Thread: What a Catch! You gotta read THIS!

Fisherman in Spain nets lost camera with pictures of QE2's final tandem crossing with Queen Mary 2 12 February 2010 - When standing on the deck of Cunard's Queen Mary 2 in October 2008, Mr. and Mrs. Gregory from South Africa were enjoying the spectacle of sailing alongside QE2 and capturing the view on camera when disaster struck as the camera was accidentally dropped into the Atlantic. At the time, both ships were off the south coast of Ireland over the Continental Shelf and the Gregorys understandably thought their holiday photos were lost forever.

That was until Benito Estevez, a Spanish fisherman who was trawling the ocean last month, discovered the lost camera in his net! While the camera itself was damaged beyond repair, the photo memory card was amazingly intact.

The fisherman contacted both Cunard and the BBC and the BBC managed to locate the couple in South Africa. The Gregorys have since been reunited with the camera and their photographs.

“In all my years in the travel industry I have never heard of such a heart-warming stroke of luck and we at Cunard are delighted that Mr. and Mrs. Gregory have been reunited with their photos,” said Peter Shanks, president of Cunard Line. “The images are even more poignant as they depict the last transatlantic crossing of the great QE2 and can never be taken again.”

I wonder about this. If this was a digital camera, the electronics in the memory card should have been fried by the exposure to sea water.

The fisherman posted on another forum trying to find the owners so I think it's true. Well I hope it is anyway.

The first post is straight from Cunard . . .

This is what the BBC have to say:

A couple who lost their camera when it fell overboard from a cruise ship have been traced after a trawlerman hauled the device from the Atlantic seabed.

BBC News - South African owners of camera found in sea traced

What a stroke of luck!

I like stories like this. A modern day message-in-a-bottle type event. Thanks for sharing. Lee

what an amazing story. I had read about it, and what are the odds of a fishman catching it in his nets, much less find the people who it belonged to. Thanks for posting the incredible endding!!

There was a link to the whole story on facebook, and reading it really made my day!

Good thing there are still good people out there.
God Bless Mr Estevez!

There ARE still good people out there. Some days, it just seems like they're hiding, but thy are there for sure.