A cruise ship pianist has been pulled alive from the Pacific Ocean off the Californian coast after spending around nine hours in the water after falling overboard from the Royal Caribbean ship Ovation of the Seas, the BBC reported.
The man, who has not yet been identified, was spotted treading water roughly 20 miles (32km) off the coast near Catalina Island on Friday by two US fishermen, Grant Garrett and Sean Norton, who hauled him aboard. “I’m like, ‘Yeah, it’s a human being. Stop the boat; let’s get all of our lines in,'” Garrett was quoted as saying. The man told them he was a pianist on the 14-deck cruise ship, and his first words were “Thank you. I thought I was gonna die,” Norton said.
Nine hours adrift in the ocean
US Coast Guard officials said the man was recovered conscious by “a Good Samaritan” and handed over to Newport Beach lifeguards, who confirmed he was an employee of the Ovation of the Seas. Lifeguard officials believe he fell overboard at about 02:30, some nine hours before the fishermen found him, around 15 to 20 miles offshore. He was taken to hospital in a stable condition. A Royal Caribbean Group spokesperson said the company was providing support and assistance to the crew member and, to respect his privacy, had no additional details to share.
Survival experts and the fishermen themselves credited his rescue to unusually warm seas. Norton pointed to the strong El Niño now being recorded across the Pacific, which he said had left the water at about 76 degrees Fahrenheit (24C). “You have this crazy super El Niño year. This guy was in the water for probably 10 hours, but the water’s 76 degrees,” Norton said. “A different year, no way he makes it.”
Why it matters
The incident is a reminder of how unforgiving large cruise ships are for the thousands of crew who work aboard them, and how thin the line is between a routine night shift and a survival story. For UK holidaymakers, the story will also land as a reminder of how vulnerable passengers and crew can be when ships are far from shore. Royal Caribbean’s refusal to give more detail is understandable from a privacy standpoint, but it leaves the key questions, how a crew member ended up overboard in the first place and what safety measures will follow, unanswered for now.
What happens next
The US Coast Guard says it is investigating the incident. Royal Caribbean has said it is supporting the crew member during what it called “this difficult time”. Any findings on how he went overboard, and whether there are lessons for night-time man-overboard procedures, rest with that investigation. For now the man’s survival is the headline: one wrong year for the weather, as the fishermen put it, and the story would have ended very differently.
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