‘God’s grace put us right on top of him’: Jacksonville boat crew finds man lost at sea

The Coast Guard is crediting a local boat crew with rescuing a man lost at sea. It’s now leading a search for any other survivors who were on board the boat that capsized off the coast of Fort Pierce, Florida after it got caught in severe weather.

“We’ve searched an area of roughly 7500 Nautical miles, which for reference is about the size of the state of New Jersey,” said Coast Guard Captain Joanne Burdian.

Search teams have recovered one body and 38 people remain missing.

But one man was able to make it through. Images surfaced Wednesday of him holding onto the bottom of the boat.

The Coast Guard credits good Samaritans on a Signet Maritime Corporation tug boat for pulling him to safety.

Crew members aboard the Signet Corporation tug boat, the Signet Intruder, were alerted to something in the water on Tuesday morning.

“We spotted an object, and it looked odd,” said the boat’s captain, Ryan Elwin. ”Once we got closer, we realized it was a boat that was capsized.”

They snapped photos for documentation as they approached a man floating atop the bottom of the boat, where he’d been more than 48 hours. ”We could see he was very weak, you know, he could barely hold on,” Elwin pointed out. ”First thing we knew we had to do, we had to do something to help that person.”

The crew brought him on board and rendered basic aid until the Coast Guard arrived. ”Excellent group of guys that were so excited to help,” Elwin shared of his crew members.”Everyone just wanted to see this man get to some help.”

Joshua Nelson, Jacksonville Operations Manager for Signet Maritime Corporation, says he’s proud of this crew’s quick thinking. ”We thought it was important to basically highlight [them] taking this effort and being very vigilant and taking the time to render aid,” he said.

Here is the list of all the crew members on board the Signet Intruder:

Captain Ryan Elwin Sr., Mate Jai Naquin, Mate Bret Norman, Chief Engineer Raener Flowers, Assistant Engineer Nicholas Flahive, Assistant Engineer Brandon Bachman, and Able Body Seaman Charlie Munoz.

But, the encounter between them and the man lost at sea would’ve never happened had the crew had stayed on the path. The tug boat was actually supposed to turn 35 to 40 miles north, but since another ship was coming, it turned off the coast of Fort Pierce and came across that man.

“It’s God’s grace, put us right on top of him,” Elwin said. The man said he traveled with several others. ”As the weather got worse, it was just like you know, people got tired and couldn’t hold on and just kept letting go,” Elwin said the man told crew members.

The Coast Guard says that boat left the island of Bimini Saturday evening in a suspected case of human smuggling. As the search for survivors continues, this captain is urging those at sea to stay vigilant.

”Someone that could seem like a piece of driftwood could be clinging on to life, waiting on some help.”

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