Accounts from those who returned from the eye of the storm.
“It was raining heavily, the waves were crashing relentlessly, pushing the bow of the ship into the sea, water was flooding the hold, the crew on board were thinking the worst, and were in utter despair when the border guard's speedboat appeared. Everyone shouted, 'We're saved!'" Le Ba Tuan, the chief engineer of the ship that was in distress during Typhoon No. 6, emotionally recounted the moment of struggle between life and death.
At dawn on August 8th, the specialized 3800 HP high-speed vessel of the Ha Tinh Border Guard cut through the waves, towing the fishing boat NA-93044 TS belonging to Mr. Truong Van Thuc, residing on Hon Ngu Island, back to Cua Lo port amidst a warm welcome from dozens of border guard officers and soldiers from Nghe An province and local people. As soon as the boat docked, the owner, Mr. Thuc, the chief engineer, Le Ba Tuan, and many other young men linked arms, stood in a line in front of the dock, waved to those standing on the pier, and smiled contentedly.
The distressed fishing boat was towed into Cua Lo Port by a rescue vessel on the morning of August 8th.
The fishing boat belonging to Mr. Thuc's family, residing in Quyet Tam hamlet, Quynh Lap commune, Hoang Mai town, has a total of 12 crew members, mostly fathers, sons, and brothers. The boat, purchased in 2011 for over 2 billion VND, has a 320 HP engine and specializes in anchovy fishing in the Gulf of Tonkin. After docking in Quynh Luu to avoid Typhoon No. 5, the boat set sail again on the afternoon of August 4th, filled with hope for all the crew members and their families back home. After sailing straight into the Gulf of Tonkin, the crew decided to drop anchor, locate a school of anchovies, and cast their nets.
Two days later, while casting their nets, the ship received news that the tropical depression had intensified into Typhoon No. 6. Everyone tried to finish their last catch before rolling up the nets and returning. Ship owner Truong Van Thuc and chief engineer Tuan calculated and decided on a time to steer the ship away from the storm so that it would reach shore safely before the typhoon made landfall. At noon on August 7th, while the ship was sailing at high speed, the storm unexpectedly intensified many times more than expected, causing violent sea conditions and relentless waves crashing against the ship's sides. Mr. Thuc's 320 HP ship was too small for the level 7 and 8 winds of the storm's center. In just a few minutes, the ship's rudder was broken by the waves. While the entire crew was trying to fix the rudder, the mechanic announced that the propeller had been swept away, and the engine had lost water and could not operate.
“It was around 1:30 PM, we were panicking and didn't know what to do, so we raised the alarm and asked for help. Through the radio on the ship, we called the Quynh Phuong Border Guard Station, asking for urgent assistance,” Thuc recounted.
At that moment, the rain lashed down, the sea was violently rough, and the waves rose so high they submerged the ship. The captain decided to drop anchor, letting the ship rock on its own with the waves, and mobilized three high-powered pumps to continuously pump water out of the ship's hold. While pumping, he called for rescue and prayed to God that he wouldn't die.
Throughout the afternoon, the 12 people on board struggled against the waves and stormy winds. Younger crew members like Le Ba Kien (born 1989), Le Hoi Thai (born 1992), and Le Ba Mai (born 1990), with little experience and never having encountered such a storm before, became discouraged and showed signs of disappointment. Seeing this, the older crew members tried to boost morale, urging everyone to put on life jackets, eat instant noodles, and be ready to jump into the sea if the ship sank.
“At 4 PM, we received a call from the border guards encouraging everyone to hold on, saying the small speedboat couldn't get out because of the big waves, and they were deploying a larger vessel. The crew felt somewhat reassured. Everyone was pumping water out of the deck while encouraging each other that if the worst-case scenario happened, they would rescue people and abandon the boat,” recounted Deputy Captain Le Hoi The while talking on the phone with his wife and children.
Around 8 PM, when everyone was at their most desperate as the storm was approaching and the fishing boat was about to sink, suddenly, from a distance, a bright area appeared. A 3800 HP high-speed boat with the registration number BP34-1901 sounded its horn, riding the waves and braving the storm with winds of force 8 and 9, slowly approaching. "Seeing the rescue boat, the crew shouted 'we're saved!' and hugged each other, crying like children receiving gifts," Chief Engineer Le Ba Tuan said, unable to hold back tears as he recalled that fateful moment.
Although rescue ships had arrived, approaching the distressed fishing vessel proved extremely difficult due to heavy rain and rough seas, with waves crashing high enough to submerge the fishing vessel's deck. At this point, Lieutenant Colonel Ngo Duc Dong, Commander of Squadron 2 of the Ha Tinh Border Guard, who was directly in command of the rescue ship, decided to throw a cable from the rescue ship to the fishing vessel. However, each time the cable was thrown, it was knocked down by the waves. No one on the fishing vessel could reach the cable because stepping outside would immediately result in being swept into the sea by the waves.
After nearly an hour of trying to approach and make contact with the distressed vessel without success, Lieutenant Colonel Dong and the rescue team decided to drop anchor and stand near the distressed fishing boat to prepare for the worst-case scenario. “When we knew the rescue boat had dropped anchor, we felt very reassured and called Lieutenant Colonel Dong, asking him to drop anchor about five hundred meters further out, to catch the current so that if the fishing boat sank, the crew members could swim with the current to be rescued. When the storm hit, we thought the boat would surely sink, so everyone was ready to jump into the sea,” Captain Thuc said.
