Gilroy police captain and Hollister resident Scot Smithee
awarded Carnegie Hero honor
Scot Smithee may not have expected catastrophe when we went on
vacation to Hawaii with his wife, but it was exactly what was
diverted because of him.
Though the near-catastrophe happened two years ago last March,
he’s still being recognized for his heroism
– most recently with a $3,500 grant from the Carnegie Hero Fund
Commission.
Gilroy police captain and Hollister resident Scot Smithee awarded Carnegie Hero honor
Scot Smithee may not have expected catastrophe when we went on vacation to Hawaii with his wife, but it was exactly what was diverted because of him.
Though the near-catastrophe happened two years ago last March, he’s still being recognized for his heroism – most recently with a $3,500 grant from the Carnegie Hero Fund Commission.
A police captain in Gilroy, Smithee saved the lives of seven people who were on a chartered catamaran in Hawaii that flipped.
Smithee and his wife, Brenda, of Hollister, left Lahaina Harbor with the other guests aboard a 47-foot Paragon Sailing Charters catamaran for a snorkeling cruise with three other couples and two crewmembers. About two miles off Lana’i, a powerful gust of wind flipped the boat upside-down, trapping seven of the visitors in the overturned cabin with a small pocket of air. Smithee, who had been standing on the bow, was thrown free of the catamaran.
Two years after the fact, Smithee and his wife, Brenda, still recall that fateful day as if it were yesterday. They were on their way back from snorkeling near Lana’i and the captain was having trouble raising the sail because of strong winds. The captain used a cliff as a windbreak and put up the sail three-fourths of the way.
“When the waves started crashing, the captain told everyone to come back into the covered cabin area, but I wanted to stay out on the bow,” Scot Smithee said. “The waves kept getting bigger and bigger and wilder and wilder. I was really enjoying it.”
Finally, Brenda instructed the captain to force Smithee to return to the cabin. The first mate crawled out to where he was and forced him to come to the back of the boat with the rest of the people.
“So, at the back of the boat I still wasn’t inside the cabin, but was more protected. I was out with the captain and the first mate,” Smithee said. “The waves started crashing at an angle over the top of the boat. Most of the people weren’t scared, except one girl who couldn’t swim.”
No more than two minutes had passed since Smithee’s wife ordered him to the back of the boat when the sky turned into a wall of water.
“It just kept getting bigger and bigger. The boat was literally vertical and I could no longer hold on,” Smithee said. “I began to fall the entire length of the boat and would have hit the railing, but the boat moved at the last minute, sending me into the water.”
Smithee said that he was pushed underwater quite a way and had to assess which way was up.
“When I first surfaced I didn’t see the boat at all and I thought it had submerged, but after a minute I turned around and saw that it was upside down and saw the debris trail. I think the waves were like 12 to 15 feet at this point.”
Smithee began to swim toward the boat and started thinking about a television show he’d seen about people being separated from a boat in deep channels and not being able to get back aboard.
“I began freaking out a little,” he said. “I got back to where the boat was and with the help of the captain and the first mate managed to get back on the boat.”
He remembers finally hearing his wife’s muffled voice: “Where’s Scot?”
Brenda was submerged with the other passengers in the cabin and had about 18 inches of air space.
“Everyone thought Scot was dead,” Brenda said. “For the first 15 minutes we all thought he was gone.”
Climbing onto the hulls with the crew, Smithee tied several lengths of rope together. After securing one end of the rope to the stern, he grabbed the other end and swam back under the capsized boat to reach the cabin, which had begun to sink and fill with fumes from spilled fuel.
“At that next break of waves, we’d resolved we were gonna die,” Brenda said.
That’s when Smithee began his descent.
Patiently he coaxed one passenger after another to follow his rope to the surface. With just four inches of air remaining, Smithee was the last out of the cabin.
While they waited to be rescued, the stranded passengers and crew sat on floatation rings for almost three hours amid rough seas.
The group was eventually spotted by a Maui Fire Department helicopter about two miles south of Manele Bay. The helicopter left and flew three or four miles to where a fishing boat Kekahi was on a charter.
The helicopter hovered nearby and signaled the fishing boat to follow. The Navy and Coast Guard also dispatched crews from Honolulu.
Smithee accompanied the passengers one by one as they swam in choppy water to reach rescuers in the fishing vessel. Again, he was the last one out of the water.
It wasn’t until the next morning that it all sort of sank in. Though he sustained no major injuries because of his ordeal, Smithee had many bruises and a swollen arm. A Pennsylvania woman suffered a broken collarbone and a slight concussion in the ordeal.
The following night, the Smithees organized a dinner with their fellow passengers. In addition, that first year they kept in extensive contact with everyone.
“Now we send emails at Christmas and New Year’s, but we’re still in more contact with a couple from Oregon. We’d still like to go and visit them at some point.”
Smithee has also been recognized with the Coast Guard’s Gold Lifesaving Award, the service’s highest honor in lifesaving.
The Coast Guard medal has been awarded just 681 times in the service’s history.
“An admiral with the Coast Guard flew to Gilroy and presented it to me at work,” Smithee said. “He said that he’d only ever seen three such medals and two were in museums.
As a reminder of the ordeal, he has a framed photo taken on the boat on his wall next to photos of his wife and children. The photo was taken one hour before they capsized.
The Carnegie Medal for heroism fund was established in 1904 by Andrew Carnegie to recognize those in North America who risk their lives “to an extraordinary degree” while saving or trying to save others.
