Johnny Savage will never forget 1998. That’s when he survived one of the earliest documented rogue waves in history, a story that the Virginia local and long-time offshore fisherman told in his book, Lost in the Stream: The Miraculous Story of Two Fishermen Lost at Sea. The then 26-year-old mate and his captain, Eric Bingham, had set off from Key West for a 350-mile daytime crossing to Cancun on the 56-foot Jim Smith boat, Anhinga. Here, Savage tells how they overcame an unthinkable challenge.
On April 13, 1998, we set underway just before light to be up and running as the sun came up. At about 9 a.m, we looked in front of us and it was like nothing I’d ever seen before; it was like a hole in the ocean. We were in a 2- to 3-foot following sea, and then it was just a hole. Basically, the whole boat fell off into it. It was a rogue wave. And within a couple minutes we were in the water without a distress call, an EPIRB, a life raft, life jackets, nothing. And the boat was down. A lot of people ask about the wave. I don’t know of any boat that could have made it through there.
As the boat went off the wave, I was standing up on the bridge next to Captain Eric at the helm. It was steep enough that I fell forward.
When the boat hit the bottom, I just heard this terrible “boom” and basically it was the bulkheads breaking. I think she broke her spine and then the pressure on the sides made the bow deck pop. When she hit, as I was freefalling forward, I was able to grab ahold of the tower—the tuna tower leg and rail at the front of the bridge—and I saw a crack running from the starboard side into the port side about a foot forward of where the bow deck met the house.
From that moment on I knew that this wasn’t going to be
