Underneath A Great Lakes Freighter - Image Courtesy www.flicker.com@NO64
A Life-Changing Journey – Part 2 of 3 – Surviving Hell
(by Alex Watson)
Yesterday, you read about a 9-day, round-the-clock boat trip from the coast of Maryland, through inter-coastal waterways, touching on the Atlantic Ocean, up rivers, through canals, through locks, across two of the Great Lakes and into the Detroit River. The story left off the moment a catastrophic collision occurred between the 1969 Grand Banks 36’ Classic — occupied by Jeff Martines, his father Joe, and their hired captain and first mate, John and Jim — and a Great Lakes freighter.
The story now continues with Jeff describing what he and the others endured.
It was a deeply personal experience hearing him re-tell what happened that day. Even though 7+ years had passed, Jeff’s emotions ran so high, at times it was painful just listening to him.
This is not some reality TV show, or dramatization of events to trump up interest. These ARE the events, without any embellishment. These are Jeff’s words about what it was like to experience unimaginable fear, pain, and panic, and what it was like to negotiate with, and fight, Death.
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It was INSTANT.
It wasn’t like the boat had a hole punched in it and water was coming in. It was INSTANT. The cabin went from dry to filled with water. And it was VIOLENT! Mattresses, suitcases, everything was whipping around. It felt like I was in a washing machine.
It was freezing cold.
And, it was dark.
The sound of the motors was gone. In their place, the noise of water under pressure; this thrashing around, under-water noise.
I can remember my hands reaching out. I couldn’t even think. This all happened in seconds. A few seconds. That’s all.
I kept trying to make sense of what was going on. Nothing would stay still for me to get my bearings straight. It was dark, and it was just getting darker and darker. My eyes were open but I couldn’t see. I couldn’t make any sense of things.
You know…? I can talk about this today, but let me tell you, initially, I had a hell of a time even getting through this with people. It took me years to be able to talk about it.
I had reached a point where I was saying goodbye. I was in between… Terrified, and I remember being so angry that I couldn’t get out. I couldn’t believe I was going to die this way.
And then “NO!” The incredible adrenaline going through my body… I wasn’t working on normal systems, you know. I remember going between fighting and “accept it, accept it.” Then fighting more. It was that back and forth. I got to the point where I just put my hands out in front of me. The burning was so incredible. My lungs burned so badly.
[By now, Jeff’s tone had become way more intense. Just describing this was making him re-live it. His sentences were incomplete. He was repeating himself. Especially the words “fighting,” “burning,” “anger.”] – Alex
And I’m just there, trying to make the decision on inhaling water. I knew it was going to be over.
[Jeff broke down. He could not continue the story. It then hit me how indescribably terrifying this must have been, and that any words, even his own, fell short of articulating the emotional torrent he must have experienced at the time. There was a pause before he could continue his story.] – Alex
At that point, I’m getting ready for it…
[Much longer pause.] – Alex
When I go through this story in this amount of detail… when I think what I went through…
Until you’ve been put through something like this, you have no idea… You know”…?”, how I was thinking… You know… My wife… I could not… my kids! It was horrible… …HORRIBLE!
Imagine The Degree Of Desperation, To Find Hope In A Sight Like This.
Then, by the grace of God, I saw a little bit of light percolating through some part of that boat. It was barely… It was something other than pure darkness. It showed itself just for a moment. I reached… And as I started to paddle myself up, I realized “I’m out of it.”
I remember coming up from that river, from the bottom of that river, with, you know, NOTHING! I had NO air. It was like… And I remember literally moaning coming up from the bottom. Realizing I’m getting out. I’m going to live. I AM going to live. I went from one extreme to another in a matter of seconds. It was incredible!
I believe I was down there somewhere between one minute and one and a half minutes.
I know you might sit there and say it was probably less, because holding one’s breath feels like an eternity. You are probably also thinking you can’t hold your breath that long. Maybe if you hyperventilate for a while, and then take a huge breath, and sit totally still… And maybe if you had somebody counting…
Now, take that scenario, and make it a lot worse. The air I had in my lungs wasn’t after hyperventilating. It wasn’t even after a deep breath. It was however much air I had in them when the water burst in. It was not even a full breath. And instead of sitting still, holding your breath and knowing you’ll live, imagine thrashing around under water because you’re trying to get the hell out of whatever mess you’re in. But you can’t get out. And you kept thrashing — feeling around…
When I got to the surface, as soon as I was able, I just started looking around. At this point, I heard my Dad screaming. Because I hadn’t been “up,” you know…?
[Jeff’s Dad was experiencing a different kind of terror -- thinking his son had been killed.] – Alex
And I see them, and they’re in a… there’s, like, two debris fields. And I see him and I see all of the debris, of the wood, and all of our stuff, and I see the three of them together over there and I’m like, “WHAT IN THE HELL DID YOU HIT?!”
And I’m in the water, facing downriver. And then I kind of turned… and I see the back of this freighter which is leaving me… And at that point I realized “Oh my God, we got run over by a freighter!”
