{"id":9922,"date":"2015-04-06T15:31:12","date_gmt":"2015-04-06T20:31:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stephenlirakis.com\/?p=9922"},"modified":"2015-04-06T15:31:13","modified_gmt":"2015-04-06T20:31:13","slug":"update-rescue-louis-jordan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/stephenlirakis.com\/?p=9922","title":{"rendered":"AN UPDATE ON THE RESCUE OF LOUIS JORDAN"},"content":{"rendered":"

I, like many people were skeptical of the story as first reported. there may be still more to come. Here are some corrections to the original story.<\/h2>\n

Louis Jordan \u2014 Drifting Sailor Update : Media Misreports Story, Now Reports that Skeptics Doubt Sailor<\/a><\/h2>\n
Posted on<\/span>\u00a0April 6, 2015<\/span><\/a>\u00a0by<\/span>\u00a0Rick Spilman<\/a><\/span><\/div>\n
\n

\"jordanmontage\"This would be funny, if it weren\u2019t sad. \u00a0Last week the German container ship,\u00a0Houston Express<\/em><\/a>, picked up Louis Jordan, who had been drifting off Cape Hatteras for a reported 66 days in his dis-masted\u00a0Alberg 3<\/a>5 sailboat,\u00a0Angel<\/em>. \u00a0The media managed to completely garble the story, to the extent that anyone who took the reporting at face value might not believe what they were reading. Some have suggested that Jordan lied about the whole affair. \u00a0Last Friday we attempted the untangle the various accounts. \u00a0See our post:\u00a0Louis Jordan, Sixty Six Days Adrift \u2014 What Really Happened?<\/a><\/p>\n

Here is where it gets at least slightly funny. This morning the Washington Post published an article with the headline:\u00a0Why skeptics think a South Carolina sailor lied about being lost at sea for 66 days<\/a>. The short answer about why anyone\u00a0might think such a thing could be that they read nonsense in the Washington Post. (To be fair, many, many other news sources didn\u2019t do any better.)<\/p>\n

<\/span>Even three days after the initial reports came in, the Washington Post is still reporting the same false information. In this morning\u2019s article they reported:<\/p>\n

Jordan\u2019s saga began Jan. 23, when he set sail from the marina in Conway, S.C., on a short fishing trip. He was reported missing six days later. A German tanker spotted him sitting atop his 35-foot-boat\u2019s overturned hull 200 miles off the North Carolina coast on Thursday, a full 66 days after his disappearance.<\/em><\/p>\n

There are several things wrong with these statements. First, even though some reporters think all ships are \u201ctankers<\/em>,\u201d Jordan was picked up by a container ship. This is not an important point, but it does suggest that the writer is either uninformed or sloppy.<\/p>\n

The larger point is the claim that Jordan was \u201cspotted \u2026\u00a0sitting atop his 35-foot-boat\u2019s overturned hull.<\/em>\u201d \u00a0The statement is simply wrong. Both the ship\u2019s captain and representatives of the Coast Guard say that the boat was floating upright when found. Beyond that, the claim itself is also impossible.<\/p>\n

Jordan\u2019s boat,\u00a0Angel<\/em>, was an Alberg 35, a fiberglass cruising sailboat built in the 1960s. \u00a0It has\u00a05300 lbs. of ballast, a heavy weight in the keel to help keep the boat upright. In fact, over 40% of the entire weight of the boat is ballast. If an Alberg 35 is rolled over, one of two things can happen. If the hatches are open, it can fill with water and sink. If the hatches are closed and the boat\u00a0doesn\u2019t fill with water, it will right itself. It will roll back up. The boat cannot float upside down. The 5,300 lbs. of ballast in the very bottom of the boat prevents that from happening. \u00a0So, it was absolutely impossible that Jordan was found \u201csitting atop his 35-foot-boat\u2019s overturned hull<\/em>,\u201d as reported by many sources, including the Washington Post. The\u00a0New York Times version<\/a>\u00a0was even more dramatic. They report that Jordan was \u201cclinging to the hull of his overturned sailboat,\u00a0surviving on raw fish and rainwater.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Where did this story come from? \u00a0It appears that a Coast Guard rescue technician, Petty Officer Kyle McCollum, who helped retrieve Jordan\u00a0the container ship may have misunderstood what he was told by the Germans on the ship. The Coast Guard did not rescue Jordan from his boat. They only picked him off the deck of container ship. It is unclear whether or not the Coast Guard ever saw Jordan\u2019s boat.<\/p>\n

