In 2013, Harrison Okene was working as a cook on a tugboat off the coast of Nigeria. The boat had a crew of 12 people on board and was tasked with stabilizing an oil tanker. 

However, an ocean swell suddenly came out of nowhere and slammed into the smaller boat, causing it to capsize and sink to the ocean depths with the entire crew on board.

The Crew Met a Grim Fate

The rooms on the boat were locked as a security measure against pirates who often targeted boats in that region. Unfortunately, this measure proved fatal as the entire crew, except Harrison Okene, was asleep in their chambers when the boat capsized. 

Okene, who had gotten up early to prepare breakfast, was sitting on the toilet when the wave hit. 

He was thrown around the ship as it rapidly sank but managed to stumble into an air pocket when the vessel finally settled at the bottom of the ocean.

In that tiny air pocket, Harrison Okene managed to find two mattresses to stack on top of each other and stayed above the rising water. 

Despite being without food or water and almost no air, he remained calm and collected for the next 60 hours. 

He might not have made it if he had been claustrophobic or scared of deep water. But Okene’s calmness and resourcefulness helped him endure the harrowing experience.

The air bubble he found surely saved his life, but it would not last long.

Given the small area he was in, the rising water, and the elapsed time, the air he was breathing was becoming more and more concentrated with carbon dioxide.

Okene was running out of time, but luckily, the diving crew arrived in the nick of time to rescue him.

A miraculous rescue caught on camera

The diving crew, who had set out to collect the bodies from the shipwreck, arrived exactly 60 hours after the vessel went down. 

The moment one of the divers discovers Okene is captured on camera, and it is an incredibly emotional moment. 

The diver was swimming through the ship’s interior when a hand reached out and touched him gently so as not to startle him.

Okene was calm and grateful to be rescued. However, the crew had to be very careful with him since he had been in such deep water for so long. 

He had absorbed potentially fatal amounts of nitrogen, and if they brought him suddenly to the surface, he could have easily died from the bends. 

The crew equipped him with a special suit, and he began his ascent back to the surface. Okene passed out on the way up, but thankfully, he survived.

The long road to recovery

After the rescue, Okene spent two days in a decompression chamber and suffered from various trauma responses like nightmares and insatiable hunger.

He thought of his family, his mother, and his wife while trapped in the air bubble, but he had no access to them. However, he was faithful and prayed to survive. And, miraculously, he did.

Although Okene never wanted to go near the ocean again after such an ordeal, he abandoned his fear and became a certified commercial diver in 2015. 

The diver who discovered him at the bottom of the sea presented him with his diploma, which was a beautiful full-circle moment for Okene.

The story of Harrison Okene is inspiring and a testament to the human spirit’s resilience and strength. 

It is also a reminder of the importance of staying calm and resourceful in challenging situations.

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