The Current - How seven fishermen survived 52 hours lost at sea

Episode Date: December 30, 2024

When seven fishermen disappeared off Newfoundland’s coast this summer, everyone feared the worst. But as hours turned into days and hope dwindled, the men were found — alive. The ‘Lucky 7’ share their harrowing brush with death in our documentary Lost at Sea.

In 2017, it felt like drugs were everywhere in the news, so I started a podcast called On Drugs. We covered a lot of ground over two seasons, but there are still so many more stories to tell. I'm Jeff Turner, and I'm back with Season 3 of On Drugs. And this time, it's going to get personal. I don't know who Sober Jeff is. I don't even know if I like that guy.

On Drugs is available now wherever you get your podcasts. This is a CBC Podcast. Hello, I'm Matt Galloway, and this is The Current Podcast. The boys told me his boat was gone missing. They can't find him. It's just this numbness comes over your body. If you have people in the water, they don't have much time. Right out in front of my bridge sat there for three days, waiting every time I see a vehicle,

I go, is that Andy? Is that Andy? In my mind, I was losing it. And then they picked up some debris and stuff like that. Well, that's when I flipped. Like, I said, well, that's it. They're gone, right? When seven fishermen disappeared off the northeast coast of Newfoundland in July, just about everyone from one tip of that province to the other was gripped by dread. Because we knew that this was going to be a regional funeral.

The food was ready. The place was booked. We were ready to help this town go through one of the worst things, worst disasters that it ever could be. And then bang. After 52 hours, the impossible. But those fishers have been found in a life raft. All seven men were found safe. Everyone just erupted in the house and I was like, what is going on? My daughter ran down the hallway. She said, Mom, they got them all found. They're all alive. And I fell to the floor again. The men were found floating in a raft nearly 300 kilometres from shore.

They'd survived on sips of water and sugar cubes. Michael Tiller is the mayor of New West Valley, the outport where most of the men are from. And you were in bed, and you were just shaking. It's like, oh my God, I can't believe they're found. This can't be right. And you know, this does not happen. It does not happen. Not seven.

Something would have happened where somebody would have broke their leg. Somebody wouldn't have been able to swim. Somebody would not have made it back in. But damn it, we got one in New West Valley. We got one for the province. We got one for the country. The world. But very few people know what it was actually like to be lost at one for the province. We got one for the country, the world. But very few people know what it was actually like to be lost at sea for 52 hours. Our producer, Mary Catherine

McIntosh, visited with all seven men and discovered a story at sea so harrowing it rarely returns to land to be told. The life raft was so small the men had to hug their knees to their chest just to fit in it. But to understand how they survived, first you have to meet them. Andy is one of the deckhands. He first started on the boats at 13 as a night watchman. By 15 he was fishing in Greenland. I was getting in trouble at school. I was walking to school and they said, where were you to yesterday? I said, I was working. Where were you working to?

I said, working on the boat at Night Watcher. Davey's the jokester of the bunch. On the raft, he made the men laugh by pretending to be a reporter. He used a flashlight for a microphone and asked, how's your fishing trip going so far? I was just sitting life raft and looking at all the boys. This is not the end of the world for us. This is just a funny moment. You've got to keep everybody's spirits up. Toby is the baby of the crew, just 20 at the time. He can't swim. No fear for water. Still no fear for water at all. Are you going to take swimming lessons?

No. I wish you would take swimming lessons. Harold is the oldest. At 62, he told the captain before they set out, it would be his last trip. Two decades ago, he survived another fire at sea. I can't swim. That's the scariest part. Robbie had only been sober for two months when he boarded the boat yeah this year was sucked like financially it sucks everything sucks about it like

if i can get through this year though and start next year i'll be happy jordan doesn't talk about what happened on the raft like i said this is the first time I've pretty much talked about it since it happened. I'm pretty, like, I'm a quiet guy. I keep some emotions. I act tough and all that, and I try to deal with shit myself. And finally, there's Captain Eugene. He had only moments to order his crew to jump from a burning boat. Then he took charge on the raft and tried to keep the men from panicking for more than 50 hours.

Like, yes, we're all grown men. We always try to put the tough side out. But, I mean, like, when you're in situations like this, like, there is no tough side. I mean, if you're emotional, just let it go. Day one, the fire. The men were expected back to the wharf about lunchtime the next day with a boat full of turbot. Well, it was like a normal day, normal trip.

We're just finishing up. Couldn't wait getting out of it. Wheels told us we were going to have a couple of days off, so everyone's talking about what they had planned to do. Getting stopper ready, I was up in the wheelhouse and this alarm goes off when eugene come up he looked at the alarm panel and seen that was engine room smoke and when robbie got up he just so happened to turned and that's when he looked in the locker he seen the smoke coming out the door of the locker i heard fire fire and i woke up out of the bunk and i couldn't see nothing but smoke. So just by memory, I went for the ladder to go up in the wheelhouse. As soon as I went up in the wheelhouse, I grabbed five suits out of the closet.

