Incredible footage has emerged of the moment divers recovering bodies from a ship at the bottom of the ocean found a man alive – almost three days after the vessel had sunk.

Ship cook Harrison Okene survived in an air pocket in the capsized Chevron tugboat, in pitch black and without any food, stay alive with sips of Coca-Cola.

He was the only survivor of 12 crew members on the ship, which capsized about 20 miles off the Nigerian coast in heavy swells in May.

A South African scuba diving team thought they were conducting a dead body recovery effort before Mr Oken saw a torch light and swam towards them.


Harrison Okene was rescued from a sunken ship (Picture: YouTube)

Newly released video footage of the astonishing rescue shows the team reassuring Mr Okene as they prepare to bring him to the surface.



‘My hands and feet were very white,’ he told The Nation. ‘When I located him [the rescuer], I was the one who touched the diver, I touched his head and he was shocked.

‘He was searching and I just saw the light, so I jumped into the water. As he was shocked, he stretched out his hands. I touched him.’

The survivor takes a sip of water (Picture: YouTube)

Mr Okene had taken an early morning trip to the bathroom, wearing just his boxer shorts, when he became trapped.

He said he could hear fish eating the bodies of his fellow crew members as he waited for help to reach him.

Harrison Okene drank Coca-cola to survive (Picture: YouTube)

‘I was there in the water in total darkness just thinking it’s the end. I kept thinking the water was going to fill up the room but it did not,’ he added.

Mr Okene spent 60 hours in a decompression chamber before being reunited with his family.