HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) – A plume of black smoke alerted the crew of a cargo vessel to possible distress. As they pulled closer in the Atlantic Ocean, they found a fishing boat engulfed in flames and the sailors in the water.
The ship, K. Coral, hoisted 17 fishermen aboard. Two others drifted away while clinging to wreckage. Lookouts searched for several hours, through nightfall and heavy wind and rain, before the crew pulled them both to safety as well.
The ship arrived this week to unload steel in New Haven, Connecticut, where a delegation from the U.S. Coast Guard on Monday honored the captain and crew for carrying out the rescue last week 900 miles southeast of Bermuda.
Park Hyog Soo, the South Korean captain of the Panama-flagged K. Coral, provided a minute-by-minute account of the rescue effort in dispatches to the Coast Guard and Bermuda authorities.
After spotting the smoke from about four miles away, the 620-foot vessel changed course and as it approached the burning vessel, the crew saw a flare shot into the sky. Within a few hours, the first 17 men were aboard the ship, including two people with severe burns.