We never had a chance to do anything. Before you knew it, within five minutes, we were out on the deck. The smoke was that thick, couldn't even see each other really. And at this time, Toby and Eugene was there at the fire station trying to put the fire out and it wouldn't work and then Eugene said banish the ship, banish the ship

and throw the life rafts overboard. We tried to get some life rafts and some suits out. Two people that didn't wear the suits was Toby and Arrow. Two people that couldn't swim. That's how ironic everything worked out. Because it was just too fast. It was just too fast, yeah.

We didn't, we wasn't even thinking about who could swim and who couldn't. And at this time we were trying to get around the flames that was coming up through the stack and the vent. And then I jumped in through the stack and the vent and then i jumped in from the roof into the raft and then robbie he pretty much almost landed on me because he jumped right behind me all the rest of them jumped my members me and our was the last ones on because well it's better to get them in the water so they could catch us me and our couldn't swim right uh harrell harrell didn't want to jump very bad at all.

He hesitated a lot, actually. We told him, we said, Harold, it's either burn or try to live, right? Me and Eugene got a plan together, and boys wouldn't jump. Eugene was yelling at the boys, telling them they had to jump or they were going to burn, and they said they can't. They're too scared, they can't swim. And I said to Harold, I said, Harold to Harold jump I'll be there to get you and I told him not to panic I said if you panic so I let you go and I got

Harold back to the raft and got Toby to jump you got no time to think do what you got to do to live I pretty pretty much caught 12 of my arms. Andy lost his glasses and everything when he jumped overboard. So he was basically on the back of the raft kicking, and Davey was too for a while, trying to get the boat away from the raft, away from the boat, because the raft was starting to catch on fire too at one point. We had a hard time getting away from the boat. She's engulfed in flames at this point. We had a hard time getting away from the boat. She's engulfed in flames at this point. Even in

the top of the raft, there's holes burned in the raft. How that raft never melted and deflated, that's a miracle in itself. So me and Eugene got two paddles, one at each door and me and Eugene just paddled as hard as we could to get around the bow of the boat and we got around the bow of the boat

and then the tide took us away from the boat. We just drifted away from the boat and watched her burn. There was a few times I shut my eyes and I'd open back up just to see that it was real, right? It was, like, just so surreal. But, I mean, for the boys, we were just sat there staring at each other. But once we got on the raft and got away safe distance from the boat and all that, and then we all said, you know what would be good right now?

A smoke. And one of the boys undone their suits and took a laugh back, smokes, and with a grin on their face, and we all were happy. And we said, oh, well, we'll have one now, and we're trying to make these smokes last. I think it was an hour later, they were all gone. State of panic for the first half hour of it, but then you kind of calm down a bit,

because we thought for sure one of the three Maydays that we put out was heard we figured well within three hours four hours most someone's gonna have us but when Sun rose the next morning we kind of figure it out this is not gonna happen like that there wasn't a draft to win yeah the fog never actually set in until around supper time. Just when the search started is when we got the fog. Just when the search started. You can't see two feet in front of you. The only way we could see outside, we had to open up a door. That was like a tent.

That's what I would call it. It was a floatable tent, we'll call it. So when we had to open up the door, when we looked at the door, you couldn't... You wouldn't be able to see five, say five, ten feet in front of you. It was just death thick. Like weird planes that was probably a hundred feet away from us. Two hundred feet maybe. And it was there and we were here and no. We couldn't do much. That's all we was doing was sitting down and listening. And one thing that was there, I think, like, we used to hear a helicopter. And then all of a sudden, you hear it slowly go away. An hour later, then you hear another one.

And then it calmed, you think he's getting closer, and then it'll slowly go away. As after they did their grid to find us, before they wouldn't miss nothing, one point in time that everybody had whistles on their suits, and we used to count one, two, three, and then everybody whistled at the same time with the whistles. You can hear this chopper getting closer, doing these routes. It was getting so close, and then it would turn, and it would go back each other route. And then when it come back again, it would be getting closer.

But at the last minute, it seemed so close. And we were actually saying to each other, you know what, this time we're getting found. And then the sound started getting weaker and weaker and weaker, and then we never heard this no more. Another one of our words was actually that, well, we knew on land that nobody thought we was alive, right? And well, how long is they going to keep searching for us?

