Witness the rescue of the man who survived at the bottom of the ocean for 60 hours after a shipwreck
The Nigerian Harrison Okene survived a shipwreck in 2013 in a very unlikely way: he remained alive for 60 hours without food or drinking water in an air bubble with oxygen that formed in one of the cabins of the ship, which sank at a depth of 30 meters.
The man was pulled into the cabin of the tug Jascon 4 by the force of the water when it sank. He was the only one of the 13 crew members to survive the accident, which occurred about 20 miles off the coast of Nigeria. Watch the moment of rescue in the video above.
1 of 1 Harrison Okene, a Nigerian who survived a shipwreck after spending 30 hours at the bottom of the sea Photo: Joe Brock/Portal Harrison Okene, a Nigerian who survived a shipwreck after spending 30 hours at the bottom of the sea Photo: Joe Brock/Portal
Harrison Okene was 29 years old and a chef at the time of the sinking. He had little experience at sea, where he began working in 2010. He previously worked as a chef in the kitchen of a hotel in Nigeria, which supported him and his wife and children.
When an oil boom broke out in his home state of Delta State in southern Nigeria, he decided to make a career change, which motivated him to seek employment at sea. He realized he could make more money as a cook aboard one of the many ships involved in oil production.
The sunken Jascon 4 was a tugboat, a type of ship that helps ships and other vessels maneuver safely in the port area.
For Okene, as he reported in an interview with the BBC, it was much more advantageous to work on the ship as he only had to serve 12 people instead of the hundreds served at the hotel. Plus the salary was better.
“The longer the trip, the more you get paid and you don’t spend it, you have no way to spend it. So when you return to land, all the money is at your disposal. That was me too. “I enjoy my work,” he said in an interview.
New career change
After the tragic shipwreck in which all of his colleagues died, Harrison vowed not to return to sea. However, a second accident caused him to change his plans.
Harrison was driving a car that fell off a bridge and sank in a lake. Once again he survived. And he still managed to save his companion. Then the decision was made: he would become a professional diver.
“After the first incident I said I would never go to the sea again, but I’m still there because I know that’s where I’m supposed to be, that it’s my environment and I’ll always be near it.” he told the BBC. “It’s my destiny, that’s how God wanted it to be.”
The survivor was close to the other crew members
Although Harrison had only been working on Jascon 4 for a short time, he had previously sailed with the rest of the crew.
“We were friends, we were very close,” he told the BBC. “They treated me like a mother and shared their ideas and sadness with me. I gave them what little advice I could to help them,” he said.
On the day of the accident, he heard the screams of his colleagues at the time of the sinking. “It sank quickly. I panicked. I heard people screaming and crying.”[…] They screamed for help. You could hear the water bubbling as it flowed into the different compartments and then there was silence.”
Where he spent the next few days, Harrison spent some of his time singing praises and thinking of his family.
After two and a half days in the oxygen bubble at the bottom of the sea that guaranteed his survival, the chef was rescued as divers searched for the bodies of the crew.
Their families have already been informed that no one survived the accident. Harrison’s wife fainted and was taken to the hospital when she found out he was alive.
Harrison was in the darkness, up to his waist in cold water, when he heard the sound of divers breaking open the doors to enter the sunken ship. After he crashed into the cabin walls, he was found by one of the professionals.
After being surprised by the survivor’s presence at the scene, the diver put scuba gear on Harrison. He had to spend three more days in a decompression chamber on the ship to normalize his nitrogen levels and avoid the risk of a heart attack.