... the boat's moving through the most extreme motion of her life and there isn't even time to shout. The refrigerator comes out of the wall and crashes across the galley. Dirty dishes cascade out of the sink. The TV, the washing machine, the VCR tapes, the [people], all go flying. And, seconds later, the water moves in.

When a boat floods, the first thing that happens is that her electrical system shorts out. The lights go off, and for a few moments the only illumination is the frenetic blue of sparks arcing down into the water...

... the water comes up so hard and fast that they can't even think. They're up to their waists and then their chests and then their chins and then there's no air at all. Just what's in their lungs, a minute's worth or so.

The instinct not to breathe underwater is so strong that it overcomes the agony of running out of air. No matter how desperate the drowning person is, he doesn't inhale until he's on the verge of losing consciousness. At that point there's so much carbon dioxide in the blood, and so little oxygen, that chemical sensors in the brain trigger an involuntary breath whether he's underwater or not. That is called the "break point"; laboratory experiments have shown the break point to come after 87 seconds...

When the first involuntary breath occurs most people are still conscious, which is unfortunate, because the only thing more unpleasant than running out of air is breathing in water. At that point the person goes from voluntary to involuntary apnea, and the drowning begins in earnest...
Excerpt from
The Perfect Storm
Sebastian Junger











Monday, October 8

7:00 pm
  • The passengers on the Wave Dancer eat dinner in the salon. The wind is beginning to pick up and it has now started to rain.
Mary Lou Hayden:

There was no alarm or briefing. Just 'a storm-front-like line of thunderstorms' would pass through quickly. Captain Wouters ate (dinner) at the table beside us, with Christy and a couple of others.  Captain Wouters suggested at dessert that it would get 'a little rough' outdoors, so if we needed to use the head or go to our cabins, 'better now than later'.  He and Buddy Webb offered to escort us down the steps and across the deck because of the wind and rain.  I did not return to the Salon, but the other women except Cheryl Lightbound did.

7:30 pm
  • Captain Martin informs the passengers that the Belize Aggressor has lost some of its windows due to flying debris. Still, Wave Dancer passengers are not ordered to prepare life jackets, flashlights, weather gear, or anything else that might be categorized as hurricane preparations.
  • Dave DeBarger:
Rick and I had gone from the Salon to the Main Deck right after dinner.  In my case, I decided to get from my cabin a novel I had been reading.  When I got to the cabin, I noted that all of my dive gear and Glenn's was piled in heap on the floor on the cabin, where we had placed it when instructed by the crew to remove all loose gear from the dive deck.  I decided that if I had to get up during the night I would not want all that stuff under foot, and I spent some time stowing the gear so as to leave the cabin floor clear.  I then lay down on my bunk to read my novel, but was aroused almost immediately by voices in the corridor.  Curious to see what was happening, I looked out of the cabin door and saw Capt. Martin in the hall carrying a roll of duct tape.  I asked if I could be of help, and he told me that he was taping up windows in the cabins to protect against loose glass should any flying debris cause the windows to break.  I assisted him in taping some windows, and we were joined by Rick Patterson.  Then Capt. Martin left Rick and me to finish the taping job and he went elsewhere.  Rick and I continued along the corridor, taping windows in 5 cabins before arriving at the Emergency Exit door.
  • Big Creek Harbor becomes ground-zero for the wrath of Hurricane Iris.

8:00 pm
  • According to Belize's national weather service, Hurricane Iris makes landfall with winds of 150 mph, and even stronger gusts. It states "the northern eyewall passed over Placencia, Independence and Big Creek producing extensive damage."
  • Bart Stanley is standing in the doorway between the salon and kitchen beside Eloisa Johnson, who has finished cooking and is washing dishes.
  • Mary Lou Hayden and Cheryl Lightbound are in their respective cabins. The rest of the passengers, along with crew members Bart Stanley, Aaron Stark, Eloisa Johnson and Brenda Wade, remain in the salon. It is unknown what they were doing at the time of the accident.




8:30 pm
  • Eleno "Chico" Cortez is instructed by Frank Wouters to start the Wave Dancer's engines. Captain Martin goes to the main deck to inspect the Wave Dancer's lines and reports that "visibility beyond our vessel was zero."
  • The force of the storm's tidal surge on the Wave Dancer's inferior lines causes her to break free at her stern.
According to Bart Stanley, the Dive Master, "the guests (in the salon) sitting on the starboard side were thrown violently to the port side."
  • Aggressor passengers hear a loud noise and assume it is a piece of flying debris. In fact, it is the Wave Dancer - ripped free from her mooring lines - smashing into their boat.
  • Bart Stanley yells for his passengers to get lifejackets on.
  • Frank Wouters immediately goes to the wheelhouse to attempt to straighten out the boat.
  • The Wave Dancer's bow lines tauten and snap. she rotates counter-clockwise, turns upside-down and floods.





