I was trapped underwater for 3 Day

Hi everyone,

The protagonist of the story I'm about to tell you is a cook. He was trapped underwater for 62 hours,that's almost 3 days.He became the person who spent the longest time underwater, and thus part of naval history,

but he didn't care about that at all,he grew to hate the sea and being a sailor after what he had to live through.He wouldn't even dip his feet in the sea from then on.

Herrison Okean worked on a tugboat (for those who are not familiar with it) a tugboat is a kind of towing boat,these boats have really powerful engines and they push and pull other boats or non motorized vessels with the help of a thick tow line.

The Hero of our story was a cook on a tugboat just like that. One night,Harrison and his colleagues went into the cabin to get some rest after a long work day. And they locked themselves as they always did. Why did they lock the door? Because they were in an oil field in the Atlantic Ocean. It was off the coast of Nigeria. Ships frequently got attacked by pirates there, that's why the crew always locked themselves in their cabins for safety.

He went to sleep at the same time as the other crew members. But he had to wake up a little earlier to prepare breakfast. He got up from his bed as he did every morning. It was so hot inside that he was only wearing shorts. There was a small toilet and the bathroom inside the cabin,Herisson went into the toilet and shut the door.

In Oceanography there's a type of wave called a monster wave or killer wave.

As the name suggests, these are dangerously large waves. They appear on the surface of the sea unexpectedly even with no trace of the storm. This is a natural event that scares sailors the most. It was one of those waves that caused the tugboat Harrison and his friends were on, to suddenly sink. The depth of the water there was 30 meters or 100 feet. The tugboat sank very quickly. Capsized after hitting the ocean floor. It all happened in a flash. Unfortunately the 11 crew members that were in the bedroom with Harrison drowned instantly, only one person survived and that was the cook,who was in the tiny toilet. The toilet Harrison was in, had a metal door. The door had kept the water outside. This lucky man survived the accident because he was awake and in a place where the water couldn't Rush in. But he didn't know what was going on,he wasn't hearing any sounds. The commotion outside had stopped. Had the boat sank.?? What would have happened to his friends? should he leave the toilet or wait inside. He thought about it for a while, and finally decided to get out of there. It wasn't easy to open that metal door. He tried pushing it but it wouldn't budge. The pressure from the water prevented it from opening. He pushed again as hard as he could. The door moved just a little. Harrison kept pushing when the door opened just enough for him to pass through. He quickly got out. He was shocked by what he saw inside the cabin. All his friends had drowned. He was really sad but there was nothing he could do. He was almost out of breath; he had to get out of the boat as quickly as possible and try to swim towards the cabin door. The key was in a lock but the current inside was stopping him from moving forward. He struggled for some time. If he couldn't get out of the cabin, this cabin could be his grave. But he couldn't move the current pushed him back towards the bathroom on the other side and the first miracle took place. The bathroom wasn't completely filled with water. There was a small air pocket left. Harrison lifted his head up from the water as soon as he got there. He took a very deep breath. If he had stayed under water a few more minutes, he would have shared the same fate as his friends.



Meanwhile a rescue ship had arrived at the scene of the accident, divers marked the point where the tugboat had sunk. They dove right in. When they reached the boat they realized that the boat capsized. The equipment the divers had with them allowed them to go down to a certain depth; they reached 30 meters but they couldn't stay down there for a long time. After a short probe, they decided there were no survivors of the accident, moreover there were sharks in this area, after a while they came up to the surface having lost hope since he couldn't get inside the boat Harrison didn't hear the divers arriving. He stayed in that bathroom for about a day. He was a religious person so we prayed a lot. He was thinking that God would definitely save him but there was an issue he had to deal with on his own. He's been in the water for a long time, because he was in so deep, the water was naturally cold so the possibility of hypothermia was high, (for those who are not familiar with it, let me briefly explain what hypothermia means. The average temperature for adults is around 97 to 98°F. If this temperature falls below 95 °F, hypothermia occurs and it's a life threatening condition. If the person's body temperature doesn't go back to normal levels, first they feel mentally confused and then they lose consciousness. When the first symptoms started Harrison knew that he couldn't stay there any longer. He had to get off of that boat and of course out of the water too. The 29 year old cook dove into the water again. The captain's quarter was next door. The bathroom had a door that opens into that room. He swam there, he made it to the room. He wasn't going to be able to hold its breath any longer. He went up towards the surface. It was there that the second miracle took place; there was a small air pocket in the captain's room as well. This allowed him to hold onto dear life for a second time. After these consecutive miracles, here comes the third miracle that saved Harrison's life. This time our hero saw that there was a mattress next to him, it was floating close to the floor, he pulled it up. He got on top of it. That's how he managed to get out of the water. This saved him from the risk of hypothermia.

