**Date & Incident**
26 May 2013, ~20 miles off Escravos, Nigeria.
The tugboat *Jascon-4* (33 m long, 165 gross tons) was assisting a Chevron oil tanker at the MOBO platform when a sudden heavy swell capsized it. The vessel sank stern-first in ~30 m of water within minutes.
**Okene’s Ordeal**
- Okene, the 29-year-old cook, was in the officers’ toilet when the wave struck.
- Water pressure hurled him through three compartments into the engineers’ cabin—an air pocket ~1.2 m high, ~4 m².
- The space was pitch-black, ~18–20°C, with water up to his waist.
- He fashioned a platform from a mattress and cabinet doors to stay above water, reducing heat loss.
- He found one can of Coke and a tin of sardines; rationed over ~60 hours.
- CO₂ buildup caused severe headaches and disorientation; he breathed shallowly to conserve oxygen.
- He heard sharks or barracuda feeding on crewmates’ bodies through the hull—sounds that haunted him.
**Rescue**
- On 28 May, South African dive team DCN Global (contracted for body recovery) sent diver Nico Van Heerden.
- Van Heerden’s camera captured Okene’s hand reaching out in the murk; he was initially mistaken for another corpse.
- Okene was given a dive helmet (hot-water suit, comms) and guided to the bell.
- Decompression: 60 hours at 30 m = ~2.5 hours in saturation chamber to off-gas nitrogen safely.
**Survival Factors**
1. **Air pocket**: Trapped air in the inverted compartment.
2. **Thermal protection**: Platform kept torso dry; cold-induced vasoconstriction slowed metabolism.
3. **CO₂ tolerance**: Hypercapnia usually fatal after ~24 hrs; Okene’s shallow breathing and small pocket volume delayed critical levels.
4. **Psychology**: Faith (prayer), focus on family, and refusal to sleep (fear of drowning) kept him alert.
**Aftermath**
- Sole survivor of 12 crew.
- PTSD: Recurring nightmares of the room flooding.
- Career shift: Trained as a commercial saturation diver; now works in subsea construction.
- Faith central: Credits divine intervention; wears a cross tattoo commemorating the date.
**Expert View**
Dr. Adel Taher (hyperbaric physician) noted: “Statistically, survival beyond 24 hours in those conditions is near-zero due to CO₂ narcosis. His calm breathing and platform were decisive.”
The rescue video (body-cam footage) is publicly available via DCN Global and remains a training case in dive medicine.
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