Murder and cowardice
Asta Houweling: Dear Aaron. Since you have gone, I always wonder what was the last thing on your mind. Was it me? I saw you looking up to the light as you were slowly drowning in the ocean. In my dreams, I saw you and the big waves around you. You were helpless.
Frank Spagnoletti: The fact that those guys did not have to go into the water. They could have saved them - that's murder. The fact that they did go in the water when you had a 230-foot boat 3.5 miles away, refusing to save them - that's murder. That captain had a choice and he refused. He chose to turn his back on them.
ROSS COULTHART: Jeff Weber, your company has been accused in a US court of murder and cowardice. An Australian ship accused of breaking a sacred maritime code to never abandon a man in peril on the ocean.
Jeremy Parfait: No-one came to our aid. No-one. The boat just left us to die.
Jeremy Parfait: There was 10 people in the water, working for billion-dollar companies. They're not going to leave us here to die.
ROSS COULTHART: But Jeremy, they did.
Asta Houweling: This is Kurt, this is Daddy. Give a kiss. Every morning, I always show him the photos. I say "This is Daddy and this is Kurt, this is Daddy and Mummy" and he will say "Dadda." So every time he sees Aaron's photo, he will go up to the photos
and kiss.
ROSS COULTHART: In early August last year, Queenslander Aaron Houweling left his wife Asta and baby son Kurt for six weeks of contract work in the Gulf of Mexico.
Asta Houweling: He loved adventures. He loved beaches and he loves food. He's a very kind person. He will... If he sees someone in trouble, he will like just stop and go and help that person.
ROSS COULTHART: Aaron and Asta married in April 2010. Aaron was employed by the big US company Geokinetics to help collect seismic data in the search for oil. Did it make it harder for him to go away to know he'd leave a little boy at home.
Asta Houweling: He always like "I don't want to go, I'm gonna miss you."
ROSS COULTHART: Was he a good daddy?
Asta Houweling: He was a good daddy.
ROSS COULTHART: You know he was an Aussie?
Jeremy Parfait: Yes, yes. Funny to listening to him talk a little bit.
ROSS COULTHART: Nice bloke?
Jeremy Parfait: Oh, very nice, very nice. Good guy.
ROSS COULTHART: Aaron was based on a boat captained by Jeremy Parfait working 13 kilometres off the Mexican coast. 'Trinity II' is a so-called lift boat. There's hundreds of these strange
looking vessels around Louisiana. They are designed to be jacked
up on their three legs in the shallow gulf waters as a stable work platform but they're no place to be in a hurricane.
Tuesday 6 September last year, Jeremy Parfait is watching worsening weather from the wheelhouse. As this video from the day shows, 'Trinity II' is extended to the top of its legs in 25 metres of water. In these rough sees, the lift boat will be too top heavy to lower and then sale to shore safely.
Jeremy Parfait: It was my company that called me and told me it looks like this is going to be a storm. That's when I said...
We need to get the hell out here.
ROSS COULTHART: This is a full two days before the tragedy?
Jeremy Parfait: Yes.
ROSS COULTHART: On his radar, Jeremy Parfait is reassured to see
the massive 70-metre long 'Mermaid Vigilance' close by. Contracted to Geokinetics, the Australian ship is a few miles away. Jeremy's boss tells him the 'Mermaid Vigilance' is his rescue vessel. You've got that reassurance, at the very least,
when you look on your radar, you can see the Australian boat,
the 'Mermaid Vigilance'.
Jeremy Parfait: Yes.
ROSS COULTHART: You've been told by everyone, your bosses,
that it's there to rescue you, if you need it?
Jeremy Parfait:Yes.
ROSS COULTHART: So that makes you feel pretty good.
Jeremy Parfait: Yes. That's what I told everybody onboard.
ROSS COULTHART: Let's be clear about this, at this stage on the Tuesday, would there have been any difficulty at all in the 'Mermaid Vigilance' attempting a rescue of you blokes?
Jeremy Parfait: Not a vessel that size.
ROSS COULTHART: As the hours pass, Hurricane Nate is now forecast but still no rescue comes. No helicopter from Geokinetics, no ship rescue from 'Mermaid Vigilance'. Onboard, Craig Myers sends this video home in a call to his mother.
Steve Myers: She could tell in his voice he was trying to be strong but she could tell he was nervous. When I found out that everybody else evacuated on the Tuesday afternoon, I just couldn't believe it.