Mary Lou Hayden is alone in her cabin. She feels the first fatal movement of the boat, a hard roll to port. She remembers the first feelings of fear, and pleading, "Come on, come on, roll back up..."

The Wave Dancer rights herself and Mary Lou is momentarily relieved.

But, in the next instant there is another hard jolt, and the Wave Dancer doesn't recover. She rolls upside down, and Mary Lou is now waist deep in water, struggling to survive in the bowels of a pitch-black boat.

By some stroke of luck, Mary Lou has a flashlight in her pocket, a small one on a key chain. She uses that tiny light to find her way down the passage and up the stairs to a starboard exit.

She makes it to the exit but doesn't abandon her friends. She turns around to shine the light into the dark passage of the Wave Dancer, hoping that someone will see it and swim toward her.





As Dave DeBarger and Rick Patterson are working on the window of the emergency exit, the boat shifts violently and they are thrown against a cabin door. They hear yelling. "Put on your life jackets!"

DeBarger and Patterson scramble into the cabin and reach for them but the boat shifts hard again, throwing them against the cabin's outer wall.
Dave DeBarger:

"I felt water immediately. The cabin was filling up. The bunk was vertical, and the cabin door was over my head. I either swam or climbed - I don't know - to the door and tried to get it open."
After getting out of the cabin, Rick and I swam in different directions.  He found the Emergency Exit door almost immediately.  Mary Lou was already at the exit.  They both attempted to open the door, but could not budge it.  Rick kicked out the window in the door, and the two of them swam to safety.  Meanwhile, I had swum beyond the air pocket, turned around and retraced my route.  When I again could get my head above water, I saw reflected light from Mary Lou's flashlight and heard voices calling my name.  I swam toward the light, which required me to make a 90-degree left turn part way down the corridor, and I found the emergency exit door.  After checking for any shards of glass, I swam through the broken window and was pulled into the life raft.

Out of the survivors, crew member Bart Stanley was the only one near the salon area: ³I was under water and felt trapped. Since I knew the boat very good I swam trying to find a way out. I then came across the starboard exit door facing the wheelhouse"

Stanley tells RDC members later, at the Garrison's funeral, that the boat flooded "in seconds." He states that the only reason he was able to survive is because he is an experienced free-diver (used to long breath-holds) and is so familiar with the layout of the boat. Upside down, in complete darkness, and under water, anyone who did not know the layout of the boat was doomed.


  • After the boat rolls over the life rafts were afloat but not attached to the Wave Dancer.
Dave DeBarger:

They were free-floating (at least by the time I arrived.)  We had to hold on to the overturned hull to keep the raft close to it.

  • Captain Martin orders his surviving crew to get into the life rafts and "push them clear of the boat." He crawls along the hull forehead and into the tender to try to start it but the fuel canister has been blown off by the storm.
  • Martin then swims across the 400 ft channel to the Belize Aggressor III, obtains their tender, and together with a crew member rom the Belize Aggressor III returns to the Wave Dancer.
  • In the meantime, 2nd Captain Wouters who is on a life raft: "started banging on the hull and yelling in order to get a response from anyone who was trapped inside. There was a sudden emergence of people surfacing from the vessel. I grabbed as many as I could and helped three of them (survivors) into the life raft."
  • Further attempts are made to find survivors by banging on the hull and trying to break windows with an oar. At this point a voice is heard from the mangroves. It is Thomas Baechtold, Head Diving Instructor. He swims out to the life raft.
Mary Lou Hayden:

 "I was praying for my friends who were not there. We started looking, calling their names, hitting the side of the boat. . . The longer we sat in the life raft we knew it wasn't good for our friends.''

