chapter one Tugging Along What was the Jascon-4’s job Who is Harrison Okene It all started on Sunday May 26 2013 It was 5 00 a m It was freezing cold It was rainy The Jascon-4 is a tugboat Tugboats are small powerful boats They help other ships move in tight areas Tight areas include canals and ports Tugboats pull bigger ships They pull ships that need to be fixed They pull oil rigs Rigs are special ships They have gear for drilling oil 4
There were 12 crew members on the Jascon-4 Crew members are workers Harrison Okene worked on the tugboat He was a cook He was 29 years old He’s from Nigeria Nigeria is a country in Africa Tugboats also guide ships as needed 5
spotlight biography Michael Proudfoot is a scuba diver Scuba divers dive into deep water They use air tanks Proudfoot went to Mexico He dived off the coast of Baja California He did this in 1991 He explored an underwater wreck He was looking for a sunken navy ship He accidentally broke his mouthpiece This was part of his breathing gear He lost his air supply He was alone He was deep underwater He found an air pocket in the sunken ship He stayed in a big bubble of trapped air He was in the ship’s galley Galley is a ship’s kitchen Proudfoot survived for 2 days He ate raw sea urchins He had a small pot of freshwater He slowly drank the water He slowly breathed in and out He saved his energy He was finally rescued 6
The Jascon-4 was sailing off the coast of Nigeria The tugboat was on a mission Missions are jobs The Jascon-4 was sent to help an oil tanker The oil tanker was several hundred feet long It was packed with oil The oil was just taken from the nearby Chevron oil platform Oil platforms are large structures like islands They’re made for drilling oil wells They also store and process oil Chevron is the name of an oil company The oil tanker was in trouble It was being hit by big waves It was being hit by rainstorms It was being thrown about There are different types of oil tankers Each type carries different things 7
