The incredible story of the man who survived "60 hours under the sea"

May 2013. Off the coast of Nigeria, a tugboat capsizes, fills with water and sinks to the bottom of the ocean, taking the entire crew on board with it in its hellish descent.

Harrison Okene is the only survivor of the 13 crew members. His story is almost unbelievable. On May 26, 2013, this 29-year-old Nigerian, a cook on the tugboat Jascon IV, saw his life turned upside down. Caught in a storm, the boat he was working on sank to the bottom of the sea, and no one was able to get on deck.

Okene was in the toilet at the time of the tragedy. During an appearance on the BBC radio program Outlook, he recounted that the toilet he was sitting on "suddenly" landed above his head. He continued: "The light went out, and I heard everyone screaming, screaming, screaming. I managed to open the door and get out, but I couldn't find anyone. The force of the water pushed me into one of the cabins, and I was trapped there." The Nigerian was fortunately trapped in what's called an air pocket, a bubble of air trapped underwater. A refuge of oxygen that would allow him to survive for 60 hours, nearly three days, at the bottom of the sea.

Just a can of Coke to keep him going

Okene remembers what he felt as the boat sank. "It was sinking very fast. I was panicking. I could hear people screaming, crying. It was five to ten in the morning, so some of my companions were still asleep. They were screaming for help. We could hear the water bubbling as we entered the different spaces, and then, silence." Thirty meters from the surface, the ship finally ran aground, leaving the Nigerian alone in a "small area, with water up to his waist. It was dark and cold," he adds.

There, in the dark, Harrison Okene drew on his courage. The poor man had only a can of Coca-Cola to last until help arrived.

A rescue that lasted three hours

The head of the rescue operation, Tony Walker, explained to the American channel ABC News that the divers tasked with finding the crew members did not expect "to find anyone alive." "One diver saw a hand and thought it was another body. But when he went to grab it... It grabbed him!" he confided.

"In total, the rescue operation lasted three hours and involved three divers simultaneously, not including the crew's assistance," Walker explained.

(MH with Raphaël Liset - Source : BFMTV/BBC - Illustration : ©Unsplash)