Salvage on the High Seas

I read a couple of amazing stories this past week, but none was so preposterously cinematic as the true story of the team of specialists called in to save a capsized freighter in the north Pacific. High Tech Cowboys of the Deep Seas: The Race to Save the Cougar Ace, a Wired article by Joshua Davis, follows the group from Titan Salvage on their real-life adventure:

Right now, it doesn't really matter how it happened. What matters is that the Cougar Ace has become a multimillion-dollar ghost ship drifting toward the rocky shoals of the Aleutian Islands. What's worse, according to the crew, the ship is taking on water. The Coast Guard alone doesn't have the capability or expertise to handle this kind of emergency, and officials fear that the ship will sink or break up on shore. Either way, the cars would be lost, and the 176,366 gallons of fuel in the ship's tanks would threaten the area's wildlife and fishing grounds. Mazda, Mitsui, and their insurers would take a massive hit.

The article is long, but gripping, and will obviously be made into a movie. It reads like a pitch for a film – not in the cheesy, "wouldn't-this-be-a-cool-movie-Hollywood-wink-wink-nudge-nudge" Tom Clancy way, but in the "this-happens-in-real-life-OMFG" way. Corporations, the environment, and individual lives could all be destroyed if they fail. There's a finite amount of time to accomplish their goals. The conflict and setting are high concept and exciting. And the guys who make up the team are the stuff of Jerry Bruckheimer's wet dreams:

They're a motley mix: American, British, Swedish, Panamanian. Each has a specialty — deep-sea diving, computer modeling, underwater welding, big-engine repair. And then there's Habib, the guy who regularly helicopters onto the deck of a sinking ship, greets whatever crew is left, and takes command of the stricken vessel.

And did I mention that the team leader, Senior Salvage Master Rich Habib, not only has an unlimited master's license, but he looks like an adventure hero, an "Indiana Jones" of the water. He reminds me of Jammer from The Abyss.

All of my talk regarding this story-as-film is to show what an incredible read it is. We forget, sometimes, just how extreme real-life adventures can be. The stakes are high, lives are lost, technology can be mixed with elbow grease and physical feats of wonder. And occasionally, reality has down-beat and mildly ironic triumphs.

Check it out.

[c/o kottke]