I was so hungry but mostly so, so thirsty. The salt water took the skin off my tongue.”
Okene quickly gave up trying to reach the exit, when he was suddenly swept away down a passage by the surging water. He was swept into the toilet of an officers cabin as the vessel crashed into the seabed.
He clung on to the washbasin in order to keep his head above the water, until, about a day later, he built up the courage to try and open the door into the cabin. Here he found more air, and worked at ripping off wall panels to try and form a makeshift raft to keep him out of the freezing water.
“I was very, very cold and it was black. I couldn't see anything. But I could perceive the dead bodies of my crew were nearby. I could smell them. The fish came in and began eating the bodies. I could hear the sound. It was horror."
In the afternoon of the 28th May, Okene said that he “heard a sound of a hammer hitting the vessel. Boom, boom, boom. I swam down and found a water dispenser. I pulled the water filter and I hammered the side of the vessel hoping someone would hear me. Then the diver must have heard a sound.”
Divers forced their way into the ship, and Okene saw the light from their head torches in the passage next to his room. He swam out into the water and tapped the diver. “I was waving my hands and he was shocked.”
The divers gave Okene a suit, helmet, and mask and after spending more than 60 hours in the cold, dark waters trapped under the ship he finally reached the surface.