  • Captain Martin takes the three guests on the tender to the Belize Aggressor III.
Dave DeBarger:

Two trips were made.  Half the survivors went in the first run, and the remainder in the second run.  Mary Lou was in the first run ("women and children first") and I was aboard the second run.
  • Richmond Dive Club members from the Aggressor, Dave Mowrer, Don Trice and Rob Salvatori, don their dive gear and help with search and rescue efforts.
  • The first victim found is Glenn Prillaman.
  • Dave DeBarger and Dave Mowrer perform CPR on Glenn for 20 minutes before accepting the fact that he is gone.
Dave DeBarger:

I started CPR, with Dave M.  Mary Lou took over the breathing half of the CPR while I counted cadence and Dave did chest compressions.
  • After that, more bodies are pulled from the boat.
  • Thomas Baechtold and Captain Martin swim to the vessel and find five persons with no sign of life. They pull them into the remaining life raft which was still secured to the Wave Dancer, free the life raft and swim with it across the channel to the Belize Aggressor III.
  • Martin returns to the Wave Dancer with Dave Mowrer. They find Aaron Stark, diving instructor, afloat with "no sign of life".
Rob Salvatori:

Dave Mowrer focused on the boat. He punched out windows and was reaching in there where he could but it was very dangerous, because you couldn't see anything, because there was diesel fuel and oil everywhere. It was very slippery. He kept falling down on the boat and was cut up pretty bad. But he kept trying Š trying to hear anything, any noise.

I saw bodies in the mangroves Š so I started pulling people out of there. People would come by with little boats shuttling back and forth. I would help try and get the bodies up on these boats to go back. All the bodies seemed to be in the general area of the boat. So we just kept trying to work around the boat to do as much as we could do.
  • Martin dives down inside the salon via the windows, finds Eloisa Johnson, and pulls her to the surface.
  • Martin dives down again and finds Christy McNeil and pulls her to the surface, also unconscious.
  • Martin and Mowrer place them into the dinghy and take them to the Belize Aggressor III.
  • By this time it is approximately 10:00 p.m.
  • Nine bodies are lined up on the deck of the Aggressor: Christy McNeil, Jim and Kimberly Garrison, Glenn Prillaman, Buddy Webb, Eloisa Johnson, Aaron Stark are among them.
  • To their rescuers, they looked as though they are sleeping; peaceful, beautiful, unbruised, unbroken, unblemished. It is surreal.
2:00 a.m.
  • The frantic divers bring in seven more bodies before calling off the search for the night.

Tuesday, October 9th

  • Several hundred yards from where she was docked, the Wave Dancer lies grounded on her port side.
  • At approximately 7:00 am, Captain Martin, Bart Stanley, Thomas Baechtold and David Mowrer begin the day with more search and rescue attempts.
  • They are unable to locate survivors.
  • At 8:30 am, British Army personnel/divers begin their own search and recovery effort to locate the missing bodies of the dead.
  • They find the body of one guest ­ Cheryl Lightbound - in her cabin. The door to her cabin is either locked or jammed shut.
  • In the meantime, Peter Hughes' agent in Belize, Charles Vernon, arrives on the scene. Captain Martin and Charles Vernon inform a female officer of the British Army that they suspect there are bodies in the mangroves.
  • Vernon phones the American Embassy in Belize City as well as the Coroner David Coye and informs them of the situation.
  • A British Army Gazelle helicopter arrives, flies over the mangrove and locates the bodies of eight more victims.
  • When Peter Hughes arrives at Big Creek that afternoon he is greeted by the sight of 18 bodies laying on the dock, covered with trash bags.
  • Later that day, the British Defense Force secures body bags for the victims. They load them into a van to be transported to Belize City.
  • The three survivors are taken to the local airstrip and flown to Belize City. Aggressor passengers are taken to Belize City by aboard their boat.
  • As the survivors sit in a van, waiting to be transported to the airport, they are met by two Belizean officials; the Minister of Tourism and the Minister of Information. The officials shake hands, offer their condolences, then move on to view the damage.

Despite Peter Hughes Diving's protestations that no safe accommodations for the Wave Dancer passengers could be obtained ashore, the Fort George Radisson Hotel in Belize City, where the fateful journey began, was unscathed by Hurricane Iris.

  • The three Wave Dancer survivors fly from Big Creek to Belize City on the same plane that brought Peter Hughes to the site. They stay at the Fort George Radisson hotel. Among the grim tasks in front of them is the identification of the bodies of their comrades, now lying in a refrigerated trailer truck behind the hospital in Belize.
  • Because the morgue at the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital in Belize City is not large enough to accommodate all the bodies of the Wave Dancer victims, Belizean officials decide to cremate their remains.
  • Diplomats from the U.S. Embassy in Belize react quickly to prevent the Americans from being cremated. They arrange for a refrigerated trailor-truck to park at the back of the hospital, serving as a makeshift morgue until the Americans can be positively identified and repatriated.
  • The Medical Examiner in Belize does not perform autopsies on the victims. Instead, he rubber-stamps the death certificates "Death by Drowning" in an effort to expedite the removal of the Americans' bodies from his jurisdiction.
Dave DeBarger:

This was, I believe, done at the request of the US Embassy.  The Belizeans wanted to autopsy each body, but agreed instead to record the deaths as "by drowning."  The 3 surviving Wave Dancer divers asked that they be allowed to identify the bodies, so that it would not be necessary for the families to provide dental records, etc., and thereby delay the return of our buddies to the US.  The Belizeans graciously accepted this solution.



