It took just twenty minutes for the Coast Guard to locate the vessel that had been broadcasting the mayday call, but in that short time it had capsized. The conditions were as good as they got in the Gulf, so as they approached the barnacle-encrusted hull, bobbing gently in the slow swell, Captain Durant pondered over what could have caused a ship this size to overturn. The divers were already suited up as they pulled alongside the vessel and the spotters were scanning the area through binoculars. There were no signs of life around the hull, just a scattering of debris, clothing and life jackets. A life boat drifted away slowly about a hundred yards from the stricken ship, but there were no flags and flares indicating survivors The captain ordered the Fast Recovery RIB to be lowered into the water to attend the lifeboat. He turned his gaze to the heavens as he heard the familiar rumbling of the USAF Search and Rescue helicopters approaching the area. He made contact, instructing them to carry out a spiral search, working their way out from the vessel site to a one mile perimeter. It was unlikely any of the crew would have made it that far out but this was standard search procedure. By this time the divers were in the water and the RIB crew were boarding the lifeboat. Over the next sixty minutes Captain Durant received information back from his search parties that left him perplexed. The divers advised that all internal areas of the vessel had been searched but none of crew were found. The helicopters reported no sign of bodies in the water within a mile radius around the overturned vessel. Captain Durant found this hard to believe, so he ordered the divers to carry out a second search and instructed the helicopters to continue flying the area. Of the seventeen crew reported to have been onboard only one was found. The RIB crew reported a man had been discovered on the lifeboat. He was alive but unconscious and in need of medical attention beyond the first aid they could offer. Durant instructed one of the helicopters to evacuate the casualty back to shore while the other continued to search the area. Within a couple of hours several more vessels arrived at the location to assist with the search but hope of finding any more survivors was fading fast. The only explanation, as unlikely as it seemed, was that the whole crew were out on deck when the vessel capsized and they had all sank to the depths. Before Durant had time to consider this further he received a report from the helicopter pilot that the casualty had regained consciousness and was talking about the incident. He claimed he was the captain of the supply vessel. He said he had been inspecting the lifeboat when the incident occurred. He described how the sea had “sprouted up before them” flipping the vessel over like a toy. The information fuelled many theories amongst the rescuers. The two most popular being an old WW2 mine or a terrorist attack.
The search continued for a further four hours before Captain Durant decided to scale it down. The one remaining helicopter needed to return to base for fuel, so he instructed it to do one final sweep before departing. Within minutes of giving this instruction something unbelievable happened. The helicopter reported it had spotted bodies floating within metres of the overturned vessel. Durant had barely been able to digest this information when other reports started to come in of bodies appearing all around the boat, some showing definite signs of life. In the minutes that followed the rescue team were able to recover all sixteen crew members. Eleven were still alive but five had perished. The next call Durant made was his strangest of the day. He put out a request to all vessels in the immediate area to provide any clothing or blankets they could spare. All the survivors they pulled out of the water, and those that had perished, were naked.