Many will know John Chatterton from his excellent History Channel series Deep Sea Detectives. He is also one of the guys I rode through West Bengal and Bhutan with back in October 1999. A small group of us on that trip got on so well, that we rode together again, doing Northern Thailand (including the "Golden Triangle") over Christmas 2001.
Debra and I were privileged to attend John and Carla's wedding in Nan, Thailand in 2002 and to have visited with them when they still stayed in New Jersey. On that occasion (in 2000, if I'm not mistaken), he lent me his Harley and we spent a fine weekend riding, eating, drinking and socialising. You can read more about the man on his website - including his dives on the Titanic and his discovery of the German submarine U-869.
On September 11, 2001, after the attacks on the World Trade Centre, I reached out to John (who I knew was working in New York) to find out if he was okay. This is his harrowing first-hand account of the catastrophy sent to me and Terry Clark, Managing Director of The Classic MotorCycle Magazine in the UK, who also rode Bhutan and Thailand with us. I posted it to my old website (with his permission) when I received it on September 14, 2001. Today is the eighth anniversary of 9/11 and so I though it would be appropriate to repost it to my blog.
Terry & Chris and Mark & Deb,
As of Tuesday, I was the diving supervisor for a commercial company doing bulkhead remediation work underneath the World Financial Center in New York City for the Battery Park City Authority. Parts of Battery Park City are built over the waters of the Hudson River, specifically over the train tunnels. The current phase of the job required that we dive from (two) access openings (5' x 10') adjacent to West St. and then out to a distance of about 900 ft to the west and under the WFC. The two access openings were directly across the street from WTC Tower #1, one across from the south face of the building and one from the north face. Behind us was World Financial Center. On Tuesday, inside the access and under the WFC itself, I had 4 tenders in two boats, about 500 feet in, and then 4 divers in at varying distances up to 400 feet beyond the remote tender's station. I had 3 men on the surface at the access opening.
I was going to put my wet suit on to make an inspection dive and take some measurements, but stopped to make a phone call in the office trailer. As I was talking, I heard a whoosh then an explosion, then a larger explosion. I opened the door of the trailer and stepped out to see the fireball coming out of the south side of Tower #1. To avoid the falling debris, I ran back into the trailer. As the debris stopped falling, I ran along West St. to the north access where my men were working. Along the way I passed innocent injured and dead caught unaware by the falling debris. Under the WFC, the divers were unaware of any problem, other than "a gust of wind". One of my topside men actually saw the plane hit the Tower. We hurriedly got all of the men out of the access and on the surface as quickly as possible, and completed the head count just as the second plane struck the south side of Tower #2. We evacuated the area towards the water (we ran like hell), and from a reasonably safe distance I saw both towers collapse, first Tower 2 then Tower 1. Just as the ensuing dust and debris clouds from Tower #1 were closing in, I was evacuated from the bulkhead by boat to New Jersey. The evacuation was very civilized, women, children, and the elderly being loaded first.
Yesterday, I returned to my former worksite. The damage is far more than you can ever comprehend from watching it on the small screen. I am certain that more buildings will collapse, or have to be torn down. Paper, small debris and dust are everywhere. The large debris is like a mountain range, and the rescuers like little ants. Hundreds of rescuers have already died in the original collapse, and the very dangerous rescue work continues without much conversation. Just the occasional nod of acknowledgement or necessary communication. No one says "good morning". Many of the rescuers are volunteers from New York's construction trades and they are working without pay. Some are police and firemen from neighboring areas.
As for my job, the car I left behind has just plain disappeared, like our crane, and a bunch of other equipment. Some pumps and compressors are still there, crushed and burned. Of the 4 trailers on site, I can only find the remains of two. My engineer's trailer was used as a command post by the Fire Department. When Tower 2 collapsed, the trailer and everyone in it was crushed. New York's top 4 firefighters were killed there. When the planes hit the buildings, they cut off possible escape for the people on the floors above. No one on the upper floors could possibly have survived. Some of the remains of these poor people have been recovered from where my job site was. The death toll will be thousands of fathers, mothers, daughters, sons, friends, firefighters, and policemen. We are a long, long way from resolution.
Right now in New York, we are sad and tired. Later, I assume we will be very angry.
Thanks for the kind thoughts.
John Chatterton
PS - Carla is stuck in Buenos Aires. Hopefully she will fly home tomorrow.
John posted me some of his photographs on October 1, 2001 (all photos © John Chatterton):
"My Job Site Pre Construction"
"After My Jobsite 9-13"
"My Job Site Fenced In"
"Looking at Tower 1 from Jobsite"
See more of John's 9/11 photos on his Facebook page.
Thanks again for sharing John. Thinking of you guys and hope to see you both soon.
Regards, MAlfaRK ©
No comments:
Post a Comment