Compassion at Sea

By Anne Marshall

Page 1

It was a brilliant March morning in the Caribbean and C-197 was preparing for day 29 of their six-week excursion aboard the Corwith Cramer. B Watch was on deck, deploying oceanographic sampling equipment, when a student spotted something on the horizon...

"We checked the radar, but it didn't appear," said University of Denver alumna Anita Kasch. "We went back out and saw the speck again."

What would follow – how that faint, distant ‘speck' would impact their lives – no one could have known.

After being alerted, Captain Steve Tarrant evaluated the situation and told the students to continue tracking the small craft.

As it neared, the students focused their binoculars, and the once blurred image was now clear: a ramshackle boat packed with people, and in the center stood a man waving a red T-shirt on a stick.

Something was wrong; they needed help.

Anita remembers peering over the starboard rail at the 25' wooden vessel. "I saw people sitting on the sides of the boat. They were sailing toward us, and you could just see all these faces looking up at you."

Because of the deployment, the Corwith Cramer was stationary in the water and couldn't move out of the way of the craft, traveling with a broken tiller.

"They sailed right into the stern of our ship," said student Lindsey Gay, of Northeastern University. "It wasn't threatening. They were just trying to talk to us, but they couldn't steer."

The makeshift boat became disabled en route to Jamaica carrying 51 Haitian refugees, including 14 children, toddlers, and infants. Their voyage, a futile attempt to find work, had left them drifting at sea for five days.

At sea, nothing is business as usual

Upon radioing the United States Coast Guard (USCG) for assistance, Corwith Cramer's crew learned that there were no other vessels in the area capable of making a rescue.

Captain Tarrant and Chief Scientist Gary Jaroslow remained calmly in-command. "At sea, nothing is business as usual, so we keep with the notion to be prepared for anything," Jaroslow explained.

The rescue began at 10:30 a.m. on March 9, when the Cramer first encountered the refugees; it would take another six hours and a series of phone calls to the USCG, Jamaican Defense Force, medical experts, and lawyers before the refugees were brought on board. The staff at SEA's headquarters in Woods Hole assisted in providing counsel through this process and communicating personally with the parents of all students on board the vessel.

"Their first priority was the students," Gay said of the ship's captain and crew. "They did a great job of always keeping us informed. They would call crew meetings on the quarterdeck to give us updates on the situation."

As the rescue progressed, one thing grew increasingly clear: an interpreter was needed to translate details. As the person most fluent in French, Anita was brought to the forefront. She remembers hearing Captain Tarrant's voice over the walkietalkie, "Get Anita a life vest."

"I was trying to concentrate on what I would have to say…but nothing in the world could have possibly prepared me for what I had to do," Kasch said.

"When we came to them in the rescue boat, they were certain that we would leave them, that we would abandon them and let them die out in the open ocean," she said of the refugees. "They kept yelling to us not to leave them."

"Ne vous inquiètez pas. N'allons pas vous abandoner," (Don't worry. We aren't leaving you.) Kasch assured them repeatedly.

At approximately 5:00 p.m. the survivors boarded the Cramer and were provided with food, water, and shelter during the trip to Jamaica. They were successfully turned over to Jamaican authorities March 10 at 1:00 a.m. in Port Antonio.

Anita still cannot articulate her feelings about the event. "I think I was just sort of stunned and shocked. You see that kind of thing every day in newspapers and on television, but it's a completely different feeling when you see it live and in person."

Student Sarah Herard agrees. "How do you explain to people what it's like to participate in the life-saving rescue of so many women, children and men…literally watching two amazing men, Steve and Gary, and an amazing organization, SEA, make the necessary decisions to bring a boatful of people, who would otherwise die…onto our very small world and home, the Corwith Cramer?"

"One of the things I thanked Steve and Gary for at the end of our trip was teaching me, through their actions, how people are really supposed to be…compassionate and responsible," Herard added.

go to Page 2