Being at sea and on the ship for weeks, the crew aboard U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Kimball was enjoying a swim in waters “a zillion miles from land” when the radio from the bridge announced “Shark!”
“As if right out of a Hollywood movie, a 6-8 foot shark (no exaggeration) surfaced at the Rescue Door and was swimming toward 30-40 people in the water about 30-feet away,” the Cutter Kimball’s Facebook page reported Tuesday. “Everyone on the Flight Deck had a bird’s-eye view.”
Fortunately, Maritime Enforcement Specialist 1st Class Cintron, who was on shark watch duty, also had a clear vision of the approaching shark, thought to be a mako shark or thresher shark.
Crew members immediately started swimming toward Jacob’s ladder on the Fantail, the open stern notch at the ship’s stern or to a small boat that had been launched ahead of the swim. “Shoot it!” came a cry from the chief.
“ME1 Cintron fired a well-aimed burst right at/on top of the shark to protect shipmates just feet away,” Cutter Kimball’s post stated. “It turned away for a few seconds then turned back.
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“We kept directing people out of the water while keeping a clear line of sight on the shark. ME1 fired bursts as needed to keep the shark from his shipmates with amazing accuracy. The shark would wave off with each burst but kept coming back toward our shipmates.
“It wasn’t the panic of the 4th of July scene from ‘Jaws,’ but once everyone realized what was happening, they moved with a purpose!
“Everyone stayed focused and worked the problem. The small boat quickly looked like a vessel overloaded with SAR survivors. Others threw heaving lines to shipmates in the water and helped them aboard via the stern notch.
“All hands are safe and accounted for. We even saved the inflatable unicorn!
“The only injury was a small scrape OS3 Berk suffered while climbing aboard. Our hyper vigilant HSC didn’t even deem it worth a Band-Aid. But where was it located you ask? On his knee…in the center of a tattoo. What tattoo you ask? An open set of shark’s teeth. Seriously, you can’t make this up!”
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The crew of the Cutter Kimball, based in Hawaii, has “hundreds of years at sea,” but nobody has seen or heard of a shark showing up during a swim call.
“BRAVO ZULU to ME1 Cintron who likely saved one or more of his shipmates from a shark attack!!” Cutter Kimball’s post stated.
It was noted that the top requests for movies on the Flight Deck that night were “Jaws” and “Sharknado.”
It was also noted that they didn’t think the shark was injured.
“Our goal was to keep it away from shipmates, not harm it if possible,” Cutter Kimball’s post stated. “It was most likely curious and not looking for a meal. We picked our location to try and avoid such an encounter, but it is their ocean after all.
“It later joined a few smaller buddies that showed up and they swam off together.”
Photos courtesy of the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Kimball.
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