Cruise ship: man tells after fall of “Carnival Valor” how he survived

Gulf of Mexico
“I woke up in the water”: Man drifted in the sea for 15 hours after falling from a cruise ship

The “Carnival Valor”: The American James Michael Grimes was on board the cruise ship with 18 family members before it fell into the sea (archive image)

© J Pat Carter/ / Picture Alliance

That he survived is nothing short of a miracle. A young man fell off a cruise ship a few days ago. Only after 15 hours was he rescued from the sea by rescue workers. Now he told a US broadcaster how it came about.

Spending much of Thanksgiving day in the water, 28-year-old Alabama native James Michael Grimes made headlines when he was rescued from the Gulf of Mexico on November 24 after falling off a cruise ship was. The young man fought for his survival in the open sea for around 15 hours. In an exclusive interview he gave to ABC TV, he recounted the dramatic experience.

Grimes had been aboard the Carnival Valor with 18 family members the week before Thanksgiving. Having previously won an air guitar competition, he was last seen hanging out with his sister at a bar on board. At around 11:00 p.m., he wanted to go to a restroom. He had been drinking but was not drunk. However, he can no longer remember how he fell into the water, he said. He believes the fall overboard rendered him unconscious. “Next thing I know is… I regained consciousness. I was in the water and there wasn’t a boat in sight,” Grimes told ABC. “So you were unconscious in the water for a while?” the reporter asked him? “Yeah. I couldn’t keep myself afloat so there was something…God was with me when I was out there. Because, something was keeping me afloat the whole time I was unconscious.” He had the feeling that he was given a chance at that moment. “You live for a reason… that fall could have killed me, but I felt like from that moment on I tried to stay positive (…) All you have to do now is swim and survive. I was hoping that they would start looking for me… that eventually they would find me,” Grimes said.

Helicopter rescue after cruise ship crash

He struggled with confusion and fatigue and even fended off animal attacks. “It was coming at me really fast. I dived under and I could see it. And it wasn’t a shark, I don’t think so. But it had more of a flat mouth and it came up and bumped into one of my legs and I kicked it with the other leg. I was scared because I didn’t know what it was…all I could see was a fin.” At another point, he grabbed a floating stick that he said “looked like bamboo” and began chewing on it. “It gave me a different taste in my mouth than salt water”.

Then he saw the lights of a tanker and swam there. The ship’s crew spotted Grimes around 8:25 p.m. and alerted the Coast Guard, who sent a helicopter crew to lift him out of the water. “He had no more energy,” recalls Coast Guard rescuer Richard Hoefle. “I think he could have stayed afloat for another minute and then he would have disappeared.” Grimes received medical attention at a New Orleans airport and then was taken to a hospital. He is said to have lost around nine kilos during the struggle for survival in the water.



15 hours in the water: Man falls from cruise ship and is rescued

Lieutenant Seth Gross, the Coast Guard’s search and rescue coordinator for the New Orleans Sector, said it’s unlikely that a person could simply fall overboard. “Cruise ships have safety barriers in all public areas governed by US Coast Guard standards that prevent a guest from falling off,” he told the TV station in a statement. “Guests should never climb onto the railing. The only way to fall overboard is to intentionally climb up and over the safety barriers.”



15 hours in the water: Man falls from cruise ship and is rescued

See the video: A 28-year-old fell off a cruise ship in the Gulf of Mexico – after 15 hours in the water, the US Coast Guard found the man. The helpers speak of a “Thanksgiving miracle”.

Source: ABC News

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