Nemo de nobis, nisi nos

No one except us

May 26, 2013 does this date ring a bell for anyone? I’ll give you a hint it was a Sunday so most likely you were probably celebrating a Memorial Day weekend at the beach, by the pool or cooking out. With the help of today’s technology, I can honestly say that I know exactly where I was on this day. After scrolling through the roughly ten thousand photos, I was able to land on that date and see what I did that weekend. For a quick recap: took a few photos of my little ones doing silly shit with their hair. Later that day I went into the restaurant to let the carpet cleaner in (because we were closed that Sunday and Monday) and grab some wine and beer for the rest of the weekend. Later on in the day I made some steamed clams, shrimp and mussels. While I was enjoying life with my family some 6,000 miles away some not as pleasant circumstances were taking place.

The 12-man crew was there to stabilize an oil tanker at a platform in the Atlantic Ocean. They were about 32km off the Nigerian coast at the time of the incident.

The ship eventually settled 30m down on the sea bed, upside down. Everyone drowned, except Okene.

“It was around 5 am and I was on the toilet when the vessel just started going down –- the speed was so, so fast,” Okene said later.

In pitch dark, he managed to grope his way from the toilet into another room, which had enough air to keep him alive. There, he rigged a simple platform to keep his body partially above water and delay hypothermia.

Jacson-4, which overturned after being battered by heavy swells last month. Eleven other crew members died as the vessel sank some 12 miles (20 km) off Nigeria's mangrove-lined coast. Okene said he could hear what he believed were the sounds of sharks devouring the bodies of his crewmates

Harrison Odjegba Okene, 29, has transformed his life since a diver fished him out of the sea: He never again wants to find himself in a boat galley, and has since started working as a cook on firm ground.

Okene was the only survivor in a crew of 12 when the Jascon 4 capsized in May 26, 2013, and that still haunts him.

He stayed alive by breathing from an ever-dwindling supply of oxygen in an air pocket of the tugboat. A video of Okene's rescue in May was posted on the Internet more than six months later and has since gone viral.

where he spent two days in a decompression chamber. "To survive that long at that depth is phenomenal. Normally you would dive recreationally for no more than 20 minutes at those depths," said a training consultant from the Professional Association of Diving Instructors. Who could survive something like this? This story wasn’t about the Captain, first mate or the engineer, it was about the chef who survived. Remember what I said, a chef finds a way.

Harrison Okene