The American Captain

0:00 Hey, listeners, this is Dan Baltimore ahead of podcasts for Voyage Media. Season two of Allegedly is coming up, but between season one and season two, we wanted to get you this mega episode. It's longer than our usual episodes and it's just an incredible story of survival of a regular person thrown into a remote prison, not knowing if he'd ever get out. This is the American Captain. This is film and television producer Chris Goldberg. In my job, I often get to meet people whose incredible true stories should be a movie, from Private Eyes to Mossad spies and undercover agents. But the guy I'm speaking to you today, Michael Churchward, aka the American Captain, might have one of the craziest stories I've ever heard. And all started in the nineteen nineties and the Mediterraneum. Michael was a captain of a private mega yacht.

0:48 Alongside his partner in life, Stephanie, who is chef on board the vessel, we found ourselves managing and running one of the most glamorous exclusive meggiots in the world, which involved a great deal of wealth pageantry that was unimaginable. She was a little over two hundred feet beautiful, beautiful, beautiful boat with all the toys and bells and whistles that comes with having one of the exclusive Meggiots and quite frankly the busiest Meggiott at that time in the world. Our homes were made up of ports of call like Monte Carlo, can all up and down the south of France, the Greek Godance, throughout the Mediterranean, and mister r who owned the Pecante, was one of a kind and he was of incredible wealth. He was a billionaire, but you wouldn't have known it. As I got to know him, I immediately click with him.

1:51 He said, Michael, you're going to work for me, but the crew will work for you. That ship will be yours to command. That will be your responsibility. I'll send it where I want, but you run the ship. And for him to say that was beautiful. That's what I wanted. In the summer months, we were cruising the Greek Audience with guests on board. We dropped off our first group of guests in the island of Mickinos. Our itinerary at that time was to make our next landfall on the west coast of Turkey in the port of Kushanasi, a young the Turkish port authority board of the gangway then was held up by my first officer, but he wanted to speak to the captain. And I remember being really annoyed because I was really tired and irritable from an overnight sale. But I marched down the gangway. Stephanie was right there. She sounded alarmed a little bit, and I said, it's okay, don't worry about it. I got this from the with these people. I know them, they know me. I went up to the ship's safe. We have a wat one hundred dollars bills.

3:07 Just knowing and just knowing and familiar with these foreign ports of call, that it just might be needed to let us go about our business and on our way. The Turkish PortMaster, who once again I had known and had known me for years in it coming in and out of these ports, felt very very uncomfortable detaining me. They weren't sure what was going on. He would not tell me why I was being detained. He whispered to me, Michael, you are going before a magistrate. You're being arrested, and they're going to hold you. And I said for what what are you talking about?

3:51 What have we done? And I will say this right now. Stephanie had learned through the years of sailing around the world with me, not only was she our chew fought board, but she was the gate keeper for me and really really protected by well being. I handed to the money. I gave her some instructions. I said, this will all clear itself up. Just keep the crew and together, get prepared for the next guests. It'll sort of self out, I'm sure by tomorrow, and phone mister r our owner. Get a hold of him immediately at what she did. Now, for legal reasons, we have to tell you this is an episode of allegedly.

4:31 Because of when and where this all occurred, we could not independently verify all the elements of this story. So this is a true story allegedly. It's Michael's personal account of what happened to him. To protect the innocent and not so innocent, you'll hear us bleep out some real names. The next morning I was told that the American consulate was coming down. One was a pretty young girl, Turkish American girl called who was very concerned, very sweet in her demeanor, but business life. I liked her immediately, but then there was her other partner from the American Consulate, a man named and Honestly, I don't want to sound nasty, but I could tell immediately, not just from his physical looks, was which was just to be kind, repulsive.

5:30 He was unkept, he was ungroomed. Quite frankly, he was he was not an attractive man. But the minute he opened his mouth, I just went, oh no. He immediately had a demeanor and an attitude that automatically thought that I had done something wrong. And he said, You're going to prison. You're going to prison for forty days. Nothing I can do. We got to catch the bus back to Yazmer. I freaking, what the fuck are you talking? I literally got him up against the wall and just trying to hold my temper. Says, where you're not going anywhere? What the hell is going on? He says, there's nothing I can do.

