Earlham College | News from Public Affairs

RICHMOND, Ind. — Earlham College sophomore Kara Fitzgerald knew that refugees fill boats everyday in hopes of leaving impoverished Haiti and finding better lives elsewhere. But, she never imagined that one of those tiny, overcrowded boats would change her own life so dramatically.

Kara Fitzgerald aboard the Corwith Cramer.

As one of 22 students and 11 crew members aboard the Corwith Cramer, a 134-foot steel brigantine owned and operated by the Sea Educational Association (SEA) of Woods Hole, Mass., Fitzgerald helped to rescue 51 Haitian refugees found adrift in the Caribbean just north of Jamaica on March 9. At the time, Fitzgerald and her SEA colleagues were sailing between Haiti and Cuba deploying scientific equipment — part of a semester-long research project at sea — when their ship’s lookout spotted a small boat with one mast. A man on board the small boat was waving a red flag.

“We could not move as our science equipment was down about 2,000 meters,” relates Fitzgerald, the telling of whose tale was delayed slightly until the Corwith Cramer’s recent return to port in Key West, Fla. “So, they paddled their little boat closer until it gently ran into our stern and broke its mast. We deployed some people in our little rescue boat to speak with them and see how we could help.”

Some of the 51 Haitian refugees rescued March 9 by the students and crew of the Sea Educational Association vessel Corwith Cramer. In the days and weeks since the mid-ocean rescue, the story of Earlham College sophomore Kara Fitzgerald and her shipmates has been reported by NBC Nightly News, ABC News, MSNBC, and the Boston Globe.

According to Fitzgerald, two of her fellow students aboard the SEA vessel were fluent in French and served as translators. The story the Haitians told was that they had been at sea for five days, bound for Jamaica in order to get jobs and make money. Their rudder had broken earlier in their voyage.

“I was amazed at how many people fit in their tiny boat, which was much smaller than 25 feet,” Fitzgerald says. “When we first saw them it looked like mostly men, but the men had lined the outside of the boat and the women and children were inside of them. They wanted to get on the ‘big boat,’ as they called it.”

After contacting the U.S. and Jamaican coast guards, it was determined that the Corwith Cramer was the only boat in the area available to make the rescue.

“Because there were undetermined health concerns and insufficient room below deck, our captain decided to keep the group of Haitians at the bow,” Fitzgerald recounts. “The children were boarded first, and there were two tiny infants among the 18 kids.”

The children were crying because they were hungry and thirsty, and the babies were without diapers, says the geosciences major from Teaneck, N.J.

“We brought them blankets and made them quite a large warm meal. Many of my shipmates gave away clothes and blankets and anything else useful because the refugees literally had nothing.”

“Early on in the rescue, I was in charge of lookout, keeping their boat near us while our captain and staff talked to the Coast Guard, SEA, and health officials to determine what our course of action would be,” says Fitzgerald. ”Then while the refugees were being loaded, I was at the helm with a few other students attempting to continue our normal routine and steer the boat. After they were settled, I helped with meal distribution.”

Following the meal, Fitzgerald says she was able to communicate with some of the refugees and discovered that one woman had made the dangerous crossing once before with another group, actually getting to Jamaica, but only to be deported back to Haiti. The woman was trying again, this time with her kids.

About 10 hours after the Haitians boarded the Corwith Cramer, which was in its fifth week of a six-week voyage, Fitzgerald reports Jamaican authorities escorted them off the ship at Port Antonio — but not before the refugees made a lasting impression on their young American rescuers.

“This was a life-changing event,” says Fitzgerald. “Being a part of helping these people is something that will stay with me for the rest of my life.”

Fitzgerald also says that SEA, a non-profit educational institution that offers deep-water scientific research programs for undergraduates, is trying to get the rescued Haitians into U.S. refugee programs, with the hope that in America they will have opportunities for bettering their lives.

Contact:
Denise Purcell, public affairs assistant
765/983-1323 — E-Mail Denise