A family fishing trip turned into tragedy off the coast of Alaska. Derek, 15, spent nearly two days on the upturned hull of a boat, alone in the middle of the Bering Sea, before being spotted and rescued by the US Coast Guard.
The teenager had left the village of Savoonga, on St. Lawrence Island, with his older brother Sidney, 35, and their cousin, specifies VG. Having left on Friday aboard a 5.5 meter boat, the three fishermen were expected to be back by Sunday at the latest. But their boat capsized.
Derek managed to climb onto the hull. His cousin also managed to hang on for a while before disappearing into the sea overnight, the teenager told his rescuers. Sidney found himself trapped under the boat and did not survive.
Derek was then left alone, exposed to the cold and darkness. The water temperature was around 10 degrees. After his family reported the three men missing on Sunday evening, the coast guard launched a major aerial search the next morning.
It was from the air that the emergency services finally saw the teenager on the overturned boat. They dropped him a raft and provisions before asking a fishing boat present in the area, the “Northwest Explorer”, to come and pick him up.
Clinging to the hull of the boat
Footage of the rescue shows Derek kneeling on the hull. The crew of the “Northwest Explorer” threw him a line before hoisting him on board. Suffering from severe hypothermia, the teenager was wrapped in blankets and warmed using heating pads. “He’s a tough kid,” summed up captain Adam White.
The joy of reunion quickly gave way to mourning. The bodies of Derek’s brother and cousin were later found. The loss is particularly painful for the teenager: since the death of their father, Sidney had become a real father figure for him, according to their aunt.
Savoonga has only about 800 residents. The village is located on St. Lawrence Island, an isolated territory in the Bering Sea located closer to Russia than the American continent.
