High seas drama
Island man survives nautical disaster off U.S. east coast
Young P.E.I. man got more adventure than he planned for on pirate ship.
Luke Arbuckle is back on dry land on Prince Edward Island with a whale of a sea adventure to tell.
The 31-year-old Montague resident had grown tired of hearing people talk about living life to the fullest but not actually doing it. After the death of his father, he decided to drop everything and go on an adventure.
Arbuckle joined the crew of Liana’s Ransom, an 85-foot long, replica pirate ship. The ship was set to sail from Meteghan Harbour, N.S. on March 27 and head to St. Maarten in the Caribbean.
Just two hours into the scheduled two-month-long trip things started to fall apart when the port engine failed.
“We just kept on trucking, though we had a reduced speed we made it another 10 hours until we started to lose our starboard engine.”
Now, with both engines out, the crew had to rely solely on the ship’s sails, one of which did not fit properly. They made it through the first night, although they suffered from seasickness as the boat was pounded by waves.
Unfortunately, the winds picked up to 40 knots, with waves crashing on either side — the strong side winds left the ship essentially dead in the water.
The loss of the Liana’s Ransom engines also meant its batteries losing power, resulting in its GPS beacon not working.
Alarmed when there was no beacon, the ship’s owner contacted the U.S. coast guard. The coast guard contacted the ship, asking the crew to provide them updates every 30 minutes.
Still believing they could make it to shore, the crew didn’t ask for assistance. But soon the cables holding the mast began to snap from the tension of the rocking ship.
With the mast now loose and shuddering the entire boat as it shook in the wind, the crew decided to call the coast guard for a tow.
When that wasn’t feasible, crew members were asked to jump to the coast guard ship one at a time.
Arbuckle was instructed to grab only what he absolutely needed. Being a reporter, he grabbed his laptop, camera, cellphone and notebook.
He stood at the edge of the boat and made his first attempt. He bounced off the coast guard ship and landed back on Liana’s Ransom.
Arbuckle, now in pain from his first attempt, jumped again and just as he did a wave crashed between the two boats, pushing the coast guard boat 15 feet away.
He smashed his forehead in the process and then landed in the water. The coast guard circled around, threw Arbuckle a rope and pulled him to safety.
“I was totally relieved but I was cold and I was displaying signs of early onset hypothermia, I was in the water for seven to 10 minutes while they tried to rescue me,” said Arbuckle.
Arbuckle was airlifted to Massachusetts’s general hospital.
The ordeal left Arbuckle concussed and the ocean claimed his laptop, camera and phone, as well as a few nerves.
He vows it won’t keep him off the water.
“I’ve got my own little sail boat I’m going to master before I get back on a tall ship.”
On top of the cost to replace his equipment, Arbuckle had to pay thousands of dollars to get home on what he thought was a free trip.
Friends of Arbuckle have started a go fund me campaign to help him get back on his feet and pay for any medical expenses.
Anyone wishing to contribute can find the page at http://www.gofundme.com/r5k9s7c