[I asked Jeff how close the stern of the freighter was to him at that point. I speculated he surfaced right after it passed over.] – Alex
Freighter Gemini From Behind - Image Courtesy www.boatnerd.com
By the time I turned around, that freighter was probably at least 1/2 to 3/4 of a football field away from me. I was thrust down low, under the boat. I have come to learn the freighter had stopped its engine(s). So he was gliding over me. But it wasn’t until the turbulence… I still wasn’t able to get out of those pieces of the boat that I was in until they settled to a point where they had stopped moving. I mean, the current, or whatever was going on there, still kept this gerbil-type wheel going with me in it down there that I just couldn’t…
Gemini The Freighter That Ran Over Jeff And His 36’ Grand Banks - Image Courtesy Of Mike Nichols.com
At that point I started swimming over to what was left of our dinghy. It was still tied to the railing it had been tied to. I pulled myself on. The others were grabbing things that were not sufficient to keep them afloat, you know, debris, just to float. So I was trying to get the dinghy over to them.
[I asked Jeff about the water.] – Alex
It was darn cold. October 23rd, Detroit River. It was drawing the heat out pretty good.
[Water temperatures that time of year are in the low 50’s. Compound the cold water with the shock of the collision, the physical injuries, and the fatigue after 9 days of 24/7 travel and you realize these men were far from “ok.”] – Alex
Luckily, there were two guys in a small aluminum boat, fishing north of where we got hit. They came down into the debris field. They came to me first, and I told them to drag me over so we could get the dingy to the others and get them out of the water. When we got over there, the three others started trying to climb into that aluminum boat. The fishermen got really worried about getting swamped. I think we never did climb into that boat. We were just hanging on…
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I just told you what I had experienced.
Here’s what the others told me happened to them.
My Dad was at the helm, with John and Jim. He started to talk to John about this freighter parking area, just north of Fighting Island.
Point of Impact
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Map Of Accident Location On Detroit River
He was just rounding Fighting Island, heading North East. He and John were analyzing whether the freighters they saw along the side of the River were moving or parked. Then, at that point, my Dad felt the wheel pulling. He was trying to correct it, but the wheel was pulling hard, clockwise. He told John “the boat won’t steer.” And John said “what are you talking about?” Seconds after that, the boat was rolling on the bow wave of the freighter, and was caught in that current.
The Huge Bow Wave of Gemini, the Freighter That Hit Jeff’s Grand Banks - Image Coutesy of www.boatnerds.com
Our boat was in a bad position to get t-boned. Jim told me, that when the boat started to turn and roll, he looked all of a sudden out the starboard window, which was now facing down the Detroit River. And there, he saw the freighter, bearing down on them only about 30 feet away. That was the yell I heard.
You know, when the freighter hit us, it actually hit on my side (starboard), the side where I was sleeping. The boat actually held its structure as it rolled over. But then, the freighter punched clean through the middle of the other side. That was probably the only thing that saved me. That the boat got flipped over to the opposite side of me before it busted open. That section of the boat washed up later on. The hole in it was about 4 feet high by 12 feet long.
[The failure of a 1-1/2 inch through-hull fitting, 4 feet below the water line. will allow 3,600 gallons per hour. You can imagine how instantaneously a 48 square foot one fills.] – Alex
When my Dad and the others went over upside down, the pilot house crushed. My Dad told me it felt like he’d been pinched really badly. Their section of the boat was underwater for a while, but came up alongside the freighter and started to float for a moment, and that allowed my Dad and the others to get out.
My Dad’s shoulder had been pulled so hard it tore muscles away from his sternum. So there, in the water, he had a hematoma in his neck that was blowing up. John and Jim had lacerations from the pilot house glass so they were bleeding… their heads were bleeding. So while the others got the more physical part of being hurt, I just had the, you know, “I’m dying by drowning” type thing.
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So there we were hanging on to the fishermen’s boat. The 432 foot freighter? It turned around and then came back to us.
[Turning a freighter 180 degrees and then inching up on people, means Jeff and the others were in that cold water a long time, hanging on to the fishing boat.] – Alex
Gemini, Detroit River - Image Courtesy Mike Nichols.com
The freighter crew were throwing blankets down to us. And we were stunned to hear the captain up there yelling, literally yelling at us: “Why did you cut right in front of me?”- type talk.
As soon as they had hit us, the freighter had called the US Coast Guard. So it wasn’t much longer until the Coast Guard boat arrived. We all got into that boat, and they took us to shore. The ambulance was already there, ready for us. They rushed us off to Henry Ford Hospital, Wyandotte. We were all hypothermic. I remember the adrenaline, and the cold, and everybody was just shaking, this heavy fluttering.
The scene in the emergency room was traumatic. I was pretty much ok, other than hypothermia and a sprained wrist. John was getting stitched up. But my Dad was pretty beaten up. He was cut, bruised, and had that internal bleeding. He kept passing out. He was in his middle 60s at the time which added to the risk inherent to his injuries.
But you know, we all lived.
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After reviewing the wide range of viewer comments below, you can go to A Life-Changing Journey, Part 3 of 3 – Picking Up The Pieces by clicking here.
