MATT LEWIS is a trained marine biologist with an MSc with distinction in Marine and Fisheries Science. He now lives with his wife and two children near Aberdeen, Scotland. AUTHOR''S NOTE This book is my attempt to record an event that took place in June 1998 during the winter in the Southern Ocean. I was a Scientific Observer aboard the Sudur Havid, a South African deep-sea fishing boat, and it was my first job since graduating from university as a marine biologist. Outside South Africa, the fate of the Sudur Havid was never big news. It was just another foreign fishing boat in trouble. Really, I should be calling her the Sudurhavid, or even Suðurhavið, for I have come to learn that this was her proper name. But on board I only ever saw the word split on life-rings, and I''ve known her as the Sudur Havid for far too long to change.
To continue with the confessional, I have used the more familiar term ''Antarctic Seas'' for the subtitle of the book when we were technically only 54° South - but we were south of the Antarctic convergence, so the water masses and ecology are much the same. I waited a long time before I started writing Last Man Off. Partly this was due to a lack of self-belief, but it was also because I was trying to get on with my life and forget. I was trying to persuade myself that nothing of any significance had happened, so to write a book about the events was the last thing on my mind. I''m glad I waited to start writing. In the immediate aftermath of the accident I was so caught up in being a participant, and there was so much emotion, that it was impossible to be objective in description. When the police in the Falkland Islands asked me what had happened, I barely paused for breath for three hours, producing sixty-five pages of descriptions, times and details. I kept the transcript of the interview and, eight years later, this and other evidence helped me relive and reconstruct the events.
By that time the need to blame had mellowed, I had listened to others as they discussed what had happened, and processed the events myself. Time passed has made the story clearer, and less painful to tell. There was coverage of the Sudur Havid in Cape Town. Some accounts were based on fact, some were more like fiction, but none were complete. I slipped quietly back into the UK, no cameras or journalists waiting for me at the airport, and I was grateful. My friends and family let me be; they didn''t want to drag up traumatic memories, and assumed that I would talk about things in my own time. But I didn''t want to tell those I cared about for fear of scaring them, and didn''t tell others for fear of upsetting myself. It took years for me to realize that there was a story that deserved to be known.
How could the struggle of a crew against the toughest seas in the world have slipped by? While I have been writing, a number of my fellow survivors have died, leaving the biggest story of their lives untold. I knew that I would need to describe events that I had not directly witnessed. After years out of touch, I managed to make contact with Phil Marshall of the Isla Camila and Magnus Johnson from the Northern Pride, and met to interview them. For Phil, in particular, the memories were upsetting. It wasn''t pleasant to ask him to recall as much detail as I needed, but he helped me to describe the search and the moment of rescue. As the book took shape, and I became more committed, I travelled to South Africa to interview some of the crew. In a series of one-on-one interviews, I checked my recollections with Morné Van Geems, Sven Lizamore and Stephan Truter from the Sudur Havid, and they described events I couldn''t have witnessed in the other raft. There were small conflicts between their memories and mine, but I expected this.
They also helped me to build up a better picture of the techniques that we used in fishing, which was something I wanted to describe as vividly as I could. We sat and chatted in the shade, outside their comfortable Cape Town homes, and their stories took me back to the Southern Ocean. Their enthusiasm and drive to fish still humble and mystify me; they are fishermen to the core. By the end of the book I had also been helped by Big Danie from the Sudur Havid, and finally Captain Ernesto Sandoval from the Isla Camila. Writing has not been the healing process I had hoped f⨠I have been reduced to tears on many occasions. It has been less of a catharsis and more of a self-imposed torture as I have forced myself to picture and relive painful events, again and again. I am fearful of misportraying men who were operating under great stress, and know that for some I am describing the deaths of loved ones. I wish I had more photos, which would make the boat and the people more vivid for you and for me.