Jordan never said that he was \u201cclinging to the hull of his overturned sailboat.<\/em>\u201d \u00a0He says that when\u00a0the boat capsized, he was sleeping below deck. When the boat\u00a0righted itself, he had to bail out water that had made its way below.<\/p>\n

Likewise\u00a0the captain of the container ship\u00a0Houston Express<\/em>,\u00a0Thomas Grenz<\/a>, reports that the boat was floating upright when found. The same was said by\u00a0Coast Guard spokesperson Lt. Krystyn Pecora<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Washington Post goes on to write:<\/p>\n

Even stranger, doubters pointed out, was his skin, which looked pale and unblemished, with only the slightest hint of sunburn, according to the Daily Mail.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cWe were expecting worse with blisters and severe sunburn and dehydration,\u201d Petty Officer 3rd Class Kyle McCollum, who had the first contact with the sailor, told the AP.<\/em><\/p>\n

Once again, it appears that the petty officer\u2019s misunderstanding of the situation was taken at face value. \u00a0If he believed that Jordan had been\u00a0\u201cclinging to the hull of his overturned sailboat, surviving on raw fish and rainwater<\/em>,\u201d then his expectations made sense. As his assumptions were wrong, so were his expectations.<\/p>\n

It is also worth noting that Jordan lived on the sailboat before making his ill-advised advised winter fishing trip. The boat was literally his home. As such, it is likely to have had a certain amount of food and water aboard, as well as clothes, tools and other equipment. Jordan was not sitting exposed to the sun and wind for 66 days. He had the shelter of the cabin and at least some some supplies. When his food and water ran low he caught fish and rain water to sustain him. This is not to say that Jordan had it easy.\u00a0Depending on which news source you read, Jordan lost\u00a0between 50<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a090 pounds<\/a>\u00a0during the 66 day ordeal.<\/p>\n

That Jordan had some supplies and shelter was confirmed by the\u00a0Coast Guard\u2019s Lt. Pecora, who said<\/a>\u00a0that he\u00a0survived eating the food he had on his boat, by collecting rain water and using a net to catch fish. She said Jordan\u00a0managed to stay hydrated by going inside his boat\u2019s cabin a lot.\u00a0A report by the\u00a0LA Times<\/a>\u00a0mentions Jordan cooking pancakes on a propane stove.<\/p>\n

The Washington Post also questioned Jordan\u2019s injuries. They quoted Erik Kulik of the True North Wilderness Survival School : \u201cHe says he broke his right shoulder, and yet he didn\u2019t even seem to be guarding that shoulder in the pictures I saw after the rescue. There is a lot that doesn\u2019t add up<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jordan said that he broke his right shoulder, then later corrected himself and said he broke his collar bone. (In an online video, he shows the mark from the break which is on his collarbone near his right shoulder.) A collarbone fracture typically takes\u00a0two to four weeks to heal<\/a>. Jordan was missing for 9 weeks so it is not surprising that he had regained mobility in his right arm and shoulder.<\/p>\n

There are many questions to be answered about what happened to Louis Jordan. His decision to go fishing in the Gulf Stream in the winter despite hearing the prediction on oncoming storms, suggests that he is \u201can inexperienced sailor,\u201d as even he describes himself. \u00a0Reckless and foolhardy are other adjectives which also come to mind. \u00a0Nevertheless, so far we have seen no evidence that he is a liar.<\/p>\n

On the other hand, the reporting on Louis Jordan by the Washington Post, the New York Times, the Guardian, the Daily Mail and seemingly countless others has been a bad joke.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I, like many people were skeptical of the story as first reported. there may be still more to come. Here are some corrections to the original story. Louis Jordan \u2014 Drifting Sailor Update : Media Misreports Story, Now Reports that Skeptics Doubt Sailor Posted on\u00a0April 6, 2015\u00a0by\u00a0Rick Spilman This would be funny, if it weren\u2019t … Continue reading AN UPDATE ON THE RESCUE OF LOUIS JORDAN<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[75,73,449],"tags":[2329,2330],"class_list":["post-9922","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-safety-at-sea","category-sar","category-water-safety","tag-louis-jordan","tag-rescue-at-sea"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/stephenlirakis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9922","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/stephenlirakis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/stephenlirakis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/stephenlirakis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/stephenlirakis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9922"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/stephenlirakis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9922\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9923,"href":"http:\/\/stephenlirakis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9922\/revisions\/9923"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/stephenlirakis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9922"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/stephenlirakis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9922"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/stephenlirakis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9922"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}