Circumstances surrounding the rescue   Friday, 08/08/2025

In my main post yesterday I touched on the quality of the rescue operation: the fact that we were dealing with organisations whose basic competence was questionable. It has been pointed out to me that the homepage of GEOS’s website misspells their name as GOES… If you can’t even get your own name right… GEOS is known also as the Garmin Response Centre. When GEOS receives a SOS call, the Garmin Response Centre acts as the central hub for coordinating emergency response efforts. It is surprising that its performance of this coordination was unimpressive – Garmin after all is a very reputable maker of geopositioning devices. The GEOS service is offered through numerous service providers, including Garmin, Inmarsat and Iridium devices. It might therefore be considered to be a world leader. 

The main reason for this post is, however, to make very clear the role that both of my daughters played in the rescue. Anna was contacted by GEOS following my SOS call, because I had registered her as my primary backup and next of kin. She roped in Louisa. As Louisa has written in a series of WhatsApp messages to me: 

• Was trying to keep everything clear comms wise, me and Ania [Anna’s Polish diminutive name that we use] were coordinating
• Ania running comms was a star, and we were worried that something might happen with your tracking, so I used AI to write a script to auto save your coordinates every 30 mins to my Google, just in case something went wrong with the tracking of Manuka
• Zach, my American [friend in the US], was searching ships nearby – he’d spotted the United Grace a few hours before that was confirmed!
• I started using different equations to get new coordinates of ships that had outdated coordinates from a few hours prior… so was getting their last known knots, coords, bearings, and then calculating where they were likely to be
• Looked up Teal Bay and got its dimensions and calculated its turnaround time if it needed to! 
• It was a whole mission over in the UK 

Now, isn’t that extraordinary! Louisa and Anna were doing what a competent rescue organisation should be doing. The so-called professionals were left in the dust by two young women in England. They just happen to be Hamres! (Probably helps too that Louisa is a data scientist!). 

Interestingly, I had a message yesterday from the Indian captain of the United Grace. He wrote: “… Our prayers always with you. My regards to your daughter who made it possible for your rescue”. Isn’t that revealing? He is citing Anna. Unbelievable! The captain sent me these two navigation charts this morning…

In chart #1 you can see how the United Grace deviated from their straight route (Manuka is at the point of the small yellow arrow). Chart #2 is particularly revealing. You see the circles the ship made trying to get Manuka alongside. That is why it took 2.5 hours. I thought that it was quite extraordinary for a 292 metre ship to be executing such manoeuvres. I think that is why the captain is keeping in touch with me – it was the most extraordinary piece of navigation of his career. 

This opinion is confirmed by my old friend and colleague Trevor Jones in Durban. Trevor’s interest has for many years been maritime economics, and he is past professor and head of the Department of Economics at the University of KwaZulu Natal in Durban. In response to these two charts this morning his message reads: 

• This is quite remarkable Hans. A laden Capesize bulk carrier is very difficult to manoeuvre like this. Many of these vessel types are frankly quite under-powered for their full-load displacement. It’s a remarkable feat of seamanship that he pulled off here. Happily so! 

Again, isn’t that just fascinating? It gives a very useful perspective on what actually happened. 

And, finally, Anna has even been dealing with the British embassy in Lisbon, as well as the FCDO (Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office) in London. The local Cabo Verde people contacted Lisbon, and gave Anna’s number. There is no British embassy in Cabo Verde. Strangely, the locals tried to approach the British embassy in Senegal, which is of course a Francophone country. Senegal directed them to the correct place: the British embassy in Lisbon, which is responsible for not just Portugal, but Cabo Verde as well. I was offered whatever assistance they could provide.

I have responded to the Proconsul in Lisbon by thanking her warmly for their concern and stating that no assistance is necessary. I was also at pains to stress my admiration for, and thanks to, the Portuguese navy ship NRP Sines, and for the record, to the captain and crew of the United Grace. 

Anna says: 

• Yes, she was really friendly!
• And proactive, which was great. I actually had a great experience with the FCDO – in both the U.K. and through the embassy in Portugal, which was a surprise in full honesty, but it was pretty easy to get hold of them and they are very helpful! I told the Scottish guy I initially spoke to that he was the nicest person I’d spoken to in the last 24 hours! 

Rather nice to know that, unknown to me at the time, even the British authorities were on my side!