Alex Watson
I’m guessing the Captain moved from freighters to Italian cruise boats.
this was just a terrible accident. sounds like the freighter captain was the least responsible party
Bob – That part of the story plays out tomorrow and it’s something else…
Terrible! I can only imagine the nightmares that these guys must still have!
That’s also desribed in Part 3 tomorrow.
Texx
Your comments are making me afraid to read part 3 tomorrow!
Greg
Staib you kill me….Fighting Island they were fighting for their life. Great Story.
i, too, am not believing for one moment that jeff’s dad, joe, turned in front of that freighter…
and alex, is right, words couldn’t possibly describe the horror that must have been jeff’s in fighting for his life underwater like that in the dark cold waters of the river…
and then to have the thoughts that he did of his dad, his wife and kids…those few moments must have been an eternity…
i had to get up from the computer, step outside, take a deep breath, look around and say a silent thank you that everyone was alive…
amazing story…
Nehmer Kid, I hadn’t picked up on that. Good observation. Man, that is quite a coincidence. I’ll wager that Jeff and his Dad have thought of it though. I’ll bet they’ve replayed in their minds every part of this experience hundreds of times from every angle, unwillingly much of the time.
Boating on Lake Erie I always love seeing freighters pass by but always keep a distance for this reason. What a terrifying experience, great read.
Its a relief to hear that everyone at least made it out alive. Never expected a bow wave that big. The pictures show how different freighters hydrodynamics are than barge traffic. ACBS member Stan Peterson lost power or rudder on Mississippi and was “bumped” by a barge, barely scraped his hull. Freighters must move at a pretty good clip comparatively speaking.
Its’ incredible the freighter’s crew wasn’t keeping a closer watch on this tight river, and at least sound a horn signal if they thought the overtaking situation was going to be as close as it apparently was.
I’m curious as to what the conditions were at the time of the collision. It mentions Jeff going off watch at 3 pm, so it happened before 4 pm? Twilight, dark, clear conditions? Obviously clear enough for nearby fisherman to see the GB, so why couldn’t the ship see them?
From the number of commercial accidents I read about on large mid-west rivers (Maritime publications) it is becomming apparent of just how ‘unqualified’ some of the crew running these vessels are.
I’m waiting for the wrap-up, but a couple things jump out right away: The speed of the freighter, generating that much of a wake in a relatively tight channel, and (as Randy mentions above) the lack of an adequate watch on the part of the freighter.
In general, the overtaking vessel is always burdened, though commercial traffic lanes are often restricted and private vessels are instructed to cross at right angles and stay out of those lanes as much as possible. We experience huge tanker wakes in Puget Sound, and it’s always a challenge to minimize the discomfort and risk to our passengers and vessel. I rarely run in the channel – never when a commercial vessel is on the horizon.
I know we’ll have answers to this tomorrow, but was the VHF active? Was either vessel using radar? No signal was sounded, so it is obvious to me they were not seen! Did the freighter captain claim he was unable to avoid the collision after they came into the channel – (having decided running just outside was too shallow as mentioned earlier in the story)? I wouldn’t buy it, because there was evidently no attempt to warn the vessel being overtaken.
Thank God everyone survived! I will be interested in how the rest of the story wraps up.
Glad to hear that everyone is alright. Lots of different emotions. Maintaining awareness 24 hours a day is tough. It is hard to rely on the awareness of others.
As I told my wife when she moved east that the rule of the road here is that everyone is trying to hit you. Do not trust the other operators. I hope all the gentlemen still find peace when out on the water.
I will say that the hand of the Lord was with them that day. It sounds to me that there was nothing they could have done but not be so close, but by looking at the map there is not much room. That freighter cant see right next to his bow and stopping or turn a freighter takes time. I heard a freighter running at speed takes over a mile to stop in full reverse. I have been next to freighters a few times in the great lakes and the St. Clair River and they are massive.
It seems to me that the Grand Banks went up and over the bow wake and was sent to the freighters bow with no chance to maneuver the boat out of the way. Thank God no one was killed. Great story, well told and well written, thanks for sharing
Randy, the weather was overcast but clear. The impact was at 3:30pm. Other than the cruiser that past us at Grosse Ile and the fishermen, there was no other known traffic on the river.
The rules of the river give the larger vessels the right of way because they have limited visibility and limited maneuverability. There hasn’t been anything written so far that says the freighter captain was at fault. I am surprised people commenting can reach that conclusion.
That’s my worst fear as a Great Lakes boater. I was also wondering if every article is this good?
Having nearly drowned last summer while “saving” a five year old swimmer being blown away from our boat in a sudden storm front, I am still shaking after reading this encounter.
John, not sure why “saving” is in quotes. So I truly hope the outcome for the five year old was his safe recovery, even though the effort was clearly traumatic for you. As you’ll read tomorrow, this story’s outcome is a good one though, as with you, it has changed Jeff and his Dad.
Matt, you hyped this story pretty good…..but not nearly enough! Unreal.
John in Va.
Thank God they are alive I can emagine the fear in all of then , Great story..can”t wait for the end.