Four sailors survived nearly 18 hours after a sperm whale cracked their yacht’s hull north of Norfolk Island, saved by an early distress beacon and a container ship’s arrival.
The 52-foot yacht Tai Tam was on a Pacific holiday voyage when a sperm whale struck in remote open water 250 nautical miles north of Norfolk Island. Australian sailor Jemma Cooper was at the wheel. A loud thud hit. The whole boat shoved sideways and threw her off the helm.
CBS News carried the crew’s account to AFP, given on Thursday after the rescue. Brown discoloration showed in the water. Then the sailors saw the animals clearly.
Jemma Cooper said the moment the picture came together.
"There was sort of a loud thud. The whole boat was pushed sideways,"
"We looked out to our port side, and there were six to eight, a pod, of whales there. So then it became clear that that's what it was,"
Her husband, Jeremy Cooper, had been sleeping below. The impact woke him. Damage was obvious at once.
"It was pretty immediately evident it was very serious,"
"All the steering gear was smashed on the starboard side, and there was a significant amount of water coming in,"
French crew member Martin Jaffre described the same wreckage: gashes in the hull, cracked fiberglass, and broken steering. Without a rudder, the yacht was already in trouble.
"We could no longer steer the boat, and a boat with no steering quickly becomes a problem,"
New Zealand crew member Terry Hetherington said the team declared a full mayday. They activated the emergency position-indicating radio beacon at 1 p.m. New Zealand time Saturday, roughly 30 minutes after the collision. Then came hours of bailing.
The sailors used expansion foam and whatever materials they had to slow the flood. One swam under the hull to check the damage. They fought to keep the engine from clogging. They stayed aboard as long as they could.
Adult male sperm whales run 50 to 60 feet long. The International Union for Conservation of Nature lists the species as vulnerable. These whales reproduce only once every five to seven years. None of that changes what a single strike can do to a fiberglass hull in open ocean.
Late Saturday night the crew abandoned the Tai Tam. Seas were calm. A full moon lit the transfer into the life raft. In the early hours of Sunday they cut the tether, fearing the sinking yacht would drag them under. The boat slipped beneath the waves soon after.
About 18 hours after the whale encounter, rescue arrived. The Royal New Zealand Air Force flew a P-8A Poseidon patrol plane to the scene, established radio contact, and helped coordinate. The 470-foot container ship MV Sofrana Surville reached the raft at 6 a.m. Sunday.
Jeremy Cooper later recalled the ship’s approach as frightening at first, then an overwhelming relief. Within half an hour of the ship’s arrival the four sailors scaled a ladder aboard. They had coffee and talked with the captain.
"It was wonderful, wonderful, and just a terrible, terrible ending, but luckily no loss of life."
Rescue Coordination Centre Operations Manager Mike Clulow praised both the air-sea response and the yacht crew’s decisions.
"This was a well-coordinated and executed rescue,"
"The crew of the yacht did all the right things, and it was unfortunate to have struck a whale in open water. They were well prepared and the early activation of their EPIRB (Emergency Position-Indicating Radio Beacon) was key to helping get them to safety. It is an excellent reminder that being prepared when going to sea can save your life."
The New Zealand Defence Force released images from the operation and confirmed the Poseidon’s role in locating the sailors and linking them to the container ship.
This was at least the second time in less than two months a whale had sunk a boat. In July, a whale surfaced and slammed into a New Jersey fire department vessel, sending it down. Nearby boaters helped pull those firefighters from the water. Different ocean, same sudden force.
No injuries to the Tai Tam crew were reported in the accounts. The Pacific holiday voyage was over. The yacht was gone. Four people who did the basic things right, mayday, beacon, raft, discipline, came home.
Open water still punishes freelancing and rewards readiness. The sailors who kept their heads, and the crews who answered the beacon, proved it again.
