Below deck because the revs on the recently installed engine had dropped
momentarily. "I checked the engine and it was okay. It certainly
didn't fail as some of the reports have been saying," said Carl.
"Then as I came out on deck the stern of the boat went down, water
came in and within seconds we were in the water."
Carl said that Mark was in the water next to him and Malcolm was clinging
to the top of the wheelhouse.
"I was panicking and screaming to Malcolm," said Carl. "I
was trying to untie the liferaft but it wouldn't inflate and I knew Malcolm
had been in this situation before. I was screaming at him, asking him
what to do."
Malcolm, who had been on three previous boats lost at sea, took up the
story.
"I was on the wheelhouse looking for the liferaft and then saw that
Carl had managed to open it.
"It was upside down in the water and Carl was screaming at me to
swim towards him and Mark who was in the water nearby. I was fully clothed
and in my boots and it was hard going getting those few yards to them.
"The water was freezing. . . freezing. When people say we could
have survived for four hours, they don't know what they are talking about.
I was going unconscious with the cold by the time I reached the raft and
I had only been in the water a few minutes."
Malcolm said that Carl, "the strongest and fittest man in Newlyn,"
pulled him on to the raft. "If it wasn't for him, I would not be
here to today," he said. "I owe my life to him.
"He grabbed me and hauled me up on to the upturned raft, but that
was the last I saw of Mark. He had gone and Carl was screaming at the
top of his voice for him, but we don't know what happened to him."
The water was full of ropes and nets, which tangled around their feet
and was dragging them down as the boat sank.
"It was dark and freezing and Carl said we had to get in the water
again and right the raft, otherwise we wouldn't last much longer,"
said Malcolm.
"I didn't think I could do it - get back into that freezing water
again. I was exhausted and said that I would drown if I went back in."
But the two men knew they had to go back in; Carl held the older man
up and managed to turn the raft upright while holding on to the sides.
Carl then pushed Malcolm back into the raft and pulled himself in.
"It was cold, cold, cold," said Malcolm. "We started praying,
we cried, we screamed for Mark. I felt as if all the air had gone out
of me, all my strength had gone."
The two men, exhausted, wet, cold and filled with grief for the apparent
loss of their friend and crewmate now faced a further 12-hour ordeal in
the raft.
Carl, who has three young children, said: "I kept thinking of my
wife and family and of Mark's poor partner, Emma. "I was afraid for
Malcolm and me to go to sleep in case we never woke up, so I kept talking
to Malcolm asking him if he was all right - he probably thought I was
a pain."
During those 12 hours the two men did not know whether their plight was
known about or whether rescuers were on their way.
"A number of merchant boats went by us during the night, but none
of them heard our screams for help," said Carl.
"When daylight came we saw a coaster nearby and started waving our
paddle at it. We didn't think they'd spotted us, but then we heard a helicopter
coming towards us and knew we were safe."
The two men were airlifted to hospital and received treatment for hypothermia
before being reunited with their families.
A tearful Carl said this week: "I don't know what I am going to
say to Emma. I don't know how I am going to face her. I don't know why
we made it and Mark didn't. I feel so guilty, so sorry I couldn't save
him."
article copyright © THE CORNISHMAN
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