6:10 You're going before a magistrate today. They are going to hold you for forty days. They came to get me. I was taken in front of this inside this gothic, smelly old building. I stood in the middle of the courtroom, and by this time the port police had replaced by a whole different group of armed military guards with machine guns and so forth. I was not handcuffed. I was still still in my boat uniform. And I looked up at this judge, big black robe, but he had this high color of red some kind of apparatus wrapped around the back of his head. And I just was mesmerized at looking this. If it didn't look so in the stury, it might have been comical. The only words I could understand where Circuit Prison, Sircuy's Prison started stamping, slamming the stamp on the desk, American captain Sircuate Prison. Boom boom boom. Before I knew it, the guards had grabbed me, shackled me, and dragged me out of the courtroom.

7:25 Stephanie is trying to speak and yell and scream. I was sowing in the back of this tiny, little foreign automobile of a minivan with two other Turkish prisoners, and I could see up the back window as we pulled away. I'm looking out the back window and I caught Stephanie's face just and her green eyes, her crystal green eyes just welling up with tears, and I just let out a giant mom and I mean, we're talking at bellow that way deep came from weight don you've inside. We finally arrived at the military prison, Circain military prison, and I could hear a bunch of screaming and shouting at Turkish just sitting there huddled outside this office door, in this concrete building, sitting on the concrete floor. Dingy, dirty, hot, grimy, all the adjectives that you could even imagine. The stale smell just permeated the whole area, and to the point where it almost made you gag. There was like a single light bulb hanging just as you could pitch as dingy us it could be. And sitting at the desk was the command It was hot,

8:56 steamy, no air conditioning, and the Turkish military guards all had these stained, grimy, sweaty uniforms on. And there were three guards standing behind me, big sinister looking just as you can imagine. And the commanants set up the desk and he started saying something in Turkish, and he looked up smiled at me in this wolfish, weird, freaking grin. That instant is when I absolutely knew and felt the danger I was in. All of a sudden, I realized I was in real, real, real, trouble, and then he screamed and shouted something in Turkish. I assumed they wanted me to take my shirt off. I didn't. I wasn't doing it fast enough.

9:41 And these three guards grabbed me so violently, ripping my shirt off, had me down, ripped my pants off, slammed me against the rick wall, cracked my head, stunned me, and before I knew it, they had my legs at and all I could see, all I could see and hunting. All I could see is just the one Turkish guard putting on the plastic glove and I'm screaming, and I'm screaming at the top of my lungs, and yet I remember thinking later I wasn't even hearing myself scream. It was almost a conscious blackout. After a few beatings, hard blows and of course the infamous fucking Turkish strip search, which by the way, believe me, they were experts at it, and I endured it, and the next thing I know, that picked me up. I could barely even stand, and I just remember looking up at the Turkish commandant sitting at his desk and thinking, through that smile, I've never experienced that kind of emotion before.

10:48 No question. If I could have, I would have killed him right there. Anyway, I was taken through the courtroom into the Turkish cell and all I could do is I just clasped. I just remember feeling stunned and trying to get a grip on the reality of where I was from, just literally not more than twenty four hours earlier, being the captain of one of the most luxurious megiots in the world, sitting in this dungeon of a hell hole, it was literally a hole in the ground, sixteen Turkish prisoners screaming at me in a foreign language. The impact to my psyche was staggering, and right then I kind of understood this was going to be survival and literally nothing else but pure survival. As Michael settled into military prison life, amazingly, he still had no idea what he was being detained for or why he was arrested. Finally, Stephanie was able to get in and hey a visit, and she was only able to see me through a small barred opening in the wooden door. Being able to see her face, I could those tearful eyes just crushed me. But she was able to convey to me what mister r had found out and where this all originated. The arrest warrant was an Interpol

12:20 warrant originating Increase some six to seven eight years earlier from and as soon as she couldn't even get it out of her mouth because she didn't understand. But the minute she said it, I knew what it was like. Some crew are bad, some owners are bad. Went to work for a Greek owner, real bad guy, and I was warned against him, but I took the job and he ended up sending us to the Caribbean. But unmknownst to me and it was proved out he was a criminal, and he set me up and accused me and the crew of stealing his boat. He had set me up with I'm insurance scam, and that's where the inner Pol warrant originated.

