00:41:01,960 --> 00:41:04,400
Speaker 3: So the sad thing is the first life raft that

861
00:41:04,840 --> 00:41:07,839
Speaker 3: I saw, I thought, there's one life raut that looked

862
00:41:07,920 --> 00:41:10,280
Speaker 3: newer than the others, Shaquim and Carlos.

863
00:41:11,080 --> 00:41:12,400
Speaker 2: I thought, that's the one I'm going to go for.

864
00:41:12,440 --> 00:41:14,600
Speaker 3: And when Shaquim and Carlos were in it too experienced

865
00:41:14,600 --> 00:41:16,640
Speaker 3: Portuguese guys, I thought, that's the one I want to

866
00:41:16,680 --> 00:41:16,920
Speaker 3: go for.

867
00:41:16,960 --> 00:41:17,879
Speaker 2: They'll know what they're doing.

868
00:41:18,760 --> 00:41:20,600
Speaker 3: And then I saw them drift away from the ship

869
00:41:20,600 --> 00:41:23,200
Speaker 3: and they'd cut the lines early with just two of

870
00:41:23,239 --> 00:41:25,319
Speaker 3: them on board. Now I don't know, maybe there were

871
00:41:25,360 --> 00:41:26,840
Speaker 3: somebody in the water they were trying to get to,

872
00:41:27,480 --> 00:41:29,960
Speaker 3: maybe something had happened, but they'd cut the lines and

873
00:41:30,000 --> 00:41:32,319
Speaker 3: the boat was drifting away with just two of them

874
00:41:32,360 --> 00:41:35,920
Speaker 3: in it, and we managed to get everybody else off

875
00:41:36,000 --> 00:41:39,719
Speaker 3: into the other life rafts. So gradually everybody was going

876
00:41:39,760 --> 00:41:42,600
Speaker 3: back along the boat sort of, you know, cube was

877
00:41:42,640 --> 00:41:46,719
Speaker 3: going and it was me on the boat, and I

878
00:41:47,400 --> 00:41:49,880
Speaker 3: turned round to check just to see because it was

879
00:41:49,960 --> 00:41:52,120
Speaker 3: like looking back along the boat to see that everybody

880
00:41:52,160 --> 00:41:53,800
Speaker 3: was there, because I thought, what if we've left somebody

881
00:41:53,800 --> 00:41:56,479
Speaker 3: behind and you're looking back at this like doomed ship.

882
00:41:56,640 --> 00:42:00,279
Speaker 3: Basically it was quite clear it was, you know, not going. Yeah,

883
00:42:00,440 --> 00:42:04,200
Speaker 3: be safe, and I went back towards the accommodation, like

884
00:42:04,280 --> 00:42:07,080
Speaker 3: staggered back along side of the boat, basically towards the accommodation.

885
00:42:07,200 --> 00:42:10,440
Speaker 3: And Biorgvin, this Icelandic captain who had been on there,

886
00:42:10,480 --> 00:42:13,080
Speaker 3: he'd only been on night watch. He came out from

887
00:42:13,120 --> 00:42:16,879
Speaker 3: his cabin and I was like, what are you doing?

888
00:42:18,360 --> 00:42:22,160
Speaker 3: What is happening? And we're abandoning get your life jacket.

889
00:42:22,400 --> 00:42:24,480
Speaker 3: And he had not known he'd been asleep. Nobody had

890
00:42:24,520 --> 00:42:28,280
Speaker 3: woken him until the last moment. He slept through everything,

891
00:42:28,760 --> 00:42:31,080
Speaker 3: you know, nobody had. The most experienced man on board

892
00:42:31,120 --> 00:42:34,319
Speaker 3: was a sleep in his cabin. We went to go

893
00:42:34,360 --> 00:42:38,360
Speaker 3: to the back of the boat. Bubbles Borgovin found collapsed

894
00:42:38,360 --> 00:42:39,799
Speaker 3: in the water at the side of the boat, and

895
00:42:40,520 --> 00:42:42,319
Speaker 3: we think he'd maybe had a heart attack. He was

896
00:42:42,800 --> 00:42:44,279
Speaker 3: gray in the face, and we managed to get him

897
00:42:44,280 --> 00:42:46,120
Speaker 3: to the back of the boat, and there were two

