Shipwrecked in the South Atlantic

Nearly 30 years after the then-23-year-old fisheries biologist abandoned a South African longlinger, Matt Lewis recounts his harrowing experience.

Matt Lewis was an ambitious 23-year-old fisheries biologist when he set foot aboard the 144-foot Sudur Havid, an aging longline trawler casting off for South Atlantic and Antarctic waters in search of Patagonian toothfish–or “Chilean sea bass,” as it’s better known on your dinner plate. A quick–and underrated–bilge-pump replacement, along with a short but dire series of events led to the boat’s sinking. Of all the 38 crew aboard, Lewis was, as his book’s title suggests, the last man off, and one of 21 survivors. In this episode of the Power and Motoryacht podcast he sits down with Senior Editor Owen Burke to tell his tale and reflect on the tragedy.

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You can get Matt’s book Last Man Off: A True Story of Disaster and Survival on the Antarctic Seas on Amazon. ▶


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