Montauk Lobsterman Who Survived Fall Into Sea Reflects On Fisherman Lost This Week

MONTAUK, NY — The news that a fisherman was lost this week brought back a sea of emotions for John Aldridge, the Montauk lobsterman whose miracle story of survival after being swept overboard is now the focus of a riveting new book and movie.

John Aldridge, who spent 13 hours in the waters when he was sent flying into the sea in 2013, said when he heard the United States Coast Guard had suspended the search Tuesday night for a missing fisherman who was last seen aboard a vessel 25 miles south of Montauk, it was cause for reflection.

The man missing this week was a 55-year old crewmember from the fishing vessel Miss Shauna who was last seen at 4 p.m. Monday, and who was not wearing a life jacket at the time.

For approximately 28 hours, a number of Coast Guard units, as well as fishing vessels from the community ran 22 search patterns and covered an area over 4,200 square miles, the USCG said.

The ordeal triggered a full range of emotions for a man who had survived similar terror.

"It was definitely weird to be on the other side of it, that's for sure," Aldridge said Thursday.

On the night the fisherman went missing, he was out on his own boat with his business partner and friend Anthony Sosinski . "We left at 6 p.m.," roughly two hours after the man was reported gone, Aldridge said. "We were looking, but it wasn't a good night. It was choppy, not a good night to be in the water, with the visibility the way it was."

Even on the way back, Aldridge said he kept searching, hoping for a sign. "We had the spotlight on and it was flat calm out, on the way home. I was the only one awake; it was my watch. And then, I heard the Coast Guard had suspended the search."

The feelings were all too familiar, he said. "It's weird, to be able to know what that guy went through, and then, to hear the search called off for him."

But the conditions were nearly impossible to survive, Aldridge said. "Unless he was a triathlete, there was no way he was going to live. The water was just too cold. He was 55 years old. Not a good situation at all."

The missing fisherman, Aldridge said, had been on a scallop boat but was new to the crew; most had only known him for two days and had just met him.

"It's such a fragile line we skate out there. In a split second, anything could happen."

"It’s such a fragile line we skate out there. In a split second, anything could happen. I never think of it that way, because it's beautiful out there, and it's your job. But one second, everything's great and the next, it's over and you're fighting for your life," Aldridge said.

He couldn't stop thinking, Aldridge said, of the family and friends who must be mourning the man lost at sea, knowing full well what his own family went through during his similar ordeal.

Just as when he went missing, fishing boats in Montauk joined the search, a band of brotherhood during the roughest of life's storms.

If fate had not intervened, if Aldridge had not realized his boots could be used as a flotation device, his own fate could have been tragically similar, he said.

"The boots," he said, changed everything — giving him hope. "Then the superhero kicked in," he said.

Aldridge still has the boots that saved his life.

His own harrowing ordeal and the man who lost his fight for life this week serve as a reminder, Aldridge said, that anyone on a boat should be wearing a personal flotation device.

"If he'd have had a life jacket on, all the time he was on the boat, someone would have found him," he said.

Too often, mariners are filled with a sense of false security on the water, Aldridge said. "Anybody can go buy a boat. Anybody who’s got a boat thinks they know how to drive a boat, just because they can get in their car and drive to the store. But when it starts to go down and you have to prove yourself, most people can't. So they shouldn't be in that situation — and they don't realize it until it's too late."

Wearing a life jacket should be as deeply ingrained as wearing a seat belt now is, and public education is critical, Aldridge said.

A story that's gripped a nation

Meanwhile, Aldridge has been sharing his own amazing story of survival, doing interviews and book signings. He'll be at Bookhampton in East Hampton on July 13 to share his amazing journey.

Telling his story has been not only therapeutic, he said, but it's also been uplifting to see how people respond to different parts of the books.

Hearing about this week's tragedy, Aldridge said while his own conditions were different, the water warmer, the seas not as erratic, the icy, cutting fear both men experienced had to have been the same.

"I know he felt the way I did. That fear and panic of disbelief, thinking, 'I can’t believe now I'm going to die,'" Aldridge said.

John Aldridge's story

The night of July 14, 2013 began much like any night for Aldridge, who set off with Sosinski on their boat, the Anna Mary, and headed out to sea under velvet skies.

But what happened next was far from ordinary. It was, in fact, an extraordinary tale of survival and perseverance, hope and faith — and the power of the indomitable spirit to overcome even the most seemingly insurmountable adversity.

Aldridge, going about his tasks for the evening, tried valiantly to move two heavy, ice-packed coolers, using a long-handled box hook over the plastic hook of the bottom cooler and pulling with all his might and weight.

When the handle snapped, sending Aldridge careening backward off and into the sea, 40 miles from shore, as his partner slept, unknowingly, below — life as Aldridge knew it changed forever.

What followed during the next 12 hours of Aldridge's desperate struggle to survive the elements, circling sharks, and an internal battle with fear and despair is a story so compelling and gripping that a new memoir chronicling that fateful night, "A Speck in the Sea: A Story Of Survival and Rescue," published by Weinstein Books, was released in May.

And there's a movie to follow, now in priority development with The Weinstein Company, along with screenwriter Jeff Pope and producers Rachael Horovitz and Jason Blum.

Aldridge, 45 years old at the time of the rescue, shared his amazing story with Patch recently, describing in heart-stopping detail the moments when he went sailing off his boat and into the most terrifying moments of his life.

To read that full story, click here.

Patch courtesy photo of John Aldridge and book cover.