898
00:42:46,200 --> 00:42:48,360
Speaker 3: live rafts left at the back of the boat. We

899
00:42:48,480 --> 00:42:53,440
Speaker 3: got Bjorgovin climbed across, and one of them was a

900
00:42:53,480 --> 00:42:55,399
Speaker 3: bit more awkward to get to, so Bjorging got cross

901
00:42:55,440 --> 00:42:57,600
Speaker 3: jumped into one, and then I helped Bubbles over the

902
00:42:57,600 --> 00:42:59,799
Speaker 3: side of the boat and dropped him into the arms

903
00:42:59,800 --> 00:43:03,160
Speaker 3: of his crew, and then I jumped in after him.

904
00:43:03,480 --> 00:43:05,400
Speaker 3: I thought that was it, you know. I was exhilarated,

905
00:43:05,400 --> 00:43:07,120
Speaker 3: and I was like jumping into a ball pool or

906
00:43:07,160 --> 00:43:08,680
Speaker 3: something like that, like it when you're a kid. And

907
00:43:08,800 --> 00:43:11,320
Speaker 3: I was exhilarated. And actually we were in more trouble

908
00:43:11,320 --> 00:43:15,440
Speaker 3: there because the boat was like basically slamming down on

909
00:43:15,440 --> 00:43:17,719
Speaker 3: top of us. We were then our raft at one

910
00:43:17,800 --> 00:43:20,960
Speaker 3: point was pushed underwater by the big gantry at the

911
00:43:20,960 --> 00:43:22,279
Speaker 3: back of the big arch at the back of the

912
00:43:22,320 --> 00:43:25,279
Speaker 3: boat that came down on top of us, and this

913
00:43:25,320 --> 00:43:27,840
Speaker 3: big metal girder actually pushed us down into the water,

914
00:43:27,960 --> 00:43:29,640
Speaker 3: scooped our raft full of water.

915
00:43:29,680 --> 00:43:32,319
Speaker 2: At minus one. So when we came up again, I

916
00:43:32,360 --> 00:43:34,319
Speaker 2: was up to my waist and water hit people on

917
00:43:34,360 --> 00:43:35,480
Speaker 2: the head. You know.

918
00:43:36,400 --> 00:43:40,040
Speaker 3: I can remember just having this feeling of the boat

919
00:43:40,120 --> 00:43:43,040
Speaker 3: pushing us, like crushing us down, this rough metal hull

920
00:43:43,120 --> 00:43:47,080
Speaker 3: coming down and pushing us underwater, just thinking, right, this.

921
00:43:46,960 --> 00:43:48,160
Speaker 2: Is you know, going to pop.

922
00:43:49,080 --> 00:43:54,200
Speaker 3: And then the next minute we popped clear of it.

923
00:43:54,480 --> 00:43:57,680
Speaker 3: Somebody managed to find a cutter, a line cutter and

924
00:43:57,719 --> 00:43:59,120
Speaker 3: cut the.

925
00:43:58,640 --> 00:44:01,319
Speaker 1: Oh, you were still attached with the rope. That's why

926
00:44:01,360 --> 00:44:02,200
Speaker 1: it was taken down.

927
00:44:02,280 --> 00:44:03,040
Speaker 2: You couldn't. You couldn't.

928
00:44:03,120 --> 00:44:05,560
Speaker 3: Also the current and the wind, the wind was pushing us.

929
00:44:05,600 --> 00:44:07,480
Speaker 3: I think the suit of Helvid maybe had shifted in

930
00:44:07,520 --> 00:44:09,680
Speaker 3: the wind and we were we just could not get clear.

931
00:44:09,680 --> 00:44:12,600
Speaker 3: And then eventually we got clear. And then at some

932
00:44:12,719 --> 00:44:16,000
Speaker 3: point the suit of Harvid sank. I didn't see it go,

933
00:44:16,520 --> 00:44:18,920
Speaker 3: but I think I'm glad about that. But the but

934
00:44:19,120 --> 00:44:20,840
Speaker 3: at some point when and then of course the engines

935
00:44:20,840 --> 00:44:23,960
Speaker 3: have gone. The noise that you've had for months in

936
00:44:24,000 --> 00:44:25,480
Speaker 3: your life has just gone, and all you left with

937
00:44:25,600 --> 00:44:27,879
Speaker 3: is the noise of the storm. So we're in three

938
00:44:27,920 --> 00:44:31,239
Speaker 3: life rafts separate. We could see the other, what we

939
00:44:31,280 --> 00:44:33,880
Speaker 3: could see the other crowded raft. But but we couldn't

940
00:44:33,880 --> 00:44:36,600
Speaker 3: see the third raft. But there's three rafts that a drift.

