Trapped beneath the waves for an agonizing three-day stretch

The usual annoyance of waking up to use the bathroom took an extraordinary turn on May 26, 2013. For Harrison Odjegba Okene, a 29-year-old man at the time, this seemingly mundane act became a decision that would save his life. In a strange twist of fate, Harrison emerged as the sole survivor of a harrowing boat sinking incident, earning him the remarkable distinction of being the only known person in the world to have endured nearly three days on the seafloor.

The Gulf of Guinea, located in the southeast Atlantic Ocean, is renowned for its petroleum-rich sedimentary seabed. Along the African coast, numerous offshore oil rig drilling operations can be found. It was on this day, approximately 20 miles (32 km) off the coast of Escravos, Nigeria, amidst turbulent seas, that three tugboats were engaged in the task of tension towing a Chevron oil tanker at Single Buoy Mooring #3.

Shortly before 5 am, the tugboat Jascon-4 was unexpectedly struck by a massive rogue wave, causing it to capsize. Due to piracy concerns prevalent in the Gulf, the security protocol aboard the tugboat mandated that the 12-man crew lock themselves inside their sleeping quarters. Unfortunately, this procedure impeded the crew's escape efforts. They had to hastily evacuate their cabins, except for Harrison, the cook, who had ventured out in his underwear to use the bathroom.

When the tugboat violently keeled over and water inundated the vessel, Harrison found himself grappling with the bathroom's metal door against an overpowering deluge. The water's immense pressure prevented him from following some of his fellow crew members to the emergency hatch. In a horrifying sight, Harrison witnessed three of his colleagues succumb to the surging waves, being swept away into the tumultuous sea. Subsequently, the water forcefully propelled Harrison down a narrow hallway, ultimately leading him into another bathroom adjoining an officer's cabin. Disoriented and battered, but miraculously alive, Harrison clung to an upturned washbasin, utilizing it to keep his head above water within the confined four-foot-square bathroom. The vessel descended to a depth of nearly 100 feet (30 meters), ultimately settling upside down on the seabed. In response to the tugboat's capsizing, an immediate rescue operation was launched, involving nearby boats and a helicopter. A team of divers swiftly located the wreck and marked its position with buoys. They desperately hammered on the hull, hoping for a response from survivors, but their efforts went unheard. Due to the divers' limited capacity for deep-sea exploration, they could only remain at the wreck's depth for a restricted period of time. Unfortunately, as no evidence of survivors emerged, the rescue operation had to be called off.

After spending nearly a day confined in the bathroom, Harrison mustered the courage to venture beyond his small pocket of air. Navigating through pitch darkness, he cautiously swam and felt his way into the engineer's office. Miraculously, he discovered yet another air pocket, estimated to be about 4 feet (1.2 meters) high.

Having resolved the immediate challenge of finding breathable air, Harrison turned his attention to other pressing concerns. The first one was the biting cold. While the surface temperature of the East Atlantic in May averages a pleasant 81.9°F (27.7°C), Harrison found himself 100 feet (30m) beneath the surface. Clad only in boxer shorts and soaked to the bone, he battled against hypothermia, as his body lost heat faster than it could generate it. Methodically, Harrison felt his way around the cabin, locating some tools that allowed him to strip off wall paneling. With a mattress and the salvaged materials, he fashioned a makeshift platform to sit on. This platform not only helped him stay afloat but also elevated the upper half of his body above the water, reducing heat loss.

Dealing with hunger, thirst, cold, and the oppressive darkness, Harrison grappled with overwhelming fear. To find solace, he turned to thoughts of his family. A deeply religious person, Harrison would often pray and invoke the name of Jesus in times of heightened terror, beseeching for rescue. As time wore on, the seawater began to erode the skin from his tongue, and a putrid stench wafted through the air—presumably the scent of decomposing bodies belonging to his fellow shipmates. Every small sound in the darkness amplified, from the creaking of the hull to the crashing of debris against the walls. Most chillingly, he heard splashing and the gnawing noises of fish feeding on the lifeless bodies.

Meanwhile, a dive support vessel, the Lewek Toucan, arrived in the vicinity of the sunken tugboat. The parent company of the Jascon-4, West African Ventures, had enlisted the services of a deep-sea salvage saturation diving team from DCN Global, a subsea services company, to recover the bodies of the deceased crew members.

The team of six divers, along with deck crew and technical staff aboard the Lewek Toucan, braced themselves for an arduous undertaking. Apart from the emotionally draining task of retrieving the deceased, the upside-down vessel had sunk into soft mud, stirring up fine silt and causing extremely poor visibility. Moreover, due to security protocols, the boat was secured from the inside.

Dive team two, comprising Nico Van Heerden, Andre Erasmus, and Darryl Oosthuizen, operated under the guidance of supervisor Colby Werrett, who remained topside on the ship. Colby provided directions to the divers through a connected microphone while observing the dive through a camera worn by Nico. The team dedicated over an hour to breach an external watertight door, followed by a second metal door, in order to access the submerged vessel. Once inside, they confronted a disorienting environment, with the ceiling now below and the floor above. The murky water presented numerous hazards, including furniture and equipment scattered throughout.

