Fishermen Forced Into Action After A Mysterious 'Blip' Appears On Radar
After Captain Chase Cornell spotted a "blip" on his charter boat's radar, he was delighted — at first. He figured the radar target meant his passengers were going to enjoy the perfect day for fishing. But when Cornell sailed further into the Atlantic Ocean to investigate, a shiver ran up his spine. Something had gone seriously wrong... and he was going to be forced into dramatic action.
Something strange at sea
Captain Cornell guided his boat 22 miles off the coast of Fort Pierce, Florida, to find the source of the "blip" on his radar. As he approached, he could see there was a strange shape bobbing above the waves. And, initially, he wasn't concerned. "Something like that floating in the water creates its own little ecosystem that attracts fish," Cornell told Field & Stream in February 2021. But there would be no fishing that day.
Plans averted
Fishing had in fact been the original plan. Earlier that day, Cornell climbed aboard a charter boat called Southern Eagle. He was to take three fishermen and two crewmates out into the Atlantic Ocean to catch blue marlin. Little did Cornell realize that it would be anything but an ordinary day of work.
Gone fishin'
Cornell's mates on the Southern Eagle were Robert Lynch and Jack Hendrix. The boat was a Viking convertible, about 52 feet in length. And Cornell's passengers actually included his boss — so they were all experienced on the waters. That's probably why they weren't alarmed by the radar ping at first. But then again, something wasn't quite adding up.
Getting down to business
"I knew it was something bobbing in the water," Cornell explained to Field & Stream. “The kiss of death out here is to run your boat into an 'iceberg' — a capsized vessel or shipping container." So when the captain saw the occasional ping on his radar, he started to slow down to investigate. The "something bobbing in the water" was about three-quarters of a mile away.
