HARTFORD, Conn. _ The captain of the freighter that rescued Nathan Carman said Monday that the man who says he spent eight days at sea in a raft "looked tired" when he climbed aboard the freighter but otherwise was healthy.
In an interview with The Hartford Courant from the Port of Saint John in New Brunswick, Canada, Capt. Zhao Hengdong said one of his crew members spotted the orange ball tied to Carman's life raft from about 1 nautical mile away during the day on Sept. 25. When the freighter approached, crew members realized there was a person in a raft.
The crew immediately threw a life ring into the water trying to reach Carman. It took three tosses before Carman was able to grab it and slip it over his head and under his arms. The crew then pulled him through the water to the boat and he climbed the stairway to the deck.
Hengdong said he sent a couple of crew members down to help Carman climb onto the freighter, the Orient Lucky.
"He was very tired but he walked by himself and didn't need any help," the captain said. "He didn't appear to be suffering from hypothermia or dehydration."
Carman was wearing a red life jacket, long-sleeve shirt and blue jeans when he climbed aboard the Orient Lucky.
"The crew asked him what happened and he said he was fishing with his mom and the vessel started sinking and he jumped off and then couldn't find his mom," the captain said.
Nathan Carman, 22, and his mother, Linda Carman, 54, of Middletown, Conn., were reported missing while on a fishing trip Sept. 18. They left from South Kingstown, R.I. in Nathan Carman's 31-foot aluminum boat named The Chicken Pox. His mother is presumed dead.
Hengdong said after that hearing Carman's explanation, the crew called the U.S. Coast Guard to notify authorities they had rescued him. They put him on the phone to talk with Coast Guard officials.
The captain said after that conversation, Carman went to a room in the freighter and slept. He spent the first day resting. On the second day, Carman walked around the boat and came up to the bridge to talk to the captain.
"He asked me how much distance before you can spot something like him on the ocean and I said about 3 nautical miles," Hengdong said.
Carman then went outside and stood by the railing looking over the ocean for at least two hours, the captain said.
"He just stood and looked out on the ocean. I got the feeling he was looking for his mother," the captain said. "He seemed very sad when he left and went back to his room."
The Orient Lucky had discharged its cargo in Providence and was on its way to Boston to refuel when it came across Carman floating in the ocean. The freighter had to travel far enough south from Providence to exchange ballast water.
It was then that the crew member spotted the orange ball bobbing in the water _ about 100 nautical miles off the coast of Martha's Vineyard.
The captain said it was the first time in 17 years he has rescued someone from a raft. He said that before Carman was escorted off the freighter by Coast Guard officials, Carman stopped to thank the captain for rescuing him.
In the recording of Carman's brief conversation with the Coast Guard via radio from the Orient Lucky, he told authorities that engine noises first signaled a problem that eventually sank his boat, leaving him adrift in a life raft and his mother missing.
"There was a funny noise in the engine compartment. I looked and saw a lot of water. ... I brought the safety stuff forward ... the boat just dropped out from under my feet," he said in the ship-to-shore conversation soon after he was rescued by the freighter.
"When I saw the life raft, I did not see my mom," Carman said.
State, local and federal law enforcement authorities are still investigating the incident. The Coast Guard has suspended the search for Linda Carman.
Law enforcement officials from Connecticut, Rhode Island, Vermont, New Hampshire and Massachusetts as well as federal authorities, the Coast Guard and others met for several hours Monday at the U.S. attorney's office in New Haven to discuss the Carman case.
Several agencies had representatives at the meeting while others participated via conference call.
The discussion focused on, among other things, jurisdictional matters and what role each agency will play in continuing investigations. There was also a discussion of investigations involving the same parties that are underway in different places.
In a search warrant application for Nathan Carman's Vermont house, South Kingstown police said they were looking for evidence that he operated the boat "so as to endanger, resulting in death."
"Nathan's boat was in need of mechanical repair and that Nathan had been conducting a portion of these repairs upon his own volition which could have potentially rendered the boat unsafe for operation," the warrant said.