941
00:44:37,040 --> 00:44:38,840
Speaker 3: It turned out there were some people in the water

942
00:44:39,200 --> 00:44:42,120
Speaker 3: that around the other raft that they managed to get out,

943
00:44:42,520 --> 00:44:44,239
Speaker 3: and we had one guy on the outside of our

944
00:44:44,320 --> 00:44:46,400
Speaker 3: raft who we managed to pull into our raft.

945
00:44:46,520 --> 00:44:50,560
Speaker 1: So wow, so all three of you are drift. So

946
00:44:50,680 --> 00:44:54,400
Speaker 1: all three life rafts. Is everyone in the life rafts

947
00:44:54,840 --> 00:44:57,040
Speaker 1: or you don't know at this state of this stage.

948
00:44:57,200 --> 00:44:57,759
Speaker 2: We weren't sure.

949
00:44:57,800 --> 00:45:00,440
Speaker 3: But we had everybody that we you know, with this

950
00:45:00,480 --> 00:45:02,000
Speaker 3: one guy who was cleaning on the outside of a

951
00:45:02,080 --> 00:45:03,160
Speaker 3: life raft when we pulled him in.

952
00:45:03,200 --> 00:45:05,880
Speaker 2: There were seventeen of us in that life.

953
00:45:05,719 --> 00:45:13,440
Speaker 3: Raft and we're adrifting. This is four o'clock in the afternoon,

954
00:45:13,760 --> 00:45:18,160
Speaker 3: gets dark at six. We are miles from anywhere. And

955
00:45:18,200 --> 00:45:22,440
Speaker 3: then people started saying, Matt, Matt, where's the boat. Where's

956
00:45:22,440 --> 00:45:25,360
Speaker 3: the boat's coming to save us. I had no idea,

957
00:45:25,920 --> 00:45:29,680
Speaker 3: and we had all the We had a EAP like

958
00:45:29,719 --> 00:45:32,719
Speaker 3: a satellite distress signal thing that Bubbles had explained you

959
00:45:32,760 --> 00:45:34,600
Speaker 3: just pressed two buttons, it will send off a signal.

960
00:45:35,120 --> 00:45:37,080
Speaker 3: And we had a eperbs like the radio beacons and

961
00:45:37,120 --> 00:45:40,480
Speaker 3: stuff like that. But within our raft, which was flooded

962
00:45:40,520 --> 00:45:43,680
Speaker 3: with water. We had one grab bag, and when I

963
00:45:43,719 --> 00:45:45,680
Speaker 3: looked in the grab bag, expecting to find some sort

964
00:45:45,680 --> 00:45:49,000
Speaker 3: of VHF and stuff like that, we had a bottle

965
00:45:49,000 --> 00:45:53,120
Speaker 3: of brandy, some a video camera and the crew's passports

966
00:45:53,960 --> 00:45:57,520
Speaker 3: and you know, nothing of any use. The light on

967
00:45:57,560 --> 00:46:00,080
Speaker 3: the top of our life raft was damaged that the

968
00:46:00,120 --> 00:46:02,640
Speaker 3: light was starting to fade, you know, within a short time.

969
00:46:03,320 --> 00:46:06,879
Speaker 3: And I knew that our sister ship was miles away.

970
00:46:06,920 --> 00:46:08,440
Speaker 3: She was on the other side of the South Georgia's

971
00:46:08,440 --> 00:46:12,319
Speaker 3: she was sheltering from the storm herself, and I didn't

972
00:46:12,360 --> 00:46:14,799
Speaker 3: I hadn't seen another boat on radar for days, so

973
00:46:15,000 --> 00:46:18,759
Speaker 3: I knew we were basically middle of nowhere with no

974
00:46:18,880 --> 00:46:19,920
Speaker 3: rescue as anywhere nearby.

975
00:46:20,120 --> 00:46:23,880
Speaker 1: So how how did you get rescued? How did you?