With painstaking effort, the divers painstakingly explored the interior of the sunken boat. They had successfully recovered four lifeless bodies when Nico, maneuvering through a narrow passageway, suddenly felt something emerge from the murky depths and make contact with him... Harrison's hope had nearly faded when he suddenly heard a noise resembling the sound of an anchor dropping. Soon after, he distinguished the sound of hammering on the hull of the boat. Harrison knew it had to be the divers. He desperately banged on the walls, but doubted they could hear him. Then, a glimmer of light from a diver's head torch pierced through the darkness as they swam through the distant end of the cabin's hallway. Unfortunately, the diver swiftly passed by, leaving Harrison unable to reach out in time.

But then came the magical moment, captured in the surreal and astounding rescue footage from Nico's video. Nico, believing he had encountered another lifeless body, reached out and touched the hand of what he thought was a corpse. To his astonishment, the hand squeezed back. In that instant, Nico experienced a brief moment of shock, while his supervisor, Colby, urgently exclaimed through the microphone, "He's alive, he's alive!" Colby instructed Nico to comfort Harrison by patting him on the shoulder and giving him a thumbs-up sign.

The divers were amazed to find Harrison alive. Recreational diving typically has a maximum depth of 130 feet (40 meters), and divers generally avoid staying at a depth of 100 feet (30 meters) for more than 20 minutes. In terms of the air pocket, the divers had reached Harrison just in the nick of time. An average human inhales approximately 350 cubic feet (10 cubic meters) of air every 24 hours. However, due to the boat's pressure on the ocean floor, scientists estimated that Harrison's compressed air pocket was about four times smaller. If the pressurized air pocket measured around 216 cubic feet (6 cubic meters), it would contain enough oxygen to sustain Harrison for approximately two and a half days. By the time Harrison was located, he had been submerged for about 60 hours.

Another peril loomed in the form of carbon dioxide (CO2) buildup. A concentration of about 5% of CO2 can prove fatal to humans. With every breath, Harrison exhaled carbon dioxide, gradually increasing its levels within the confined space. However, the absorption of CO2 by water worked to his advantage. By splashing the water inside his air pocket, Harrison inadvertently increased the water's surface area, enhancing CO2 absorption and preventing it from reaching lethal levels. When the divers discovered him, Harrison exhibited symptoms of CO2 poisoning—shortness of breath and delirium. It was evident that his time was running out.

The divers initially used hot water to warm Harrison's body, then fitted him with an oxygen mask. Meanwhile, on the surface, the dive support crew remained in contact with medical and diving experts, devising the best course of action to aid the survivor. Harrison faced a new problem known as "the bends." Also referred to as decompression sickness (DCS) or Caisson disease, it occurs when nitrogen bubbles form in the bloodstream due to changes in pressure. If Harrison ascended directly from 100 feet (30 meters) underwater to the ocean's surface, the nitrogen bubbles in his blood could lead to various complications, ranging from joint pain and rashes to paralysis, neurological issues, cardiac arrest, or even death.

A decision was made to treat Harrison as if he were one of the saturation divers ascending after a dive. Harrison spent approximately 20 minutes acclimating to breathing through the mask. Then, the divers outfitted him with a diving helmet and harness. Concerns lingered that he might panic during the extraction from the boat, posing a risk to the dive, but Harrison remained remarkably composed under pressure. The team was impressed by his calm demeanor. Safely extracted from the boat, Harrison was guided to a diving bell, which transported him to the surface. He finally emerged topside around 7 pm on Tuesday, the 28th of May. Disoriented, Harrison mistakenly believed it was Sunday evening and that he had only been trapped for 12 hours. He was shocked to learn that he had spent over two days underwater. Harrison was then transferred to a decompression chamber, where he spent another two and a half days as his body adjusted to surface pressure.

Out of the 12 crew members aboard the Jascon-4 tugboat, the divers managed to rescue one survivor and recover 10 bodies. The search for the 11th crew member had to be called off due to treacherous conditions. Harrison eventually made a full recovery from his traumatic experience and returned to his hometown of Warri, Nigeria. He chose not to attend the funerals of his colleagues, fearing the reactions of their families, as Nigerians can be deeply religious and superstitious. Rumors circulated, suggesting that Harrison had saved himself through black magic. Additionally, he grappled with survivor's guilt, questioning why he was the only one who lived.

Since the incident, Harrison has battled with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). His wife, Akpovona Okene, reveals that he suffers from nightmares, abruptly waking up screaming and thrashing, convinced that he is still underwater. Harrison has since taken a cooking job on solid ground and has vowed to never set foot on a boat again. At the bottom of the ocean, he made a solemn pact with God, declaring that if he were rescued, he would never return to the sea.

Could you endure being underwater for three days like Harrison did? What thoughts would uplift your spirits in such a situation?