Don’t call him a hero, says fisherman’s son

Earlier this week, Stuff reported on two divers marking 21 years since they survived 27 hours lost at sea in Cook Strait. Here, reporter Emily Heyward talks to the son of one of the men who rescued them.

A fisherman who rescued two divers lost at sea wouldn’t have labelled himself a hero, his son says.

The man who spotted Blenheim divers Garry Ham and Kevin Sim lost in Cook Strait for 27 hours would have said he was just doing what anyone else would have done when he rescued the pair 21 years ago, his son Matt Oak said.

Oak, whose father had since died, said he remembered his dad telling him he noticed something ‘‘odd’’ in the water when he was travelling from the North Island to the Marlborough Sounds for a fishing trip on April 21, 1997.

As the boat with a few fishermen on board approached the ‘‘odd’’ thing in Cook Strait they realised it must have been one of the men who had gone missing from a dive gone wrong.

But being called a hero wouldn’t have sat well with John Oak, his son said.

‘‘He wouldn’t have had any wash with being called a hero.

‘‘He would have said there was a whole bunch of other guys in the boat as well. It was just one of those things, you keep an eye out for people,’’ he said.

John Oak was heading towards the stern of the boat for a cigarette when he noticed something unusual in the water.

Diver Garry Ham had blown up his safety sausage, a long fluorescent tube designed to mark a diver in trouble, in an attempt to get the fishermen on the fishing charter to notice him.

John Oak helped Ham and Sim on board and gave them food and a cup of coffee.

The men notified the coastguard they had found the missing

‘‘I think he was pretty chuffed that they got them out of the water.’’

divers, said their goodbyes and did what they set out to do - fishing.

True-to-form, when Matt Oak called his father for a catch up, John Oak played the rescue down.

‘‘I gave him a call and said ‘Hey dad, how’s your week been?’ he said ‘Oh the week’s been all right. We went fishing and found a couple of guys in the water and carried on fishing’.

‘‘Secretly I think he was pretty chuffed that they got them out of the water,’’ Oak said.

PHOTO: SUPPLIED John Oak, left, spotted divers Kevin Sim and Garry Ham, right, lost in Cook Strait on April 21, 1997 while travelling from the North Island to the Marlborough Sounds on a fishing trip.