Four divers rescued at sea reunite with their lifesavers in Wilmington

NEW HANOVER COUNTY, NC (WWAY) — It was a rescue at sea, against all odds.  

Two months after four divers were saved off the Cape Fear Coast, they exchanged handshakes and hugs with the Coast Guard rescue crews who brought them home.  

There were endless thank you’s and smiles, that one family member said could’ve been lost at sea forever. But that wasn’t the case and on Thursday both the crew and divers live to tell that tale. 

“By purely a miracle of God we were rescued and today we got to come down to Wilmington and meet the very crew that spotted us floating in the ocean at 1 a.m.,” Diver, Dan Williams, said. 

At Modern Aviation in Wilmington, divers Ben Wiggins, Luke Lodge, Dan Williams, and his son, Evan, reunited with the people who saved their lives on August 14th.  

The divers had drifted off course and had been floating freely for nearly 17 hours off the coast of Holden Beach.  

Williams said giving up wasn’t an option. 

“To persevere and survive. So, that’s really what we were thinking up to that point and obviously praying for a miracle and that miracle came,” Williams said. 

Ben Wiggins said at the time, staying focused and positive, were vital tools in this involuntary game of survival.  

“We will be found, I just kept repeating that over and over and over. I said keep that mindset and we did,” Wiggins said. 

The Coast Guard credited the success of the rescue to the teamwork between the command center and air and water crews.  

Corrie Sergent is the Deputy Sector Commander at Sector North Carolina. She said rescues like this is why she does her job.  

“It’s definitely why we join the Coast Guard is to save lives and to bring people back to their families safe. So, that’s the feeling that you get when you get to do that,” Sergent said. 

Wiggins said remembering survival techniques helped keep them alive, things like discarding their spears as a safety measure to keep them from piercing a diver, which would draw blood, and potentially lure sharks.  

He said more than anything else, the experience of being found is one he will never forget.   

“I can’t tell you the feeling of jubilation when the raft hit the water with such impact that we could hear it and hear it inflating and then be escorted on board throughout the ship and treated like lost long sons and daughters. It was amazing,” Wiggins said. 

The rescue crew said if it weren’t for the SOS strobe light that was used by the divers, the story may have ended differently. 

They once again reiterate the importance of having the proper equipment when it comes to activities in or on the water.