Daily Press Briefing
US State Department
Richard Boucher, Spokesman
Washington, DC

QUESTION: Speaking of "different," can we go to Belize? (Laughter.)

MR. BOUCHER: That's different. We'll go back to Warren later.

QUESTION: Do you have some numbers -- apparently a number of Americans have been killed there due to the hurricane?

MR. BOUCHER: Yes. Unfortunately I do have some numbers on Americans that were hurt and killed in Belize in the hurricane. There are at least six Americans that we have been able to confirmed died after the hurricane hit Belize. There are 11 others who are missing. All 17 of these people were part of a larger group that was aboard a dive ship at the time that the hurricane hit. We are in touch with the company that owned the vessel and are getting in contact with the families of all the Americans. At this point, I'm not able to release any identities or personal information.

QUESTION: Is it too early -- I mean, have they asked for any assistance, disaster relief kind of thing, or is it too early yet for that to have happened?

MR. BOUCHER: I think it's too early to get a complete rundown, but I will see if we've got anything yet.



Wednesday, October 10th
  • The three Wave Dancer survivors, plus the 10 RDC members who safely rode out the storm aboard the Belize Aggressor, fly back to Norfolk International Airport, arriving that evening.
  • They are met at the airport by relatives, friends and RDC members.

Dave DeBarger:

The Red Cross arranged for a meeting room at the Norfolk airport and a security escort for the RDC divers, so that relatives and friends could greet the returning divers in private and away from the crowd of journalists.
Daily Press Briefing
US State Department
Richard Boucher, Spokesman
Washington, DC

QUESTION: Can I ask about Belize?

MR. BOUCHER: Sure.

QUESTION: Can we talk about the sad state in Belize?

MR. BOUCHER: We know of four US citizen survivors of the 21 who were on the boat at the time of the wreck. The process of identifying the individuals is ongoing. The embassy is providing all possible assistance to the survivors and the families of the deceased or the missing. Our ambassador and the embassy team are working with the Belizean Government to assess needs and determine how we can best assist in the overall problem that they face. The process is ongoing, and at this point no final decisions have been taken.

QUESTION: (Inaudible) together?

MR. BOUCHER: Among Americans?

QUESTION: Yes.

MR. BOUCHER: There were 28 people on the dive boat at the time of the wreck, 21 of these were US citizens. Four of the Americans survived. So that would mean that 17 either perished or are missing. There were four non-American survivors. Of the remaining 20 people on board, the people who did not survive, they recovered 18 bodies. The process of identifying the bodies is ongoing.



Thursday, October 11th
  • The last two victims of the Wave Dancer are found. The body of Phyllis Cox is located inside the Wave Dancer. Her husband Doug's body is found entangled in mangrove trees several hundred yards from the wreck. They are flown to Belize City that afternoon.
  • Investigators for the Belize Maritime Authority and various insurance companies begin the task of trying to determine what went wrong.
  • The investigation starts with the broken ropes used to tie up the Wave Dancer and the damage to the side of the boat apparently caused when the tidal surge of the hurricane lifted the boat too high for its mooring lines.
  • Tugboat captain Earl Young, who was aboard the tug Miss Gayle at the same dock during the storm, said it appeared the Wave Dancer was tied too tightly at the concrete dock for the high winds and approximate 10 -foot storm surge. When the height of the water suddenly increased, lines and cleats holding the Wave Dancer broke. The 120-foot-long boat's stern came loose and tailed out,'' Young said. "You could see the lights through the windows. That was for like 10 seconds. And then she broke away completely, moving across the channel. And suddenly there was darkness, nothing.''


Sunday, October 14th
  • The bodies of the American's killed aboard the Wave Dancer are flown home. Cheryl Lightbound's body travels with the rest of her buddies to Richmond, and from there on to Canada.


Tuesday, October 16th

  • Belize's Cabinet meets to discuss the impact of Hurricane Iris and plan for recovery. No mention of the Wave Dancer or the only deaths that occurred during the hurricane are contained in the minutes.


Tuesday, October 30th
  • A salvage crew prepares to lift the Wave Dancer out of the water.
  • Officials at the Belize Port Authority state that the vessel will be brought to the surface so officers can conduct an onboard investigation.
  • According to Channel 5 News, after the Wave Dancer is refloated, no Belizean officials monitor or supervise the recovery/salvage operation.