You know, they're not going to search for weeks. Day one was quiet. Nobody really said much. But then day two come around, but then, like I said, the frustrations started kicking in and nobody could get comfortable and people were starting to get a little bit moody and the mood was switching well the boys used to do a lot of grumbling with me because i was asleep for probably two or three hours at a time and like the boys were barely getting any sleep and probably minutes or maybe

half an hour if they got that so when i used to wake up i was like oh the boys are just there with their legs and feet up over the top of me everywhere they knew i they knew i was going to be sleeping pretty good me and andy like we're we're good we're friends but uh we got that love eight relationship you know i mean we get on each other's nerves on a good day on the boat when everything's going good and in the raft you know complaining about not being comfortable moving around lots and then wanting to switch out with people and then they switch out with them and then they say oh that's not comfortable i'm gonna switch out again and so he was moving around lots and we were just sick of it you know what i mean and then one night me and eugene was up because we

was up middle of the night there, and all of a sudden a whale right down the back. She wasn't very far, just poof. I said, wow. And I didn't want to say nothing, it was just a tide, right? Sat in the raft there, and we heard just picking at the raft, and we looked out the door, and a bunch of birds were floating around the raft, picking at the raft with their beaks. So I was trying to hit them with the paddle and get them away from the raft.

But well, I don't know, I might have been asleep then. I was pretty emotional, so I was pretty zoned out sometimes. There was a bottle grab-all there. So during daytime, we used to take grab-all. There was always somebody up to keep my eye out, look around. But for the most. Well, the third day was getting really rough. Everybody lost their strength. Everybody lost, like, you know, you start to tink more, don't you? Three days in.

Day three, I had to put in the words because I noticed that the Florida rap was getting weak. We didn't want to make anybody worry more than what they already are. This rap ain't going to last much longer. In 2017, it felt like drugs were everywhere in the news. So I started a podcast called On Drugs. We covered a lot of ground over two seasons, but there are still so many more stories to tell. I'm Jeff Turner, and I'm back with season three of On Drugs. And this time it's going to get personal. I don't know who Sober Jeff is. I don't even

know if I like that guy. On Drugs is available now wherever you get your podcasts. I was just thinking that, I guess all the stupid shit that I've done in this life, I guess this is payback, in my eyes. So I said, well, I guess I deserved it in my house, but I thought, I guess my time was up, my time was up. But, and I said, like I said, I deserved it. That's what I thought. I guess the time was up, the time was up. But, like I said, I was thinking about that little girl in there. And when I got back, I said, you know what, this is a second chance now. So I'm going to turn the table and have a drink.

I had two kids up in Alberta. And, you know, the last few years I haven't been there for them much. And I've just lots of emotion missing my kids and not thinking I was going to see them again and stuff like that. So the kids was the hardest part, thinking about the kids. No, you don't make me upset. I was sitting in that raft. I was looking back on the choices I made in the last few years, and I was kind of hating myself for not being a better dad than I know I can be. And I was hoping that I'd get back to land

so I could tell them how much I loved them and stuff. get back land so I could tell him how much I loved him and stuff. Well, and then we had a little small sponge, something you do dishes with, and a little small container. And that's what we was doing, getting the water. So we soaked water up, squeezed it in that one, and we passed it to the other fellow and he dumped it overboard. So that's what we had to take water out of there. You were bailing out water with a cup and a sponge. That's all we had.

It was a little small piece of sponge, soak up water, put it in a container smaller than a mug and pass that out and pass it to the next person. Third day, the boys was getting cold, the last two with the suits. And so we started cuddling to each other basically. When I was at my lowest point in the raft, me and Jordan was pretty close friends. His grandfather and my grandfather got lost in the sea. I just was panicking one day and I remember actually going over, was laid down and I actually put my head on his chest and that's the best snap I had

when I was out there and he just cuddled me and said like he said love and friendship and yeah it was good. It was so uncomfortable. Toby's the young one as I told me like told me that he was going to die. He froze. I looked at Jordan and said, don't give up. You just hit a little girl. Keep that as a positive. Jordan wanted to jump over the raft at one point. He's frustrated. He's a big boy. You can't move. You're so uncomfortable.

I just looked at him and said said just think about your little girl and I told him he was like started crying and it was just that cold he just didn't know he just thought he was gonna die he was just so worried he wasn't gonna see his mom and dad again and all going back to me you know. Did you rub his arm or something? Oh, I done everything to him. He did me arms like a baby. Covering him and cuddling him. Keeping him warm. You know what I was saying there. I said it once.

Yeah, I said it once. I was getting pissed off at the end, it wasn't handy. I was getting pissed off at Andy and that. I was in my head to jump out. I just didn't want to be in that raft no more. It's just depressing. I already lost me and my family already this year. Well, me and my sister split up.

