February 96 was in a sinking situation on an old rust bucket OSV. Long story short the shaft did not come completely undone from the gear but was partially off. When this happened the packing was damaged and water was pouring in faster than the emergency bilge suction could overcome. We also had a portable diaphragm pump and the fire pump through the bilge manifold going as well.
Eventually the water was up to the deck plates and the chief said nothing else we can do. We dogged the hatches and went to the galley to call the captain. The chief left both mains and a generator running. We were making way toward Baptiste Collette and shallow water. Eventually water got to the generator and the lights went out.
Well the captain never came down below to see how bad things were. Either he was in shock or thought we were overreacting. Either way he had never bothered to call the office. He told the rig we were having issues but not the office. We had pumped everything off to the rig so they didn’t really need us anymore and a front had set in. This was the dark ages prior to DP. Since it was 10-12 there was no way we were gonna tie up to the rig. They told us to head in and get things taken care of. So we were at full speed side sea into 10-12 when the power went out.
As he is smashing the button on the Necoder trying to get the office the mate is on the VHF shouting MAY DAY. Well all these radios are running off the same two 8D batteries which go damn near dead in short order. God knows the last time they were replaced. The captain goes out and pops a flare. As he keys the VHF mic you can see the display go dim. A half hour of getting flip flopped around like a county fair ride later and he pops another flare. It’s 0200 and we are all on the bridge with life jackets and a ziploc with car keys and wallets.
The mate sees a spot light swinging around like its looking for something in the distance. Captain pops another flare and hits the radio again. I guess they were close enough to hear us on reduced power now. It was the Jackie or Joan Chouest which was the ex Darryl or Dock Tide but I don’t remember which. They were old anchor boats bought off Tidewater due to some monopoly suit back in the day. Anyway as they get close the mate realizes we have a fully charged handheld sitting on the console. We now got good comms to the other boat. We go back and forth with all the usual info as they relay to the CG for us.
At daylight we have a jet fly over and drop us some stuff. A couple hours later a chopper lands a guy on deck to check us all out and see how things are going. We are down at the stern with maybe the last 15-20 feet of deck under water. The water level in the ER had reached that point of equilibrium so it wasn’t rising anymore. As I stated earlier we had fully unloaded at the rig. We had maybe 10k of diesel onboard and nothing else. All ballast, bulk tanks, mud tanks etc. were empty. Below deck the forward passageway and rudder room had been dogged down and were dry.
The office had sent a tug and another OSV to come rescue us. The tug got close enough now that the wx had laid off to pass us a portable diesel pump. A port captain showed up on a crewboat and boarded us. He brought another pump and some jugs of diesel. We pumped the engine room down on the way in to Venice. The other OSV got us in the hip and run us through Baptiste to the Shell dock.
We did not abandon ship but we’re ready to at a moments notice. I was a young QMED who was months away from getting his first DDE. This has always stuck with me because it was a very helpless feeling. We stayed with boat but I could only imagine how even more helpless we would have been in a raft in those wx conditions. In the aftermath I was told many stories of tugs and OSV’s that had sank, nearly sank or been fully engulfed in fire at sea. In a lot of those stories the boat was later found adrift. So I always consider that we will leave as a last resort. My first thought is not to just run and wait for help. At this point I had only been working offshore for about four months. I had spent the previous 4 years sailing deep sea with SIU. I was used to being on ships with multiple DC lockers and way better drills and planning. After this incident it was quickly forgotten as it was considered a normal occurrence. There were no lessons learned or fleet safety stand downs. In fact back in those days we never did any kind of damage control drilling at all. I realized that I personally needed to always have a plan in my mind to attempt to save our lives in those situations. The office and further the captains mindset was just abandon if you have to and we will find the boat or collect the insurance. I always thought my chances would fair better on the 180 ft steel boat than the raft.