13:03 It was always there, never disappeared, and I had sale all around the world with that in place, and never once was detained until now. But finally realizing why he was in prison didn't make things much easier. It would be a battle to clear his name in a very different system than what Michael was used to in America. As the days passed inside Sirgay Prison, the military compound under absolutely squalor conditions, Stephanie was able to set up shop in Turkey. She was not going to leave me, got a little place to stay in a little dungeon, little hotel near the prison she was taking long attack. He rides in the middle of nowhere with the promise of my release for of course, the cost of American US dollars. The danger she faced, everybody was pulling on her here and there, and I couldn't stop worrying endlessly night and day about what she was going through. But she was desperately, desperately trying to find us a lawyer that could communicate and navigate the judicial system, which did not exist. And it is not like anything we have it in America. There is no such thing as due process. And one Stephanie did find his lawyer, Michael, was not exactly impressed by what he saw. And I'm not even sure how to begin with this, but

14:33 she was in her forties, very plump and bust to us, with red lipstick, spiked high heels. When I first got when she first came to see me to tell me how much she was going to help me, I just went, oh, my god, you had got to be kidding me. But we had paid her forty eight thousand dollars, which, believe me, set her up for life in Turkey. And within five minutes I was shaking my head. I go no, no, and just talking to myself this this, this is this is a fake. This is not real.

15:16 She proceeded to tell me how many people she knew, how well she was connected, and that she would have me out in three days, three days. Michael, you will be out. Three days, you will be out, and I just go no way, no way. She could not get me out. I was not released in three days. Again, after several weeks, Uh Stephanie was able to get inside inside again to see me. She had was wearing the Muslim gear you know of the Muslim women, and that's how she had she had to blend in. When I saw her face, I just my heart sunk. She was gone. She was real thin.

15:56 And the fortieth day had arrived. They could only hold me forty days. Everybody was looking forward to it. And after the day after that fortieth day came and went, I was not released. I was devastated, looking at her face, crying. I just I couldn't help, but just whispered harshly to her, but lovingly as best I could, communicating to her. Stephanie get home. It was soon after that Stephanie finally left for the United States. Then the word came that through the grapevine, the prison grapevine, that I was being transferred to Bougia Prison is Mere Turkey. And I knew nothing. I hadn't known anything about it. But the other inmates, and particularly one was frightened for me. He made it very known, shaking his head that no, no, no, you know, he was so so worried about me being transferred to Bouzia Prison. They wanted to get rid of me and get me out of there, and they thought they could hide me by sending me to the most infamous prison practically on the planet. I learned later it was number three on the Human Rights hit list for human rights violations.

17:25 It is Mere Turkey, was a maximum security lockdown. Down through this dark, filthy maze of tunnels, literally underground, going through large heavy steel mock gates. I think I counted eight or nine steel gates that we passed through, and it got darker in danger and wetter. Prisoners I could hear starting to scream and chant that was as I was being shoved and prodded with the black batons, the big thick turkey black batons, and I'm screaming inside my head. I go no. I mean, I knew immediately with every fiber of my body this was a bad, bad place. I mean, by this time I was a little bit hardened, but I didn't quite quite understand where I was going and what I was doing until we got to the last cell gate, big heavy cell gate, and they opened it up standing.

18:30 Right there, right at that last cell date, was this tall, handsome I later learned Iranian prisoner with this flowing gown on including slippers, who spoke the most perfect words of like Oxford English, Welcome, captain, welcome. I was stunned. I couldn't even speak. He just come with me, we have a place for you. And all around him, scampering all around him were these prisoners, other prisoners in rags, and just like these scallywags. He escorted me, and he had two concubines at work that he looked after, two young boys that waited on him a hand and foot.

19:19 He would invite me in for tige. He wasn't an art thief in Beverly Hills, incredibly wealthy. He was one of the premier opium smugglers out of the hills of Afghanistan. He had connections, huge connections from the outside which took care of the guards families, enabling them to smuggle everything he needed to exist comfortably in there, and he shared it with me. He shared his wit, his knowledge, and he knew everything going on in the prison system, including all about me. He would tell me things that were happening in the newspapers and the media about me that I was unable to hear about because I had no content. One of the things this colorful and memorable prisoner told Michael was that his old friends at the American Consulate were on their way to the prison to see him. And I quickly asked, can I get a piece of paper from you? And I wrote, I hadn't written note to the consulate that I was going to try to smuggle out, just to get back to Stephanie to tell them somehow, some way what was happening to me and what I was experiencing. And I did just sat I was able to sit down next to our across from her, and of course a Turkish guard prison guard set right at the at the entrance to the door, and I was able to have a one on one with Jean. The look of concern

