Scouts’ action merits more than a badge

Deepa Bharath

It was supposed to be a lesson in seamanship for the 13 high school

students who were on board the tall ship Argus last weekend.

All they were going to do was sail to Avalon, enjoy the good

weather and an ice cream or two.

But that afternoon, nature decided to toss aside her kid gloves.

And what the sea scouts got was a lesson that was as real as it gets.

The group of young people from San Diego, with a little help from

the captain and crew, rescued a lost scuba-diver who had been

floating in the ocean for four hours.

This had been a “special” group from the time they left on their

weekend voyage, said Fred Bockmiller, captain of the Argus, which

docks at the boy scouts’ Newport Sea Base.

“They had an unusual trip from the start,” he said.

First, the hydraulic device that hoists the anchor failed and the

boys had to hoist the heavy, iron anchor themselves. Then, on their

trip, they saw a pack of Rizzo dolphins, which was also a rare sight.

The seas were enveloped by fog during the Argus’ return journey

Sunday afternoon, Bockmiller said.

“We had our sails up,” he said. “We heard loud horn signals and

saw two large ships on the radar.”

They changed course to dodge the oil tankers. That’s when the fog

lifted and Zack Mayberry, one of the trainees on the ship, spotted

neon green balloons on the water at about 2:30 p.m.

As soon as Bockmiller determined that there was someone in the

ocean, he called on everyone to carry out the Man Over Board, or

M.O.B. drill.

“Everyone worked as a team and did what they had to do,”

Bockmiller said.

The man in the water was Dan Carlock, a scuba diver from Long

Beach, who had somehow gotten lost and wandered about 10 miles away

from where he had started. When the Argus found him, he was wearing a

wetsuit and was in the early stages of hypothermia, Bockmiller said.

“We brought him aboard, got him into dry clothes and gave him some

food,” he said.

Carlock was taken back to shore by U.S. Coast Guard officers,

Bockmiller said. He could not be reached for comment on Tuesday.

The mood in the Argus could be described as one of “elation,”

First Mate Al Sorkin said.

“The word many people are using to describe our experience is

serendipity,” he said. “We were not doing what we would’ve normally

been doing. We had veered off our course and the odds of actually

spotting the man in the water were very, very slim.”

Bockmiller said he was ecstatic that Carlock managed to survive.

“Everyone had their adrenaline pumping like crazy,” he said. “I’ve

been on the Argus for 25 years. It’s the first time we’ve rescued

anyone.”

* DEEPA BHARATH covers public safety and courts. She may be

reached at (949) 574-4226 or at deepa.bharath@latimes.com.