But my camera is still on the Sudur Havid. Port side, aft cabin, on the main deck, in the right-hand drawer under my bunk. If anyone wants to get it for me, it''s at 53º56´S, 041º30´W. The surprise for me, in writing, was realizing how much I miss the sea, the boat and the adventure. For a short time in the Southern Ocean, I was at my most alive, at my best. CREW LIST: MFV SUDUR HAVID GLOSSARY bosun foreman of the crew on deck. bow the front end of the ship. deck-suit a waterproof but unsealed suit that can be worn for everyday work on deck.
A layer of foam insulation adds buoyancy in the event of a fall overboard. derrick a crane with a moving, pivoted arm for hoisting objects on deck or out of the hold. dogs the metal levers that close and lock a waterproof storm door, clamping it shut. engine casing the metal structure that houses the upper parts of the engine room and the exhaust pipes. EPIRB Emergency Position-Indicating Radio Beacon. Self-contained, individually identifiable devices that send out a distress signal when manually activated or triggered by water immersion/sinking. A signal is picked up by satellites and relayed to maritime rescue authorities. factory deck the level below the main deck, just above waterliâ almost enclosed, except for hatches and scuppers.
On the Sudur Havid the factory deck held freezers, factory, crew cabins, galley and the crew mess. freezer suit an insulated, non-waterproof and quilted suit worn under waterproofs. Made from fibre insulation with a polyester shell fabric. galley the kitchen of a boat. gantry a metal arch structure used to lift objects and support pulleys for fishing operations. GRT gross register tonnage, a measure of the volume of permanently enclosed spaces in a ship. Not weight or displacement, but useful for comparing ships. Now generally referred to as gross tonnage.
hold the storage area for cargo. On the Sudur Havid this held bait and catch, and was refrigerated to -18°C. hull the entire hollow body of a ship, floating partly submerged in water. From the deck down the sides to the keel of the boat, but excludes superstructure. immersion suit/survival suit neoprene or fabric suit, donned in an emergency, which seals out water and keeps the wearer dry. Inmarsat the operators of a satellite system for maritime communications and safety. keel a beam that acts as the structural spine of the boat, along its bottom, from bow to stern. knot a speed of one nautical mile per hour (1.
151 mph or 1.852 kmh). leeward the direction facing away from the wind (downwind). life-raft an inflatable rubber raft with canvas canopy, stored uninflated in a canister on deck. Provides an emergency refuge. lightship weight the weight of the ship with no cargo, fuel, crew or supplies aboard. lower deck the lowest level of the boat, below sea level. On the Sudur Havid this held the engine room, hold, crew cabins and tanks for oil, fuel and water.
main deck the uppermost complete deck from bow to stern. On the Sudur Havid this held: the mast and derrick, winches, superstructure, rope crates and stern gantry. Mess the canteen or dining area. nautical mile a distance of 1.151 miles or 1.852 kilometres. painter a rope, usually attached to the bow, used for tying up or towing. pitching when the bow of the boat moves up and down port to the left of the ship, when facing forward.
Rigid Raider small, fast fibreglass boats used by the armed forces for inshore operations. SART Search and Rescue Transponder. A self-contained, waterproof device that emits a signal when detecting radar in use nearby, allowing a location to be determined. scuppers slots cut through the hull of a boat, to allow water to drain from a deck. snood the short length of line that attaches each hook to the rope fishing line. Southern Ocean the name given by mariners to the waters surrounding Antarctica, formed by the southernmost portions of the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian oceans. splicing the joining of pieces of rope by weaving their strands together, rather than by tying a knot. stern the back end of the ship.
starboard to the right side of the ship, when facing forward. storm door waterproof metal doors that seal the compartments of a boat, usually fastened by dogs. superstructure the parts of the boat above the hull, projecting above the main deck. On the Sudur Havid the engine casing, Officers'' Mess and cabins, and bridge. tender a small boat used to ferry people or small goods between ships or to shore. trawler a fishing boat that tows its net through the water. treadplate a metal sheet with raised pattern for grip. wheelhouse the structure housing the ship''s wheel and other controls.
Also called the bridge. windward the direction facing into the wind (upwind). BOAT PLANS AND MAPS.