Four sailors were left stranded in the South Pacific after their yacht was struck and ultimately sunk by a sperm whale, authorities and the crew have reported. The incident occurred about 250 nautical miles from Norfolk Island, a remote territory in the region.
The crew aboard the 16-meter yacht Tai Tam included Jemma and Jeremy Cooper, Terry Hetherington, and Martin Jaffre. According to Jemma Cooper, who was at the helm when the whale struck, the impact came as a sudden “loud thud” that pushed the boat sideways and threw her across the deck. Upon looking out, the sailors saw a pod of six to eight sperm whales nearby, some as long as the yacht itself.
The collision caused significant damage below deck, with Jeremy Cooper waking to find their steering gear destroyed on the starboard side and water rapidly flooding the boat. The yacht began to take on water through several gashes in its fiberglass hull, inflicted by the whale’s impact. Efforts to contain the flooding included using expansion foam and hand-bailing water to keep the engine compartment dry, but the damage proved too severe.
Around 1 p.m. New Zealand time, the crew activated an emergency beacon and issued a full mayday call. A Royal New Zealand Air Force P-8A Poseidon patrol aircraft was dispatched to search for the yacht, but as conditions worsened, the sailors prepared to abandon ship. By midnight, they deployed their life raft in calm seas under a full moon, cutting the tether as the yacht sank approximately 100 meters away.
The group remained in the life raft for about 18 hours before being rescued at 6 a.m. the following morning by the container ship MV Sofrana Surville, which is 143 meters long. The crew members were reportedly in good spirits after their ordeal, sharing coffee and conversation with the captain of the rescue vessel.
Visual footage from the New Zealand Defence Force shows the Tai Tam listing and sinking, followed by images of the crew aboard the rescue ship. Jeremy Cooper described the experience as “wonderful, wonderful, and just a terrible, terrible ending,” emphasizing the relief that no lives were lost.
The rare incident evokes historical parallels with several well-documented cases of sperm whales attacking vessels, including the sinking of the whaling ship Essex in 1820 off the Galápagos Islands. That event inspired Herman Melville’s classic novel "Moby-Dick." Similar attacks include the destruction of the Ann Alexander in 1851 and the Kathleen in 1902, when whales reportedly rammed sailing ships.
The sailors’ survival highlights both the potential dangers posed by large marine mammals and the effectiveness of emergency protocols in remote maritime regions. Authorities continue to monitor the area, and the crew's respective nations have been notified.