Frank Spagnoletti: We know, for instance, that other rigs in the gulf evacuated. BP evacuated. There were a number of evacuations
in the upper Gulf of Mexico based on weather reports of the
approaching tropical storm.
ROSS COULTHART: Texan lawyer Frank Spagnoletti.
Frank Spagnoletti: As we say in Texas, you can run but you can't hide.
Frank Spagnoletti: Last October, he filed a civil claim seeking $34 million in damages against Geokinetics, Trinity Liftboats
and the Australian company Mermaid Marine.
ROSS COULTHART: Why didn't they pull their men out? Why didn't that happen?
Frank Spagnoletti: You have to ask them why it didn't happen.
But I can tell you that a sound evacuation plan would have had those man out of there well in advance of the storm.
ROSS COULTHART: Although the weather is getting worse, crewman Ted Derise says a safe rescue was still possible. Is there any doubt in your mind that the captain of the 'Mermaid Vigilance'
had plenty of time and plenty of safety to rescue you?
Ted Derise: Definitely.
ROSS COULTHART: The storm gets worse.
Jeremy Parfait: Yes.
ROSS COULTHART: Who are you talking to?
Jeremy Parfait: Everyone. Anyone who'll listen to me.
ROSS COULTHART: And there is no doubt whatsoever that you are saying I need rescuing.
Jeremy Parfait: That was the first thing - "we cannot stay out here in this weather."
ROSS COULTHART: You are reassured that he's there to help you?
Jeremy Parfait: Yes. Yes.
ROSS COULTHART: What does a captain like you have an obligation to do when a man calls for help in peril on the sea.
Jeremy Parfait: Go help. Go help. Go help.
ROSS COULTHART: You can't say no.
Jeremy Parfait: No, you can't.
ROSS COULTHART: Jeff Weber, Ross Coulthart, mate, from Sunday Night. Jeff Weber is the chief executive of Mermaid Marine which owns 'Mermaid Vigilance'. I'm sorry to have to do this to you
but there are things we've got to put to you. Your company has been accused in a US court of murder and cowardice. He's refused our repeated requests over many months for an interview. The crew of 'Trinity II' believe that they were capable of being rescued and your captain fled.
Jeff Weber: He did not flee. Don't say that.
ROSS COULTHART: There is a duty, a legal and moral duty on a mariner to rescue men in peril on the sea.
Jeff Weber: His duty of care is to the people on his vessel. He had 37 people on his vessel. His fundamental duty of care was for those 37 people. That's it.
ROSS COULTHART: The Australian company is claiming the 'Mermaid Vigilance' was never asked to rescue the men at sea.
ROSS COULTHART: You contact the captain of the 'Mermaid Vigilance'.
Jeremy Parfait: Yes.
Jeff Weber: I don't know what Jeremy Parfait said or didn't say.
ROSS COULTHART: I'm telling you he spoke to the captain of the 'Mermaid Vigilance' and pleaded for rescue.
Jeff Weber: I don't care what he said.
ROSS COULTHART: Talk me through the radio conversation.
Jeremy Parfait: It's late at night. I'm calling him to tell him that I want to abandon ship. Letting him know that I want to abandon ship, if he can come here and pick up the guys that we need to do that. He's about four miles away. He said it was too dangerous. He says I don't want to get that close to you. I said "Fine, we're gonna use the emergency escape rope one by one."
ROSS COULTHART: You are talking about dropping off a rope into the sea...
Jeremy Parfait: Yes.
ROSS COULTHART:..and swimming across.
Jeremy Parfait: Yes.
ROSS COULTHART: It was that desperate?
Jeremy Parfait: Absolutely.
Jeremy Parfait: If he left, I knew this was gonna happen. I knew it was not gonna be a pretty thing.
ROSS COULTHART: If he just stayed with you...Done something.
Ted Derise: I'd have felt better have having a big 240 foot both on the side of me than having nothing.
ROSS COULTHART: If you jumped overboard that night and there was a massive boat at least right next to you...
Ted Derise: Oh, yeah.
ROSS COULTHART: So why did he turn tail and run?
Jeremy Parfait: He's not a true captain. He could have kept the plot on us. He could have kept the spotlight on us, he could have just came and did something. He did nothing.
ROSS COULTHART: What's the code of the sea?
Ted Derise: You don't leave a man behind. 'Cause I know if it would have been us, I'd have been the first one in the water saving people.
