Four sailors fought for their lives at sea for a full day and night after a sperm whale smashed the hull of their yacht in the South Pacific. They were pulled from the water alive 18 hours later, and they told AFP about the ordeal on Thursday. The vessel was the 52-foot Tai Tam.
The Strike
A group of sperm whales came close to the boat while it was in the open sea, far from any land. The sailors were in remote waters at the time, and the collision took place 250 nautical miles north of Norfolk Island.
Australian Jemma Cooper was thrown from the steering wheel by the force of the blow, and she did not know at first what had hit her. “There was sort of a loud thud. The whole boat was pushed sideways,” she reported.
She noticed a brown discoloration in the water and a sperm whale. “We looked out to our port side, and there were six to eight, a pod, of whales there. So then it became clear that that’s what it was,” she told AFP.
Her husband Jeremy Cooper was sleeping below deck when the impact woke him. “It was pretty immediately evident it was very serious,” he said.
The Damage
“All the steering gear was smashed on the starboard side, and there was a significant amount of water coming in,” Jeremy told AFP.
New Zealand crew member Terry Hetherington said the emergency beacon was activated at 1 p.m. New Zealand time on Saturday, about 30 minutes after the collision. “We declared a full mayday,” he said.
The French crewman Martin Jaffre reported that the ship’s fiberglass structure was cracked and its steering broken by the blow, with several gashes left in the hull. “We could no longer steer the boat, and a boat with no steering quickly becomes a problem,” he told AFP.
The sailors said Jaffre fought to hold back the rising water with expansion foam while swimming beneath the vessel to check its hull. His crewmates also worked hard to keep the engine from being blocked and emptied the boat by hand.
Abandoning Ship
Sunday arrived while they were still drifting on the life raft, having left the boat behind in the middle of the night under a full moon and calm seas. They severed the rope tying them to the yacht in the early hours of the morning, afraid it could pull them under, and shortly after that, the vessel sank beneath the surface.
The MV Sofrana Surville, a 470-foot container ship, came to the aid of the sailors at 6 a.m. on Sunday, according to the New Zealand military. The rescue took place roughly 18 hours after the men had met up with the sperm whale.
The giant ship closing in on their tiny life raft was frightening, recalled Jeremy Cooper. Within half an hour, however, they had climbed a ladder to board it, sit down for a cup of coffee, and chat with the captain.
“It was wonderful, wonderful, and just a terrible, terrible ending — but luckily no loss of life,” he said.
Rescue Coordination
Rescue Coordination Centre Operations Manager Mike Clulow praised the efforts of the rescue team and the yacht’s crew. “This was a well-coordinated and executed rescue,” Clulow said. “The crew of the yacht did all the right things, and it was unfortunate to have struck a whale in open water.”
What We Know
| Event | Time |
|---|---|
| Collision detected | About 1 p.m. Saturday |
| Mayday declared | 1 p.m. Saturday |
| Life raft launched | Late at night |
| Yacht abandoned | Early Sunday morning |
| Rescue completed | 6 a.m. Sunday |
For as long as they could, the crew remained on board. Then, in the early hours of Sunday morning, the rope was severed.
The Whale
The nonprofit International Union for Conservation of Nature lists adult male sperm whales as a “vulnerable” species, with males measuring between 50 and 60 feet. These animals reproduce only once every five to seven years, and their numbers have dropped considerably.
Whales face several threats, including noise pollution, plastic consumption and collisions with ships. The event in New Zealand represents at least the second instance in less than two months of a whale sinking a vessel.
A Second Incident
A New Jersey fire department’s boat sank in July after a whale came up for air and crashed into it. Firefighters were aboard at the time. A person operating a personal watercraft and another boater both assisted in getting the crew off the vessel and out of the water.
The Verdict
Every decision the sailors made during their ordeal proved sound. They declared a mayday at the first sign of trouble, activated their beacon early, and remained calm throughout the whole ordeal.
The tale serves as a warning that no matter how thoroughly a voyage is planned, disaster can still strike. The whale was not hunted, and the vessel was not built to withstand its force.
The whole tale rests upon the fact that no one perished, for they moved with haste. It closes where it opens: upon the sea, beneath a moon, beside a sunken vessel and four survivors.
See the video the story is built around at CBS News.
Get the Notebook.
The day's best stories and every fresh verdict, in plain English, in your inbox by seven. One email a day, no more.