Harrison had been under the water for nearly 2 days. He was very hungry because he hadn't eaten anything, more importantly he hadn't drunk any water. Humans can go without eating for about 3 weeks but we can only go at most 3 to 4 days without drinking water. You know that 60 percent of our body is made up of water. Drinking water is vital for us but don't worry the young cook got lucky about that too. After Harrison got on top of the mattress he saw that there was a life jacket on the water surface as well, he took it and put it on. There were tiny flashlights on a life jacket, he switched them on,when the room went up he noticed something that he wasn't able to see before. There was a can of coke floating right beside him, he was so happy to see it, he grabbed the can he opened it and drank half, with that he was able to quench his thirst. He didn't drink at all because he didn't know how much longer he was going to stay there. After that, every time he got thirsty he took a few sips. It had been nearly 60 hours. The flash lights had died on him; he was listening to the sounds in the dark. All he heard was either other bodies hitting things or the sounds of sharks feeding on them. Harrison was losing hope. He started praying again, he had no idea at the time that the help he was seeking was only 100 feet away. The company that owns the tugboat, had hired an expert team of divers to extract the bodies of the sailors. The men from the rescue ship had arrived at the scene and were ready. Soon, 6 divers dove in, they built a small elevator in the water, they were going to pull up the poor sailors in this elevator. The divers had a wireless video transmission system so they could communicate with each other and the team above. Someone on the boat was following them from the screen. When the divers reached the boat they got to work. After an hour long struggle they were able to enter the tugboat they, pulled the first 4 bodies they found up in the elevator. Meanwhile Harrison started to hear something, these sounds were different from the others, he thought the rescue team might have arrived but he wasn't sure, just then he realized there was a shadow moving in the water,at first he scared that it was a shark but it was a diver, he reached out and grabbed his arm.The driver pulled his arm back, he turned his camera in that direction to see who it was, when the person who was following the operation from the ship,saw a person on the screen, he screamed (he's alive, there's a survivor in there). The divers quickly came up to the surface where he was, he saw a man inside that small air pocket. He was so happy to see him. The divers wanted to get the sole survivor out of the water as quickly as possible, but there was a major issue. Harrison could get the bands as he was being pulled up. What does that mean?, when a person moves from a high pressure environment to a low pressure environment too quickly, a medical condition called decompression sickness or the bands occurs. This is a very dangerous condition. In order to prevent Harrison from getting the bands, they brought special equipment from the rescue ship, they put a special helmet on him and pulled him up to the surface in the elevator. After 62 hours, Harrison saw sunlight for the first time. First he shed tears of joy and then of sadness,11 friends he lost in the accident. The young cook's family lived in a small village in Nigeria,tey took him to his village right away. His wife, who thought he had died, fainted when she saw her husband. This village was particularly known for its devoutness. After a while the local priest visited Harrison,the priest said I'm going to ask you something, please answer it honestly, 11 people passed away in this accident you survived inside a boat submerged in the ocean for 3 days, the villagers are saying this is only possible with black magic, I trust you but I still wanted to ask you, if you indeed used magic.Harrison had heard about the rumors too,in fact he hadn't been able to go to his friend's funeral, he was scared of the reaction of the others family, since he was the only 1 to survive. He answered the priest's question calmly. I'm a simple cook. I don't know anything about black magic. I just prayed the whole time I was under water. I thought about my wife and my family. I wish for them to see me again and God help me. And got a job working at a restaurant far away from the sea and went on to live a simple life as a cook.