20:55 on her face when she saw me hit me with like a ton of bricks. I didn't really lies what I had transformed into and what I was looking like. I'm sure I'd look like some kind of beaten animal to her, but she wanted to quickly, wanted to try to have some kind of conversation about niceties. Are you okay? Do you get enough t get? I got stop? I fucking I told her to stop. I don't give a fuck about the niceties. What are you doing? What are they doing to get me out of here? I Am going to die in here. And I said to her with a whisper, I've said I'm gonna slip. I'm gonna underneath. I'm gonna I've got a letter. You gotta get it to Stephanie and mister R please just take the letter. And she agreed to so under the table, I tried to slip to her this letter and she grabbed it and she got it. And in that minute, thinking that the guard was half asleep, he wasn't. He saw it and boom, he screamed at her, screamed at me in Turkish. Other guards came in and escorted me out, and that was the end of that meeting. And then of course that led the solitary confinement. That's right, solitary confinement. As if things couldn't get any worse for Michael, and literally my darkest, darkest hour, I definitely thought, is this really how I die? A depression hit

22:29 me that was so heavy it ate as I later, as I sat in solitary deep despair, was briefly was able to get in to see me briefly through a crack, a crack in mont of the cell block, and he told me literally whispered to me, captain, you're going to be leaving here soon. You're going to And I tried to crawl over and hear it, and I go, what you are leaving here soon? Which just stunned me. Within twenty four hours, the extra extradition had started. Turkey could not did not want to take any more pressure from the international community by holding me there at Bouga Prison. They wanted me out, so that extradition process started once again. Paraded back up through the dungeon and the screams and the American captain then this, and at that point I had survived it. I knew I was moving forward, although I was terrified, but I felt a sense of a bit of respect by the Turkish guards, the inmates that I had survived that place, and I was moving forward and being extra tited to Greece, and through the hard work of Stephanie and many others, mister r the State Department, so many people, I was able, as a foreigner to get a trial date incredibly quick in the Greek system. And when I tell

23:59 you, a courtroom in Greece is like nothing most Americans could possibly understand. There were several trials going on at once. The screaming and the shouting, and the and the chaos of being we were being interrupted by other lawyers from other trials and so forth. But I stood firm in front of a three judge tribunal. I finally got to a court to where all the hard work by everyone could show this these judges, this tribunal, that I was innocent. I had all the documentation, everything to prove that I did not do this, and I thought I would be released that night. And that's that was my mindset going in uh. And it started off well, they were speaking great, stamping papers as they do, lawyers, screaming at each other, back and forth and uh. And then my intern, her standing right next to me, was whispering. A female was whispering in my ear.

25:06 On the first count of major theft, innocent, acquitted, and I'm calling and I'm looking around back at Mark and Stephanie. I'm smiling, my lawyer is smiling. I'm going okay, second cut of major whatever it was, the charges I've made up, acquitted. I was found innocent, innocent, innocent. Then it came to the last charge, of which was a misdemeanor of mischief, misdemeanor mischief guilty. I looked at her and I go, okay, all right, I'll pay a fine, just get me out of here, give me out, and she and she just looked at me with her face just dropped. Three years, three years in prison for a fucking misdemeanor. I screamed at amongst all this chaost off the high ceilings, I scream of no, just bellowed and echoed, and I literally became delirious in my anger. I could feel Mark and Stephanie trying to reach me and grabbed me as the guards just once again grabbed me, shackle me, escorted me to a small area waiting room, and then towards the end of the day, I finally was able to speak to my lawyer, who initially tried to be optimistic, and Michael, you won your case. You're going You're going to be out. You'll be out with time served. You'll be out in

26:36 ten months, less than a year. I looked at him with a look that said it all, and I just whispered venomously to him, you can find a way to get me out. I don't care what it takes, what it costs, find another way to get me out. And I told him I will not survive. I will die in this prison. You gotta get me out. And he looked at me a little bit, with a little bit of a frightened look, and he said, Michael, we may have one more chance, one more chance. I'll come to see you in a while. I'm not sure when, but I will come to see you.

27:18 I was taken back to myself, obviously crashed and burned. I just hung in myself, didn't leave it for a few days, but I finally mustered up enough energy to fight. The all dangerous, chaotic, definitely dangerous phone lines. Are five payphones on the wall, with all these outlaws of inmates behind you, getting in line and screaming and shouting. And finally I got to one of the payphones, calling long distance collect and I reached Stephanie. Her voice on the other end, and I heard a slight whisper, whisper, go, Michael, are you okay? I could tell something was different in her voice, something even her the way the words she used were different. And I said, Stephanie, are you okay? Are you okay?