Border guards continuously called to encourage everyone to try to pump water out of the boat and stay calm, assuring them that rescue forces were nearby. Around midnight, when the waves were high and the wind was blowing strongly, the rain suddenly stopped and the waves subsided to about level 6. At this point, the rescue forces and the sailors on the fishing boat tried to connect the cables. About 30 minutes later, the cable connection was completed, and the border guard's speedboat decided to tow the fishing boat to the area of Ngư Island to avoid the storm. There, once the boat was safely positioned, the fishermen breathed a sigh of relief. Some immediately showed signs of exhaustion, collapsing on the deck, requiring rescue forces to rush over to attend to them.
Captain Truong Van Thuc has been constantly receiving phone calls from friends, wife, and children checking on him after escaping the disaster.
By the morning of August 8th, when the weather was calm, the sea was still, and the storm had passed, the yellow rescue ship towed the fishing boats back to shore, much to the boundless joy of both the fishermen and the authorities. Despite having to tow the fishermen's boats, the border guard ship still swiftly cut through the waves, the two national flags on the fishing boats fluttering in the early morning sun of Cua Lo, evoking feelings of emotion and pride in everyone present at the port.
Chief Engineer Le Ba Tuan couldn't believe he was still alive.
As soon as the ship docked, Captain Thuc, Chief Engineer Tuan, First Officer Le Hoi The, and the other crew members all pulled out their phones to inform their wives, children, and relatives in Hoang Mai that "everyone has returned safely." They said that during the night, although their wives and children anxiously called them repeatedly from the sea, they all kept it a secret, not daring to tell the truth about their situation at sea for fear of worrying everyone back home. All the people on board were relatives, including many fathers and sons, and brothers, such as Le Hoi Thai and his son Le Hoi The; Le Ba Tuan and his son Le Ba Mai, or the brothers Nguyen Van Hai and Nguyen Van Nguyen, Vu Manh Cuong and Vu Manh Ha,… “Yesterday, if it weren't for the border guards and a bit of luck, we probably wouldn't have been able to return unharmed,” Captain Truong Van Thuc confided, adding that the moment of meeting the rescue ship at sea in the heart of the storm was very similar to the feeling he had decades ago when he joined the army and returned home to see his elderly mother, wife, and children.
Mr. Hoang Nghia Hieu, Chief of the Office of the Steering Committee for Flood and Storm Prevention and Search and Rescue of Nghe An province (wearing a white shirt), thanks the border guards of Ha Tinh.
Many crew members were exhausted after battling the storm.
A delegation from Nghe An province visited and inquired about the well-being of the crew members on the ill-fated ship.
On the morning of August 8th, immediately after the ship docked at Cua Lo port, acting on behalf of Mr. Dinh Viet Hong, Vice Chairman of the People's Committee of Nghe An province, a delegation led by Mr. Hoang Nghia Hieu, Chief of the Office of the Provincial Flood and Storm Control and Search and Rescue Command of Nghe An, arrived at the fishing vessel to encourage and inquire about the well-being of the fishermen in distress, present gifts to the soldiers on the rescue ship, and express gratitude for the selfless dedication and risk-taking efforts of the border guards from Nghe An and Ha Tinh provinces in rescuing people. At the scene, Colonel Hoang Ngoc Nam, Deputy Commander of the Nghe An Border Guard, once again thanked the soldiers of Squadron 2 - Ha Tinh Border Guard for their timely presence. “This is the result of effective and sincere cooperation between the border guard forces of the two provinces; all of them did not hesitate to make sacrifices and endure hardships for the people, demonstrating the noble image of soldiers in green uniforms on the rescue front,” Colonel Nam emphasized.
After a long, sleepless night battling the raging storm, Lieutenant Colonel Ngo Duc Dong, Commander of Squadron 2, along with eight officers and soldiers from the Ha Tinh Border Guard and three officers from the Nghe An Border Guard, were visibly exhausted, but their eyes remained sharp and alert. That same night, when the weather calmed and the wind subsided, the soldiers went to the fishing boat, inquired about the fishermen's well-being, prepared instant noodles, carefully unwrapped pieces of dried rations, and shared them with the fishermen to encourage them. Lieutenant Colonel Dong stated that upon receiving information about the boat's engine failure and knowing that the Nghe An Border Guard's speedboat couldn't reach the scene due to the rough seas, the officers and soldiers of Squadron 2 immediately went to Cua Hoi port without hesitation, determined to reach the scene as quickly as possible to stand alongside the fishermen and weather the storm.
In 2011, while sheltering from a storm off Cua Sot, Ha Tinh province, the fishing vessel NA-93044 TS, captained by Mr. Truong Van Thuc and his crew, received a request from the Vice Chairman of the People's Committee of Ha Tinh province to go out to sea to rescue and tow a fishing vessel from Da Nang that had suffered engine failure offshore. Mr. Thuc and his crew braved the danger, rushing out to sea to rescue the distressed vessel and seven fishermen. “When we rushed out to sea to rescue people during the storm in Ha Tinh, we never expected to be rescued ourselves. This time, it was the Ha Tinh Border Guard vessel that saved us from death; it was fate,” Captain Thuc confided. |
Nguyen Khoa
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