976
00:46:23,880 --> 00:46:26,439
Speaker 1: You're obviously here to tell the town, Matt. What taught

977
00:46:26,440 --> 00:46:27,080
Speaker 1: me through that.

978
00:46:27,000 --> 00:46:29,360
Speaker 3: Time was going by, and then occasionally, you know, we

979
00:46:29,400 --> 00:46:32,200
Speaker 3: would try and get the rafts together or do something,

980
00:46:32,360 --> 00:46:35,520
Speaker 3: you know, like try and bay all the rafts or whatever.

981
00:46:35,600 --> 00:46:39,480
Speaker 3: But basically people settled into try and just waiting, and

982
00:46:39,800 --> 00:46:42,040
Speaker 3: we didn't know what for. And I, you know, when

983
00:46:42,160 --> 00:46:45,239
Speaker 3: once it was dark, you've got no idea time, which

984
00:46:45,320 --> 00:46:47,480
Speaker 3: was under layers and layers. I had no idea time.

985
00:46:47,520 --> 00:46:51,640
Speaker 3: But you're like, I can remember thinking, I wonder what

986
00:46:51,640 --> 00:46:52,960
Speaker 3: time it is. I don't think I can make it

987
00:46:53,000 --> 00:46:55,040
Speaker 3: till morning. You know, nobody's going to find us at

988
00:46:55,120 --> 00:46:57,080
Speaker 3: night in an unlit raft in a storm in the

989
00:46:57,120 --> 00:46:59,440
Speaker 3: Southern Ocean. I don't even know where the boat is.

990
00:46:59,520 --> 00:47:02,840
Speaker 3: You know, who's coming to save us? And then people

991
00:47:03,160 --> 00:47:06,560
Speaker 3: had gone quiet. Some people had been kind of screaming

992
00:47:06,600 --> 00:47:09,440
Speaker 3: and then gone quiet, but basically people had settled into

993
00:47:09,480 --> 00:47:14,279
Speaker 3: their own little struggle to survive at space. Yeah, this

994
00:47:15,400 --> 00:47:18,120
Speaker 3: polite request comes out, Matt, Matt, can you help me please?

995
00:47:18,960 --> 00:47:19,680
Speaker 2: I can't do it.

996
00:47:19,719 --> 00:47:21,560
Speaker 3: I can't go across the raft one more time to

997
00:47:21,680 --> 00:47:23,719
Speaker 3: do these doors just And then I thought no, no, no,

998
00:47:23,800 --> 00:47:27,040
Speaker 3: So I kind of crawled across the raft, across limbs

999
00:47:27,080 --> 00:47:30,239
Speaker 3: and to get through the water to get to the

1000
00:47:30,280 --> 00:47:32,680
Speaker 3: other side. And we tried to fix this door down

1001
00:47:32,760 --> 00:47:36,759
Speaker 3: one more time together, and then it got ripped up

1002
00:47:37,520 --> 00:47:41,920
Speaker 3: and I saw a light and I thought that's a boat.

1003
00:47:42,680 --> 00:47:46,480
Speaker 3: And then the swell shifted and it's gone. And then

1004
00:47:46,680 --> 00:47:48,600
Speaker 3: there swell shift again and I saw more lights and

1005
00:47:48,640 --> 00:47:51,080
Speaker 3: I thought, that's a boat, and I yelled out to

1006
00:47:51,160 --> 00:47:52,920
Speaker 3: my crewmates as a ship.

1007
00:47:53,560 --> 00:47:54,439
Speaker 2: There's a ship there.

1008
00:47:54,480 --> 00:47:56,960
Speaker 3: And I was like determined that we could not miss this,

1009
00:47:57,080 --> 00:47:58,080
Speaker 3: you know, it could not miss us.

1010
00:47:58,120 --> 00:48:00,000
Speaker 2: It's more of the point, this opportunity.

1011
00:48:00,120 --> 00:48:01,200
Speaker 1: You've got to take it now.

1012
00:48:01,520 --> 00:48:01,759
Speaker 2: Yeah.

