Physical Address
304 North Cardinal St.
Dorchester Center, MA 02124
On November 23, 2022, 28-year-old James Michael Grimes from Valley, Alabama, boarded the Carnival Valor cruise ship in New Orleans with about 17 family members. The trip was meant to be a Thanksgiving getaway. Within hours of boarding, that plan collapsed into one of the most dramatic survival stories in modern maritime history.
The Night He Disappeared
That evening, Grimes was seen enjoying the ship’s activities. He had been drinking alcohol and even won an air-guitar contest earlier in the night, earning a free drink. According to his own account, he left a bar to use the restroom and remembers nothing after that.
By the following morning, Grimes’s sister reported him missing when he failed to meet the family. Carnival staff conducted searches aboard the ship, but when they couldn’t locate him, the U.S. Coast Guard was notified.
Alone in the Gulf of Mexico
Grimes later said he woke up in open water with no memory of falling. The ship was gone. The only sound was the sea.
He described the shock of realizing he was alone, with no flotation device and no land in sight. He began treading water, alternating between floating and swimming to stay alive. He estimated that he was in the water between 15 and 20 hours, depending on the report.
During that time, Grimes endured blistering sun exposure, jellyfish stings, dehydration, and hallucinations. He recounted seeing what looked like a shark’s fin circling him in the dark. Despite the pain and fear, he stayed conscious, driven by a single thought: his nine-year-old daughter.
“I wasn’t giving up. I wanted to see my little girl again,” Grimes later told Good Morning America.
The Coast Guard Rescue
On November 24, 2022—Thanksgiving Day—the U.S. Coast Guard located Grimes. A cargo vessel had spotted a person in the water, triggering an aerial search. Coast Guard aircraft found him and hoisted him out of the Gulf of Mexico. Officials said he was minutes away from losing consciousness.
Grimes was taken to a hospital in New Orleans, where he received treatment for dehydration, jellyfish stings, and severe fatigue. He spent several days recovering before returning home.
Aftermath and Reflection
Grimes later called his survival a “baptism” and said the experience strengthened his faith. In interviews, he expressed deep gratitude toward the Coast Guard and called his rescue “a miracle.”
“I just kept thinking, there’s a reason I’m still here,” he told People Magazine.
His story spread rapidly across global media, both for its mystery—how he went overboard remains unknown—and its rarity. Falling from a cruise ship is almost always fatal. The odds of surviving for 20 hours in open water, with no flotation device, are statistically near zero.
What Remains Unknown
No video footage of Grimes’s fall has been publicly released. Carnival confirmed the incident but did not disclose how or where he went overboard. The Coast Guard has not published a detailed report explaining the mechanics of his disappearance, leaving questions unanswered.
Still, the known facts remain extraordinary: a man vanished from a cruise ship, fought the sea for nearly a full day, and lived to tell the story.
Sources
- ABC News / Good Morning America – “Carnival cruise passenger who went overboard was ‘dead set’ on surviving.”
- Associated Press – “Cruise passenger who fell overboard recalls experience.”
- People Magazine – “Dad Who Fell Overboard on Cruise Says Thinking About Daughter, 9, Saved Him.”
- CBS News – “Carnival cruise passenger who went overboard rescued.”
- WVTM 13 – Local follow-up on hospital stay and recovery.
