
story.lead_photo.caption In this image taken from U.S. Coast Guard video on Monday, Sept. 9, 2019, a crew member of a capsized cargo ship is pulled from the vessel by Coast Guard rescuers off Jekyll Island, Ga. Coast Guard rescuers pulled four trapped men alive from the ship Monday, drilling into the hull's steel plates to extract the crew members more than a day after their vessel overturned while leaving a Georgia port. (U.S. Coast Guard via AP)



“These guys were in the worst possible conditions you could imagine a human being to be in,” said Tim Ferris, president of the salvage company Defiant Marine, which the U.S. Coast Guard called in to help plan and conduct the rescues. “They survived a ship’s fire, a ship capsizing, landing on the side 90 degrees in an engine room, not knowing what the conditions were in pitch black darkness.”

Ferris told the Associated Press the crewmen had to scramble in the dark along a maze of plumbing and equipment to stay above deep water flooding the 656-foot ship, where everything around them had suddenly gone sideways.

They also endured crushing heat and humidity. As daytime temperatures outside rose into the 90s, he said, the ship’s interior approached roughly 150 degrees.

“The temperature in the engine room was hellish,” Ferris said. “They were being cooked.”




“There is pollution. Right now it’s limited in scope,” Coast Guard Cmdr. Norm Witt said at a news conference Tuesday. However, he said having a large ship lying on its side poses “a significant pollution threat.”

Meanwhile, the Coast Guard was working with salvage experts on a plan to remove the ship, an operation Witt said will likely take “weeks, if not months.” The port itself could reopen to limited commercial traffic much sooner. Witt said Thursday was possible, though he cautioned there could be delays.

The trapped sailors “had the bare minimum in terms of supplies” before their rescue, Coast Guard Petty Officer 1st Class Luke Clayton. He didn’t know their conditions Tuesday.

Sylvia Tervoort, a salvage expert who helped coordinate the rescues, told ABC’s “Good Morning America” on Tuesday: “They are doing well at the moment. They were really exhausted when they came out.”