So that was running through my mind a lot. all the stupid decisions and everything I made in life. Just thinking to myself, I was just eight. Like, is this really it? I'm not going to see my kids no more. And it was just so depressing. I remember once just looking up at the sky and saying, Grandma, I must go home. Because my grandmother lost her husband in the water.

And the sky lit up. The sky actually broke open, and this is when we got found. So I'm praying to God that maybe that's who was looking out for us. And I can remember now, I opened up my eyes, and Davy was across from me there, and everybody else was asleep. I caught a glimpse of light, because it's not hard to find light out in the center of the ocean with no light. I was debating was I seeing

stuff. I didn't want to put a panic to no one. And I said, boy, I got to say something. I said, Davey, is she getting loud? And I said to Eugene, I said, there's lights out there, Eugene. I mean, after a while, you keep sometimes you hear things from hoping you hear things, you know,

what I'm trying to say. Yeah, so I said, no, that's definitely a chopper. So I opened up the door and I stuck my head in the life raft. And when I looked up, there was a chopper going over my head. And the fog is all cleared. And I said, holy God. So, I mean, at this point, I had one flare left. So you had used everything else?

I had everything used. All I had left was this one flare. I kept reading the fine print and it said only use if you have sight of a vessel or an aircraft. So I must have read that about a hundred times throughout the day, right? So I left this flare up in the air and I say it

wouldn't like no more than about 30 seconds after that, I seen the helicopter start to turn around. So it was dark enough that I actually used my flashlight and i put the flashlight up i start turning on and off on and off continuously because that's a distress call from the pilot's eyes he told me that he had a night vision so by me flicking this flashlight on and off he said it was like a cigarette lighter and it led him right to my raft. And the chopper got louder and louder and louder

then it got to the point where it was almost deafening and you could see the top of the raft flapping in the wind. A lot of relief. A lot of relief. There's no word to put on that feeling. No way to describe it. You have to live through it to understand it. I seen a diver come down. So the diver came down off the helicopter, jumped in the water, swam up to the raft, and he said, How many people on board?

I said, Seven. He said, How many alive? I said, Seven. He said, You're a hero. He said, You've got the whole province, country, world praying for you. He said, Simply amazing. And while time went really fast then, it felt like only minutes he was on board telly I was making phone calls home it was amazing well as

soon as we got in the boat we had we all I had to go to the shower first and before I got checked over in that because you know you had used a bathroom in your yeah you had you couldn't take suit off you had used to wash from in your suit and so i got the first thing i got was a shower and then i got checked over and then got a pack of smokes and then i went to the kitchen and i felt the plate up as high as i could get it because i was hungry but then i sat down i had one spoonful and then i couldn't eat no more i was full I didn't know how long it was until I actually got onto their boat. When I got on the coast guard then I got to read for three days.

First thing I ate was three grouchy sandwiches that they had left over from their dinner and then they cooked chicken fingers, fries and their gravy. I mean like if there's such thing as saying they give us the clothes after back they did because they actually went through their own clothes bags, and they give us their pants, their shirts.

a soft guy or anything but you know he was on the wharf when I came in and he was broke down and tears on his hands and knees and he was pretty bad I never seen my old man like that before so it was pretty hard to see him like that it hurt and because I always thought I always blamed for years I blamed all you don't care about me you don't care with me but they do it's just me that don't that's too scared to open up for the 52 hours in the life raft and getting home and I know it first three weeks when I was in on land is like what happened to awesome mean I just looked at it like a picture and then after a third week I mean I just I had a major major breakdown I had one my anxiety pills just to take the edge off of it just having those flashbacks in your mind like everything

like it's every day. And to me, like, the only way I could go back at the car with my brother, you know, I just said to put everything behind me and just go, go, go, don't stop. But everybody says to me, is you going back again? And I says to everybody, I says, do you get in a car accident? Do you go back to work? Do you get back in a car after you had accidents? The oceans are something I always did. And I tell his kids, stay in school. He probably wouldn't have to do it, more or less.

So that's it. That's just who we are. I don't know how I will feel until I actually get to the very end. I might not make it 20 feet underwater. Nobody's going to bring me back. The way I feel right now, I would probably jump on and I would go. Alexa, remember Daddy? You did, girl? When I got on the raft, she wouldn't let go of my hand.

She's a dead girl. I had one finger, and her little hand was right around one finger and she would not let go. What a story. Those fishermen are known as the Lucky Seven and next year the outport of New West Valley is planning something almost unheard of, a seaside monument to pay tribute to fishermen who survived. They are skipper Eugene Carter, Andy Hunt, Robbie Firmage, Harold Howell, Toby Petal, Jordan King and David Tiller. That documentary was produced by Mary Catherine McIntosh and Elizabeth Hoth with the CBC's Audio Documentary Unit. For more CBC Podcasts, go to cbc.ca slash podcasts.