Sources:
 Ambergris Today
Armao, Milly
 Associated Press
CDNN
Channel5 News Belize
Dave DeBarger
Mary Lou Hayden
IMMARBE Report
 NEMO
Richmond Style Weekly
Richmond Times Dispatch
U.S. Department of State
 Virginian-Pilot, The


THE NATIONAL EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT ORGANIZATION OF BELIZE
PRESS RELEASE (sic)



20 Perish in Hurricane Iris
Thursday, October 10, 2001


Hurricane Iris with winds up to 140 mph hit the two southern districts of Belize at 7:30 PM on Monday night, October 8, 2001. The dive boat "Wave Dancer" was moored in Big Creek Harbour to weather the hurricane.

Police reporters indicate that Phillip Martin, boat captain of New Zealand and Frank Wouters boat captain and engineer of the USA, arrived at Big Creek Port at 2:30 PM and were aware of the approaching storm...

During the Hurricane the Wave Dancer broke her moor, drifted across the small harbour and capsized.

At first light on Tuesday, October 9, after the passage of Hurricane Iris, the Belize Police Department dispatched a three-man team to investigate a report that the passengers' lives were lost.  A rescue team searched the area and ten (10) bodies were recovered.  Later that day, British Army and local divers recovered 8 more bodies.  On Thursday, October 11, the remaining two bodies were found.

In all, 20 persons perished in the disaster  The bodies were transported to the Belize City morgue and handed over to the USA authorities.

See a complete list of the passengers of the Wave Dancer who were killed in Hurricane Iris in the left hand column.

Names of persons who died on board the Wave Dancer during Hurricane Iris:

Glen Prillman, 48
Cynthia Cindy Pike, 44
Charles Pike, 52
Shirley Johnston, 58
Lisa Powell, 31
Roberta Kristy McNeil, 40
Eloissa Johnston, 30
Aaron Stork
Kim Ann Garisson, 41
Sherrill Lightbound, 38
Herbert "Buddy" Web, 41
James Jim Garrison
William Bill Kelly, 58
Byron E.Johnston, 60
Ray Mars, 52
Brenda Wade, 28
James J. Topping, 44
Phyllis Cox, 56
William Cox, 57
Sheila Kelly, 48

This page was created for NEMO by Patrick E. Jones, Senior Information Officer
Telephone 014-7449
NEMO


Date: Thursday, November 1, 2001
Preliminary Findings: No Breach in Wave Dancer Hull


She's been lying on her side in the waters of the Big Creek Port since she capsized during Hurricane Iris in early October, but today, the diveboat the Wave Dancer was again afloat. Salvage crews have been working since October twenty-third to pump the boat free of the water and mud that have accumulated since her accident. News 5 was in Big Creek today and have only just returned with these pictures.


Janelle Chanona, Reporting
Today, the Wave Dancer sits motionless alongside a salvage barge in the waters of the Big Creek Port. Officials tell News 5 the boat can float on its own, but she has been strapped with safety lines as a precaution. The boat lists slightly to its side likely because of displaced fuel.


Major Andrew Lewis, Deputy Harbour Master
"The vessel will first come alongside the deep water port here in Big Creek, where all the personal belongings of those people who perished will be taken off and the vessel will be anchored back in the harbour, hopefully for sail."


It is believed no less than four investigation teams have been assigned to the case. Beside the Port Authority, the Belize Police Department and lawyers for both the families of the victims and the Peter Hughes Company, owners of the Wave Dancer, will be sending various experts to inspect the boat.

Preliminary findings by the salvage crew indicate that there appears to be no breach in the boat's hull, putting a serious dent in the theory that a barge docked alongside the Wave Dancer broke free of its lines during the hurricane and slammed into the diveboat.


Major Andrew Lewis
"Hopefully they'll find out exactly what happened and try to quell all the rumours and put the stats correct. It has been rumoured that the hull was hit. We've looked at some of the pictures and it doesn't show anything like that. We're hoping that when that vessel comes up we can look at it and determine exactly what happened."


Peter Hughes and a team of his lawyers were at the port today, but declined interviews citing the pending lawsuits. Reporting for News 5, I am Janelle Chanona.


The company in charge of the salvaging operation is Titan Maritime, out of Fort Lauderdale, Florida. While officials would not tell us how much this operation is costing the Peter Hughes Company, News 5 understands that the day rate just to have the salvage barge on hand is ten thousand U.S. dollars, that's not even including the cost of its crew.

Channel 5 News Belize





















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