Skipper of fishing vessel that caught fire feared he would never see family again
When the crew of the Challenger Traveler left on a crab fishing trip Friday morning, the last thing they expected to do was end the day clinging to safety on a raft in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.
But after the 63-foot fishing vessel caught fire about 160 kilometres outside St. John's, the four men on board — captain Stan Bennett, his brother Derwin Bennett, cousin Kevin Hewitt and Derek Nichol — had no other choice but to call mayday and abandon ship.
The coast guard received Bennett's distress call and the ship's co-ordinates around 8 p.m, but for about two hours, the crew were unaccounted for and missing in action.
"There were a couple times I pictured my kids. You just don't know if you're ever gonna see 'em again," said Stan Bennett, a veteran fisherman who's spent 21 years on the water, on Sunday.
Coast guard mobilized
A helicopter was dispatched, along with two coast guard ships, and around half a dozen nearby fishing vessels to locate Bennett and his crew.
But a thick fog was permeating the air, and mingled in with smoke from the burning boat, visibility was close to zero.
"It felt eerie. You're going into a life raft, you can't see nothing, between fog and the dark and the smoke," said Bennett.
"You've got fuel on, you've got all this stuff on board, you don't know … something might explode."
Sitting on the raft, Bennett said he thought of the family he might never see again if he and his crew weren't rescued soon: his wife Jolene and his two children in Trepassey, his sister in Alberta, his brother in Labrador, and his 70-year-old mother.
"I was mostly thinking of back home, because I didn't know … I was assuming that the coast guard was contacting my family and that, because I knew they were going to be so upset, not knowing what's going on," said Bennett
"It was the longest two hours they ever punched."
Cold Water Cowboy to the rescue
Through hazy conditions, Bennett and his men spotted lights from a nearby boat at around 11 p.m.
Salvation had arrived for the crew of the Challenger Traveller.
"We were some happy. We were paddling and blowing whistles so they could see us, because with the intense fog, we were afraid they would run us down," he said.
The ship that picked them up? The Atlantic Bandit, skipped by Cold Water Cowboys star Paul Tiller.
"They hauled us aboard and we couldn't have got no better treatment if we were on a cruise ship," said Bennett.
"Everybody was just hugging and laughing and sitting. We just sat out on the deck for about two hours, just taking it all in, because it all just seemed so unbelievable."
All of the crew made it on the boat uninjured.
Tearful family reunion
The next morning, Bennett and the Bandit made it to Pier 19 in St. John's, and to his surprise his wife and children were waiting at the wharf.
It was hard for him not to get a little teary at the reunion, one that was always on his mind, but not always in sight.
"When I first saw 'em, I just turned back around because I didn't want everyone seeing me getting all emotional," said Bennett.
"But when I grabbed them and hugged them, it was quite a feeling … quite a different feeling than the night before."
Now, he's thanking his crew and the coast guard for helping ensure this emergency had a happy ending.
"I will never forget what they did for us that night," said Bennett.
"To my crew, god love 'em, they pulled together. Nobody panicked. Everybody did what they had to do."
Safety a top priority
As of Sunday afternoon, Bennett said he hadn't been briefed on the current status of the Challenger Traveler, and there's no word on whether it had sunk or was still afloat. The coast guard will be handling an environmental assessment of the vessel.
He makes a living off of the crab fishing season, and it will be difficult to lose a vessel.
But Bennett said he does have insurance, and safety is the main concern right now.
He also took time to preach the importance of fishing crews having up-to-date safety gear.
A personal safety beacon helped the Coast Guard locate the crew on their life-raft.
"I know everybody says that safety's expensive. You gotta redo your life-raft every year, and you gotta do your life suit, and you've gotta have your flares, and all this stuff do cost money,"
"But I guarantee you there when that all happened Friday night I wasn't too worried about any of that."
On Sunday evening, he was sitting down for a well earned family dinner.
"It all worked out good but it could have went the other way too," said Bennett.
"Somebody above is probably watching."
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