ROSS COULTHART: There comes that terrible moment when nobody has come to rescue you and the storm is getting wild.
Jeremy Parfait: This wind's blowing. This wind is blowing.
ROSS COULTHART: How fast is the wind?
Jeremy Parfait: 80-95...
ROSS COULTHART: Miles an hour?
Jeremy Parfait: Yes.
ROSS COULTHART: When the 'Mermaid Vigilance' refused to rescue captain Jeremy Parfait and the nine other men aboard, they were alone as the full force of the hurricane hit.
Jeremy Parfait: I told everybody just get ready. I mean, it's controlled chaos we got going on. We're running around trying to make sure everybody stays together. There's a 25-man life raft we're trying to get ready and everything. Unfortunately, that 25-man life raft is not made to...be in a hurricane.
ROSS COULTHART: What happens when you open it on deck?
Jeremy Parfait: Oh, it just flies away.
ROSS COULTHART: In the middle of the ocean, in the teeth of a hurricane, having been abandoned, they're now forced to abandon ship.
Ted Derise: It was scary.
ROSS COULTHART: What are you thinking?
Ted Derise: Sharks. Thinking drowning, thinking...never seeing my family again.
ROSS COULTHART: All the men have to hang on to is a flimsy cork raft with a net in the middle. They call it the shark feeder.
You're hanging on to this life raft with your bare hands, basically?
Jeremy Parfait: Yes, sometimes you will ride the wave and next time when you're coming down, it's falling right on top of you.
The water's getting forced into your nose, into your mouth, into your lungs. You're throwing up.
ROSS COULTHART: You've lost your radio, you've lost your flares,
you don't have an emergency beacon. What's going through your head?
Jeremy Parfait: We're gonna be alright. There's 10 people in the water. They're not going to leave us here to die.
ROSS COULTHART: But Jeremy, they did.
ROSS COULTHART: They have no food and little water and will later be reduced to drinking their own urine. But in the first couple of days, Asta is being told a different story by Geokinetics, the company that hired her husband.
Asta Houweling: "Don't worry because they are in a safe life raft with food, "with GPS, so they should be OK, don't worry too much" I start thinking Aaron is...was a good swimmer. He's fit and tough. It's like OK, yeah.
ROSS COULTHART: What happened with Aaron?
Jeremy Parfait: Aaron...was tired. He's cold. He's shivering, his lips are purple. He's getting hell beat out of him, just like us. Sometimes he would let off slack to give himself some room. Then he went would untie himself and I tell him you've gotta keep it tied. He just wants a break, to try a rest and everything.
Ted Derise: I think he might have fell asleep and just kind of let go.
ROSS COULTHART: When did you become aware he wasn't there any more?
Ted Derise: I heard screaming. Help, help. We looked around and did
our head count, he was missing.
Jeremy Parfait: We start yelling, "Who's missing?" It's...it's Aaron.
We tell him, "Swim to the light, yell, scream." When we would go down, we couldn't hear him no more. When we come up, we could hear him. We are holding up the light as high as we can. We're telling him to scream and we swim. 'Cause I told everyone, we have to go get him 'cause if it was any one of y'all, we would go get you. Hours go by.
ROSS COULTHART: There was nothing you could do, was there?
ROSS COULTHART: They tried for hours. They really tried to help to find him. But...they couldn't.
Asta Houweling: I don't know how to cry any more. I think that how unfair it is. Like we have a very happy marriage. And why him?
ROSS COULTHART: You've been in the water for nearly two days?
Jeremy Parfait: Yes. I kept thinking, I could see somebody going to my house, telling my wife I'm dead. And then she's got to tell my kids. Didn't want that to happen.
ROSS COULTHART: Day three and the hurricane abates.
Jeremy Parfait: It was calm, clear skies. Sunny, bright, hot.
ROSS COULTHART: Overhead, a helicopter appears.
Jeremy Parfait: It stayed there, for it felt like minutes. It seemed like he was coming. We knew we were safe. We were hollering, we were, yeah...
ROSS COULTHART: And how did you feel when it turned and went away?
Ted Derise: Devastated. Like, almost had the feeling that they didn't wanna find us.
ROSS COULTHART: The men are exhausted, dehydrated, many delirious.
Weakest is 32-year-old deckhand Craig Myers. That evening, he dies.
Jeremy Parfait: When Craig died...I watched two of his oldest and closest friends try to resuscitate him back to life and I watched them, part of them die right there too, right in front of me.