1013
00:48:01,880 --> 00:48:04,960
Speaker 3: I pulled the whistle out of my pocket with my

1014
00:48:05,000 --> 00:48:07,640
Speaker 3: thumb because my hands were frozen stiff, like it just

1015
00:48:07,800 --> 00:48:10,000
Speaker 3: we're not working. And I pulled it and managed to

1016
00:48:10,040 --> 00:48:12,759
Speaker 3: start blowing on it stopped working, then it started working again,

1017
00:48:12,800 --> 00:48:15,480
Speaker 3: and then I had a light off a life jacket

1018
00:48:15,520 --> 00:48:17,360
Speaker 3: next to me that I was trying to swing around

1019
00:48:17,640 --> 00:48:19,600
Speaker 3: and it stopped working because I'd taken out of the water.

1020
00:48:20,400 --> 00:48:22,719
Speaker 3: So all these things just yelling to try and get this,

1021
00:48:23,080 --> 00:48:26,919
Speaker 3: and then a like a searchlight came across our way,

1022
00:48:27,560 --> 00:48:29,440
Speaker 3: and I knew that they'd seen us. So then we

1023
00:48:29,880 --> 00:48:31,719
Speaker 3: just pulled the cover shut to try and keep a

1024
00:48:31,719 --> 00:48:33,880
Speaker 3: little bit of heating because it was so cold in

1025
00:48:33,880 --> 00:48:37,440
Speaker 3: the wind. And then a couple of minutes later, this

1026
00:48:37,560 --> 00:48:39,760
Speaker 3: ship is next to us. It lights up the raft

1027
00:48:40,320 --> 00:48:42,680
Speaker 3: and we opened the door and there's this massive ship

1028
00:48:42,960 --> 00:48:44,000
Speaker 3: with a rope ladder.

1029
00:48:43,840 --> 00:48:44,960
Speaker 2: Hanging down the side of it.

1030
00:48:45,239 --> 00:48:46,960
Speaker 3: And I looked at the rope ladder, thought, well, I'm

1031
00:48:47,000 --> 00:48:49,040
Speaker 3: not going to be able to climb that, so what's

1032
00:48:49,040 --> 00:48:51,239
Speaker 3: going to happen here? So that then the crew were

1033
00:48:51,239 --> 00:48:52,760
Speaker 3: at the side and you could see all these heads

1034
00:48:52,800 --> 00:48:57,040
Speaker 3: lined up along the along the top deck, and they

1035
00:48:57,080 --> 00:49:00,839
Speaker 3: threw a rope and it landed on my hands and

1036
00:49:01,200 --> 00:49:03,800
Speaker 3: it fell from their hands. So then I couldn't close

1037
00:49:03,840 --> 00:49:08,719
Speaker 3: my hands in time to actually grip the rope, but

1038
00:49:08,800 --> 00:49:10,160
Speaker 3: it fell from their hands, and I was left with

1039
00:49:10,239 --> 00:49:14,040
Speaker 3: this rope like tangled around my fingers and with it

1040
00:49:14,160 --> 00:49:17,360
Speaker 3: just what am I supposed to do with the rope?

1041
00:49:19,239 --> 00:49:20,600
Speaker 3: And I thought, right, what we're going to do? So

1042
00:49:20,680 --> 00:49:23,560
Speaker 3: as the swell lifted us up next to the next

1043
00:49:23,560 --> 00:49:27,160
Speaker 3: to the boat, put my hands up and just sort

1044
00:49:27,280 --> 00:49:28,920
Speaker 3: summy safe me And they didn't get me on the

1045
00:49:28,920 --> 00:49:30,600
Speaker 3: first go, but on the next go they grabbed hold

1046
00:49:30,640 --> 00:49:33,480
Speaker 3: of my arms and just pulled me and I was

1047
00:49:33,560 --> 00:49:35,919
Speaker 3: left dangling above this other ocean. The raft dropped away

1048
00:49:36,000 --> 00:49:38,839
Speaker 3: and they pulled me up and they pulled me over

1049
00:49:38,880 --> 00:49:39,719
Speaker 3: the side, put me on.

1050
00:49:39,640 --> 00:49:41,319
Speaker 2: My feet and I fell flat on my face on

1051
00:49:41,360 --> 00:49:41,640
Speaker 2: the deck.

