He Lost His Twin 'to the Sea.' It Wasn't Going to Happen Again

Captain dives into frigid Alaska waters to rescue crew member after boat capsizes
By Jenn Gidman,  Newser Staff
Posted Jul 26, 2017 7:11 AM CDT

Coast Guard members aboard a helicopter and Good Samaritans on a nearby vessel watched in amazement as the captain of a fishing boat dove into frigid Alaska waters this week to pull off a risky rescue. Per the Alaska Dispatch News, water started flooding the Grayling, a commercial fishing boat with four crew aboard, in the Kupreanof Strait not far from Kodiak Island on Monday afternoon. Another nearby boat, the Calista Marie, hooked up to the Grayling and started towing it ashore, but for unknown reasons, the Grayling suddenly capsized, sending all four fishermen into the 47-degree water. Dale Pruitt, the captain of the Calista Marie, says his workers yanked one person out of the sea, while two others, including Grayling captain Christian Trosvig, pulled themselves onto the Grayling's skiff on their own. The fourth crew member, however, was nowhere to be seen.

About 20 minutes later, however, his head emerged, and a lifejacket-outfitted Trosvig immediately jumped into the water, swimming at least 50 yards to reach him, drag him onto the skiff, and administer CPR. One of the men in the chopper called the scene "incredible" in a Coast Guard statement. "It is a testament to how tough those fishermen are," he says, adding to KTUU that the waters that day were dangerous. The Washington Post, meanwhile, points out a Facebook post Trosvig put up Tuesday, which noted he'd lost his twin brother "to the sea." "It was not going to happen again," he wrote. "To God be the glory for giving the courage and strength to get my man out of the water." The rescued man was treated for hypothermia and breathing in diesel fuel; no other injuries were reported. (Nearly 50 people were rescued off Alaska's coast last year.)

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