ROSS COULTHART: Steve is Craig's father. One thing that I find astonishing is that Jeremy and the rest of the survivors kept Craig with them after he died. How important was that for you?
Steve Myers: My family will always...be indebted to them for that.
At least it gave us some closure. Having his body, it made a lot of difference.
Jeremy Parfait: He didn't have to die like that. I mean, how he suffered, how Nadim suffered. How Aaron suffered. And how Nick suffered. You're talking about four days...of dying. Just...slow, painful process.
ROSS COULTHART: Didn't have to happen like that at all. On the fourth day, some time after 3:00 in the morning, they spot a light, possibly
an oil rig, in the distance. Four men, Jeremy, Ted, Nick and Ruben decide to swim for help. But four hours later, Jeremy and Nick can go no further. Ted Derise and Ruben Velasquez keep going but become separated.
Ted Derise: I swam from 7:00 till I was rescued at 3:45.
ROSS COULTHART: You were swimming for nine hours? And you'd been in a life raft or was floating next to a life raft for how many days - four days. How did you do that?
Ted Derise: Just didn't want to die.
ROSS COULTHART: You didn't want your mates to die, did you?
ROSS COULTHART: Ted is seen by a spotter plane. It also finds Ruben.
Ironically, the men who stayed with the raft were found over seven hours earlier. Nick Reed and Jeremy Parfait are the last to be recovered. When Jeremy is pulled from the water, he is so delirious
that he has no idea that his friend has been floating dead beside him
for some hours.
Jeremy Parfait: I am in a lot of pain, physically. I'm in a LOT of pain.
ROSS COULTHART: But you realised for the first time you're safe.
Jeremy Parfait: The phone call I made home, I try calling... (LAUGHS)
..I try calling and they didn't answer the phone. And I couldn't believe that what's going through my head "What the... who the hell
are they talking to "that they don't hear the phone ringing? "I'm pretty sure somebody..."
ROSS COULTHART: Eventually he gets to speak
to his wife, Christine.
Jeremy Parfait: I know my wife's a strong woman, but I know she was going through hell.
ROSS COULTHART: After the rescue, one more man, Nadim, dies from his injuries.
ROSS COULTHART: Your claim filed in the court...
Frank Spagnoletti: Yes.
ROSS COULTHART:..calls this murder.
Frank Spagnoletti: What do you call it?
ROSS COULTHART: Do you think it was murder?
Frank Spagnoletti: I think when you know someone is in danger and you abandon them to that danger, it's murder, at the very minimum, manslaughter. When you intentionally go in the other direction and know that their life is threatened and you have an obligation to save them, I don't know what you call it. I call it murder.
ROSS COULTHART: Does Mermaid Vigilance have any argument that because the master of their vessel is a foreigner, they didn't know what he was doing?
Frank Spagnoletti: No.
ROSS COULTHART: You are responsible for the people you put in charge of your vessels. I mean, this is something that you have the highest responsibility for. Under the law of the sea, the code of the sea, a mariner should have attempted a rescue.
Jeff Weber: No.
ROSS COULTHART: Help! Are you comfortable? How do you feel about this?
Jeff Weber: I'm totally comfortable.
ROSS COULTHART: An Australian man died, three other men died. There's a son without a father.
Jeff Weber: It was the right decision.
Frank Spagnoletti: I've never seen a case where there's actually a conversation with, "death is coming, please save me" and...the back is turned.
ROSS COULTHART: Asta, did anybody ever say sorry?
Asta Houweling: In person?
ROSS COULTHART: In any form.
Asta Houweling: No.
ROSS COULTHART: At any stage, has anyone from Trinity, from Geokinetics, from Mermaid Vigilance, has anyone said sorry?
Jeremy Parfait: No.
ROSS COULTHART: Are you prepared to say sorry to those families who died?
Jeff Weber: It's not my responsibility to say sorry. I'll say sorry because they lost their lives at sea but I won't say sorry because
we've done something wrong.
ROSS COULTHART: In Fremantle in Western Australia, there's an organisation that owns the Mermaid Vigilance. What do you say?
Steve Myers: How could you allow a captain of one of your vessels to leave 10 guys at sea when you had the means to save them. They will pay one way or the other.
ROSS COULTHART: It can't bring your son back.
Steve Myers: No. But hopefully I can help any other family so that way they don't have to go through this. 'Cause it's hard.
ROSS COULTHART: Good on you, mate. Good luck with it. Cheers.