1052
00:49:42,480 --> 00:49:46,520
Speaker 3: Wow mate, And they dragged me into the It basically

1053
00:49:46,520 --> 00:49:49,600
Speaker 3: picked me up, dragged me into the shower, stripped all

1054
00:49:49,600 --> 00:49:51,759
Speaker 3: my clothes off. All the training that I heard about

1055
00:49:51,800 --> 00:49:53,760
Speaker 3: first day was not to you know, not to shock

1056
00:49:53,760 --> 00:49:56,720
Speaker 3: a hypotomic casualty. They put me in this hot shower

1057
00:49:57,000 --> 00:49:58,520
Speaker 3: and I turned around and it felt so good. I

1058
00:49:58,680 --> 00:50:03,759
Speaker 3: turned it hotter, complete hypocrite and yeah.

1059
00:50:03,239 --> 00:50:06,840
Speaker 1: And you're still alive, Matt, you are? So what happened?

1060
00:50:06,880 --> 00:50:09,640
Speaker 1: So you get saved? What happens with the with the

1061
00:50:09,719 --> 00:50:13,400
Speaker 1: with the crew? Are you reunited or do you just

1062
00:50:13,440 --> 00:50:15,319
Speaker 1: all get saved and go your own way?

1063
00:50:15,560 --> 00:50:15,840
Speaker 2: Does it?

1064
00:50:15,840 --> 00:50:17,839
Speaker 1: Does everyone make it out well?

1065
00:50:17,920 --> 00:50:18,280
Speaker 2: Naked?

1066
00:50:18,280 --> 00:50:20,160
Speaker 3: I was dragged dragged out of the showers and into

1067
00:50:20,200 --> 00:50:23,040
Speaker 3: a canteen where they bundled me into some clothes. And

1068
00:50:23,080 --> 00:50:27,439
Speaker 3: there were basically fourteen from my from the first raft

1069
00:50:27,480 --> 00:50:29,839
Speaker 3: that the other crowded raft, so fourteen from the other

1070
00:50:29,840 --> 00:50:32,719
Speaker 3: crowded raft that all survived. They'd managed to bail their

1071
00:50:32,840 --> 00:50:36,080
Speaker 3: raft and they'd all survived. Out of my raft, seven

1072
00:50:36,120 --> 00:50:38,759
Speaker 3: of us survived out of seventeen, so ten people died,

1073
00:50:39,800 --> 00:50:43,560
Speaker 3: including the skipper and the fishing master. So Bubbles and Booty.

1074
00:50:44,320 --> 00:50:45,680
Speaker 1: How how did they die?

1075
00:50:46,239 --> 00:50:46,560
Speaker 2: Well?

1076
00:50:47,480 --> 00:50:49,839
Speaker 3: Cold water shock, I think just the shock of hitting

1077
00:50:49,880 --> 00:50:53,680
Speaker 3: the water. Hypothermia. I think some of them had died

1078
00:50:53,719 --> 00:50:56,520
Speaker 3: almost immediately, and I think some of them had died. Well,

1079
00:50:56,600 --> 00:50:58,720
Speaker 3: Bubbles died with we think within sight of the boat,

1080
00:50:58,880 --> 00:51:05,040
Speaker 3: and know I think they died, and I hadn't realized

1081
00:51:05,040 --> 00:51:07,680
Speaker 3: because my mind was just trying to survive. And I'd

1082
00:51:07,719 --> 00:51:10,439
Speaker 3: seen Trevor, Trevor who I worked with, had been there

1083
00:51:10,760 --> 00:51:13,359
Speaker 3: bobbing in the raft, and I remember looking at him

1084
00:51:13,400 --> 00:51:16,400
Speaker 3: and thinking how peacefully looked, and he was dead. But

1085
00:51:16,440 --> 00:51:19,360
Speaker 3: we lost ten people out of our raft. Seven of

1086
00:51:19,440 --> 00:51:22,000
Speaker 3: us survived, and sadly, the third life raft with Chickim

1087
00:51:22,040 --> 00:51:24,919
Speaker 3: and Carlos Song was found the next day upside down

1088
00:51:25,000 --> 00:51:29,479
Speaker 3: and empty. So we lost seventeen out of thirty eight crew.

