Steven Ibara '06 returned to the United States last week from his Semester at Sea following his participation in the unexpected rescue of 49 Haitians just north of Port Antonio on March 9. Ibara and 21 other students aboard the Corwith Cramer for the sea portion of a semester with the Sea Educational Association of Woods Hole, Mass., noticed the 25-foot boat while they were on the water. The boat, carrying 35 adults and 14 children en route from Haiti to Jamaica, had been at sea for five days. Ibara was busy doing a scientific deployment know as a "CDT" in which an instrument is dropped down 1,000 meters to measure salinity, temperature and density of the water at depth. Ibara was on lab duty when someone spotted a small boat off the bow of the Corwith Cramer.

While out on the boat doing work, Ibara spotted people in the water. "After we took a closer look with binoculars, we saw one of the men on the boat waving a red flag as a distress signal," said Ibara. "They came up to the boat and we eventually established communications with them through another student who was fluent in French, but even before that we could see that they were in serious trouble. Their mast and rudder were both broken and, as we later discovered, they had no food and little water."

Upon discovery of the ship, students and crew members on board the Corwith Cramer quickly made contact with Sea Education Association officials, the U.S. Coast Guard and Jamaican Officials. According to Ibara, the U.S. Coast Guard could not come to the rescue because they had no vessels in the area. The Jamaican officials apparently did not have any vessels that could reach so far off the coast. "I think pretty much everyone agreed that it was obvious that we were the only hope these people had," he said.

Some passengers on board the Corwith Cramer expressed concern with taking 49 strangers on board their ship. "Some people were nervous about bringing strangers on board [because] they would outnumber us," he said. "Another concern, was that of the risk, albeit still small, of disease. This was the only thing that I thought was valid. In my view, they were people just like us, albeit in a desperate situation."

Before allowing the Haitians on board, the students and crew members discussed all previously mentioned concerns. "We initially had planned to have a few of the Haitian men come on board first and have them help each other, but in a gesture of good faith, they sent their babies and children on board first," Ibara explained.

The experience has been difficult for Ibara to fully understand. "I still wonder, what were they trying to escape that made them take such a huge risk," he said. "What was life in Haiti like that made loading 49 people into a rickety 25-foot sailboat, some of the mothers with very young children, and sailing off into the open ocean? How many boats like that one do not come across another vessel that is willing to help?"