CLEARWATER, Fla. – Captain Memo’s Pirate Cruise Ship was filled with families returning from a twilight cruise when they saw, in the distance, people desperate for help.
“They were all waving their arms, which you could tell was chaos,” said Andy Turriglio, the first mate of the pirate ship. “Because it’s the ferry boat, it’s not like they’re partying.”
The PTSA Clearwater Ferry was crushed, and the 45 on board were either trying to hold on or about to jump off.
What they’re saying:
“We realized it’s the ferry, and it’s just unrecognizable at that point,” said Pirate Ship Captain Kevin Cabrera. “People were screaming, they were putting life jackets on.”
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The crew started radioing the Coast Guard for help and tried to get closer to the scene.
Unfortunately, the ferry drifted into very shallow water, so their big pirate ship couldn’t have gotten close to it.
From a few hundred feet away, they tried to relay messages to firefighters about what they were seeing.
“It’s indescribable,” said Cabrera.
What They Did Next:
The cruise ship turned around, let its passengers off at the dock and got into a smaller boat with other people from the marina.
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They went back to the crash site and illuminated it with floodlights while first responders helped.
“As we were getting (close), we started seeing debris,” said Cabrera. “People’s shoes, chunks of boat floating in the water.”
By then, most of the passengers had gotten off the boat, either by walking or swimming to the shoreline.
Big picture view:
The gravity of what they’d seen sank in when word spread that the private boat that made impact had left the scene, and that at least one person was killed.
“That guy definitely should get dealt with, and he will,” said Turriglio. “Who knows what happened on his boat, too? There’s two sides to every story, but him fleeing definitely wasn’t a good thing. He should have stayed and tried to help, even if he did something wrong.“
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The crash digs at the sense of camaraderie that those who live their lives out on the water feel with one another.
The captain and first mate of Captain Memos are pleading with boaters to recognize how quickly disaster can strike.
“We have to be responsible out on the water,” said Cabrera. “It’s just like driving a car.“
The Source: FOX 13’s Evan Axelbank collected the information in this story.
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