1089
00:51:30,239 --> 00:51:33,360
Speaker 3: Twenty one of us survived and we were only in

1090
00:51:33,400 --> 00:51:36,440
Speaker 3: the water for basically four hours. It doesn't sound like

1091
00:51:36,440 --> 00:51:38,320
Speaker 3: a lot, does it. Like you hear about survival stories

1092
00:51:38,320 --> 00:51:41,640
Speaker 3: where people cling on for days, but in that, in

1093
00:51:41,680 --> 00:51:42,920
Speaker 3: those conditions.

1094
00:51:42,600 --> 00:51:49,640
Speaker 1: Storms, yeah, No, I'm surprised that all of you, you know,

1095
00:51:49,680 --> 00:51:52,080
Speaker 1: some of you survived, That all of you didn't perish

1096
00:51:52,120 --> 00:51:55,759
Speaker 1: four hours in those conditions are absolutely horrendous.

1097
00:51:55,800 --> 00:51:56,080
Speaker 2: Mate.

1098
00:51:56,160 --> 00:51:59,000
Speaker 3: Wow, the boat that saved us is like a miller

1099
00:51:59,360 --> 00:52:02,359
Speaker 3: had raised she'd raised twenty eight miles to save us.

1100
00:52:02,680 --> 00:52:04,520
Speaker 3: She'd cut her lines and raced to save us, and

1101
00:52:04,560 --> 00:52:07,839
Speaker 3: she found us within half an hour, an unmarked life

1102
00:52:07,960 --> 00:52:11,240
Speaker 3: raft at night, like when she'd seen the first life raft,

1103
00:52:11,800 --> 00:52:14,759
Speaker 3: like she'd found that. Then when they were rescuing that one,

1104
00:52:14,840 --> 00:52:17,640
Speaker 3: they had caught the reflective strip on our raft and

1105
00:52:17,680 --> 00:52:20,200
Speaker 3: a spotlight had caught their eye and they'd seen us.

1106
00:52:20,880 --> 00:52:22,799
Speaker 3: And it was like, say, the captain of the Izla

1107
00:52:22,840 --> 00:52:25,920
Speaker 3: Camilla had predicted by like the wind and the waves

1108
00:52:25,960 --> 00:52:28,880
Speaker 3: from our last name position where we would beat and

1109
00:52:28,920 --> 00:52:34,239
Speaker 3: he got it right. So Captain Sandoval like, you know, amazing.

1110
00:52:35,200 --> 00:52:38,520
Speaker 1: Well, Matt, I'm glad that you're still here. What a

1111
00:52:38,719 --> 00:52:43,200
Speaker 1: story mate? Wow, listen, talk about the survival of the Fittest.

1112
00:52:43,239 --> 00:52:47,359
Speaker 1: It's it's one of those I think it's you know,

1113
00:52:47,480 --> 00:52:51,520
Speaker 1: having protocols and procedures on place are so important, you

1114
00:52:51,560 --> 00:52:55,400
Speaker 1: know because like you said, minutes, seconds, you know, hours,

1115
00:52:55,440 --> 00:52:58,759
Speaker 1: they all count, especially in environments like that. But Matt,

1116
00:52:59,120 --> 00:53:01,799
Speaker 1: I'm glad you're still here to tell the tale. Thank

1117
00:53:01,800 --> 00:53:04,120
Speaker 1: you ever so much for joining me on my podcast

1118
00:53:04,200 --> 00:53:08,040
Speaker 1: head Game. Talk about a story mate, car Listen, there's

1119
00:53:08,080 --> 00:53:10,880
Speaker 1: definitely a part two in this mate, so don't be surprised.

1120
00:53:10,880 --> 00:53:13,280
Speaker 1: If I don't come back to you. Thanks Matt brilliant,

1121
00:53:13,280 --> 00:53:13,799
Speaker 1: great to meet you.

1122
00:53:14,000 --> 00:53:14,200
Speaker 2: Thanks.

1123
00:53:15,520 --> 00:53:19,239
Speaker 1: Matthew's book Last Man Off is available now. I'll put

1124
00:53:19,280 --> 00:53:22,400
Speaker 1: more information in the show notes. Thanks for joining me

1125
00:53:22,480 --> 00:53:25,840
Speaker 1: on this episode of head Game. If you enjoyed this episode,

1126
00:53:26,000 --> 00:53:29,359
Speaker 1: please share it with a friend. I'm Matt Middleton. See

1127
00:53:29,400 --> 00:53:30,840
Speaker 1: you again next time.