As the Seafaring Legend was sinking, Captain Corey Starkes and his crew faced monumental odds attempting to survive. One crewmember, Max Pittman, was unable to help himself, Corey became snagged in debris and rope, both life rafts were submerged, seas were 15-20 feet high and winds were 35 nautical miles per hour (65 km/h) As well, the men didn’t know if their mayday had transmitted because the electronics were underwater by the time Corey made the call, they were 65 miles offshore and there was no sign of vessels anywhere nearby. Crewmen Chad Sheppard and Scott Drover were swept away from the vessel and were within a few feet of each other on the port side, but Corey and Max were late getting away from the wheelhouse and wound up on the starboard side of the vessel and couldn’t see the other two, although Corey could hear their shouts. In Part III of our story, we hear how Corey and the crew fought valiantly to save Max and themselves.
Somehow Corey managed to free himself from the ropes and net twine that had dangerously tethered him to the sinking Seafaring Legend.
While still in a precarious position, it was a relief to be clear of the ropes because the vessel was slowly, but surely, disappearing beneath the surface and would have dragged him down with it.
Meanwhile, the seas had pushed Scott and Chad closer to Corey by then allowing the three visual contact and they could also communicate by shouting.
There wasn’t much to say except tell each other to keep watching to see if one of the two life rafts had surfaced from underneath their mostly-submerged vessel. The rafts were tied to the port side of the Seafaring Legend and were equipped with a mechanism called ‘hydrostatic release’ that activates on water pressure in depths usually between five and 10 feet, depending on the model. The pressure activates a spring-loaded knife that cuts the rope attaching the raft to the larger vessel allowing the raft to float to the surface, but still attached to the larger vessel by a longer line.
With the bow of the Seafaring Legend still above water, buoyed by an obvious air bubble in the wheelhouse, the guys wondered how long it would take for the vessel to sink deep enough to apply sufficient pressure to activate the release. They knew their lives depended entirely on getting into a raft — and soon.
Just as their spirits were at rock bottom, a raft popped up not far from Chad and Scott. Their elation was dulled somewhat though when they saw the raft was bottom up but still, the men figured that righting it should not be too difficult.
Recalling what happened next is a mixture of a thousand emotions for Corey, sometimes laughing, sometimes in tears.
“I saw Chad starting to swim for the raft. Chad was just a real young fella but he was a like a dolphin in the water that morning — I still can’t put it into words; he was breaking water — he swam so hard and he made it, but even though Chad was a big strappin’ young fella, he could not turn that raft over.”
While Chad worked on the raft, Scott had drifted closer to Corey and Max. Yelling out to Scott to come closer, Corey left Max who was barely alive at that time with Scott and swam to help Chad work on righting the life raft.
“Our survival depended totally on getting that raft up right, it was as simple as that,” Corey explains.
For Corey, escaping the vessel and keeping Max above water took a toll on his energy, so the swim to Chad was almost unbearable.
“I’d say I gave up a dozen times because I was so friggin’ tired that I couldn’t go any further and then I’d hear Chard singing out; ‘come on Corey, keep coming Corey, you gotta keep comin,’ we gotta get this raft up’ — I could hear him saying all this and that made me try to keep goin’.”
Corey finally made it and after a taking moment to catch his breath he started working with Chad to get the raft turned over, but for some reason it wouldn’t roll no matter how hard they pulled, kicked and pushed it.
As Chad and Corey worked on the overturned raft, the second one suddenly popped up to the surface not far from the first. The second raft was up right but the canopy was torn off and lying across the rubber sides. Corey knew they had a better chance of getting into the second raft so he told Chad to swim and catch that one while he stayed and held on to the overturned raft in case something was wrong with the second one.
A few minutes later Chad had the second raft alongside Corey. After a quick assessment, Corey and Chad decided that the second raft was in good working condition except for the torn canopy so they decided to both get in and abandon the other one.
“I told Chad to get the paddles and the other stuff and we’d paddle over and get Scottie and Max so while Chad was getting the paddles and the other stuff, flares and stuff like that, I cut the rope that had us still attached to the boat and we were away.”
Just when things appeared to be going in their favour, it suddenly turned as bad or worse than ever. The winds and currents were carrying Corey and Chad’s raft at a rapid speed making it almost impossible for the two men to guide its direction.
“We were paddling like crazy to get to Scottie and Max and we did but only close enough to barely touch their fingertips before we were pushed right on by them,” Corey says, adding that the Search and Rescue people on the scene later clocked their drifting speed at about between four and five miles per hour.
As hard as they paddled against the seas and currents, Corey and Chad were rapidly going farther away from Scott and Max and within a few minutes had lost sight of their shipmates. To make matters worse, water was flowing into their raft when the two men were leaning over side, frantically trying to direct the raft. Suddenly, their priority switched from paddling to bailing out the raft to keep from sinking.
Meanwhile, Scott Drover was dealing with the most agonizing moments of his life.
As he watched Corey and Chad disappear from view, his shipmate and friend, Max Pittman, took his last breath and died in Scott’s arms. As difficult as it was, Scott had to let Max float free in order to try and save his own life. He also knew his only chance was to get to the first raft that was still floating bottom up. Even if he could crawl up on the bottom and cut the rope, he would at least be going in the direction of his other two shipmates.
After an agonizing swim, Scott finally reached the raft but like Chad and Corey before him, he couldn’t upright it — at least not until something weird happened first.
Join us next month for Part IV of “You Can’t Fix It.”
