On the night of the 24th October, typhoon no. 20 that started off from the Philippines headed towards Japan and arrived earlier than was expected. At the time,the fishing vessel Daiichi Koufukumaru (第１幸福丸) had finished the day's catch and was on its way back to port. Apart from the captain Makiyama Shingo (牧山新吾), the other 7 crew members onboard were sleeping in the little cabin at the bottom of the ship.
At 8.14pm, crew member Nyuubara(33 years old) woke up from the commotion. The captain was heard shouting something from the deck and Nyuubara saw 2 other crew members escaping from the cabin.
However, Nyuubara and 2 other crew members, Hayakawa (age 38) and Utsunomiya (age 57) were trapped by a fallen refrigerator. Two other crew members were missing from the room and must have escaped. The ship had overturned in the strong typhoon and water was coming into the cabin.
"We were too slow! If only we had realised just a bit earlier!" The 3 fishermen felt the death sentence declared on them.
As the water rose to waist level, they knew that they would loose body heat staying in the water and climbed overhead onto what was the floor planks of the cabin.
In that narrow space, they could only lie faceup side by side, occasionally asking one another if each is still alive.
There was no food and the only bottle of water that floated by turned out to have a foul smell and was abandoned.
Fortunately for them, the ship, though overturned, did not sink. However, in the strong wind and waves, the rocking ship caused severe bruises to the men trying to stay on the plank.
In the pitch dark, the fishermen wondered, "How will I take my last breath? Is it really possible to be rescued? When will the oxygen run out?"
Nyuubara, the youngest of the 3 thought, " If only we can get out of this darkness we will be saved!"
However, his 2 more experienced partners told him not to attempt anything foolish in the bad weather.
"If we ever get out of this, let's go drinking together!" They said to one another, trying to keep their spirits up.
4 days after Daiichi Koufukumaru overturned, the sea finally became still and the ship stable. "The typhoon must have passed! Today, surely, rescue will come!"
True enough, they heard knocking sound overhead, "Is anybody still in there?!"
Finally, after a record 90 hours from the overturn of the vessel, the 3 men were rescued. The first light of hope they saw was the torch light of the divers who came to their rescue, but the greatest moment was when they surfaced from the water and looked at the sun and the blue sky above them.
The captain, unfortunately was found dead while the other 4 crew members are still missing.
The miracle of the fishermen's survival was due to a number of factors in their favour.
According to specialist Professor Takeda, the ship overturning very quickly meant that more oxygen remained in the cabin. The overturned ship remained stable and did not sink, despite a crack in the body. Instead the crack let in air from the sea. The rough waves crashing again the walls also released oxygen from the water into the air. On top of this, the men remained still and so did not exhaust the oxygen.
Finally, as the rescued fishermen also testified, "If there were not 3 of us together, it wouldn't have been possible to survive!" Their mutual encouragement kept them from despair.
If you are interested, here is also the YouTube link to the news report
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9kqwksnIkfM