28:08 And I'm cupping the receiver, trying to talk with her ten thousand miles away, and she said it, She said it, and it hit me like nothing else had hit me. Michael, I am having an affair. And from that point I went numb. I couldn't hear anything else. I've just dropped the receiver, made my way back through the fricken outlaw gangs of inmates behind me, and trashed and burned again in myself. And then a couple of days later, one of the old boys, an old boy doing life in prison for killing his business partner, and I always enjoyed his company, always had little bits of prison wisdom. Decided he was going to pay me a visit, came into my cell and told me, so, Michael's it's prison unwritten prison knowledge that a girlfriend's only last a year. Maybe wives might last a year and a half, but they all will leave. It's your circumstance that you have to be worried about. And I just I just looked up shaking my head. Here I was. I caught myself. I had to smile briefly because he was a likable old boy, but I had I just caught myself listening to what he was telling me. Here I was taking wisdom from from some old inmate doing life for murder, and and I

29:40 just shook my head. Oh my god, but it hit home. It hit home, and I tried to regroup. Okay, after about three weeks, I finally get worried through it that my lawyer was going to come to see me. And he had a big smile, and there was a part of me that liked him. He had a sharp suit on, but he was a little bit crooked. Why I needed him. He proceeded to tell me, Michael, we're we're going to appeal, and it's a gamble if we appeal, there's the gamble that they could give you more time. But that's our only last chance of getting you out of here. Now. No foreigners ever released on appeal, never ever, ever, But maybe we might have a shot. We might have a shot to get you out of prison.

30:23 But you will have to wait and be monitored for about a year a year and a half until your appeal court day. And I looked at left my lawyer, and I said, do it, do it, whatever it takes. And as we were just separating, and I look back and I go, how much is it going to cost? And he said, oh, seven grand, seven thousand dollars And I just sho, okay, I'll get Stephanie to give you the money. She will send you the money we need to make this happen. Well, then I knew I had to get a hold of Stephanie. I hadn't talked to her since to day. She had told me that she was having an affair, which is crushed and hurt me. But I needed to get ahold of her once again. The waiting line for the five pay phones on the cement wall that we're backed up by one hundred inmates, all screaming at the top of their lungs, you know, to get to each pay phone, all monitored and guarded and regulated by the Albanian gangs. And it was treacherous. It was fricking dangerous to wait in line, but I had to do it. And you only got two minutes, two minutes once you connected, and they were strict about it.

31:37 I finally reached that ten thousand miles across the ocean. I hear the soft voice of Stephanie and she gets on the line and I'm cupping the receiver. The gang of outlaws are just crazy noise behind me, screaming and chounel. I'm huddling down, and I told Stephanie, Stephanie, I'm gonna get out there. I'm gonna They're going to appeal. I need to get you need to send seven thousand dollars to kill our lawyer. He's going to bribe the judge. They are going to let me out. They will release me on appeal. There was dead silence on the other end, and I go, Stephanie, can you hear me? Because Michael, we can't pay any more money. You know that this is a con. They're gonna con you again.

32:22 I go, Stephanie, They're going to get me out. I will be able to get out of this prison. And I could, and my time was getting up. I could feel them screaming and shouting behind me, all in a foreign language. I just huddled down at the receiver right here, right at my mouth, and I just remember, with a fricking, strong, venomous hiss, I've just said, Stephanie, you fucking send that seven thousand dollars, and you send it today. And I could hear the noise behind me, and just send the angu who was the enforcer for the Albanian gangs, this big monster, the most feared guy in the prison.

33:07 He was the enforcer for the phones hired by the Albanian gangs. He had hit the payphone, my payphone in front of me, had hit it from the side and had literally exploded off the wall, exploded. Nothing mattered in that moment, and I just remember clutching it. I didn't want to let go of the phone until I heard Stephanie say, okay, okay. I went to that place where I was absolutely not afraid to be hurt, and I reckon screamed at the top of my lungs and inch away from his face, holding this fucking phone receiver, telling him in English, which he didn't understand a word, that I would stick it up his ass so far he'd be speaking to it on the other end. He took a step back, and he looked at me and looked around. I don't know, I think later I realized he might have sound that saw that I would come lately insane, and I didn't care, and he made his way back through the crowd and walked away. A couple of days later, after the manga incident, that I came to myself and I could tell he wanted to scold me, but he actually had some really incredible news through the grape fine. As he always found out, my lawyer had got word to him to get to me that he had received the seven thousand dollars and that my appealed date court date had been set for two more weeks. I just was elated, elated,

34:44 although I knew he was trying to temperate, and he said it usually doesn't work. It almost never worked with a foreigner. So the day arrived, I ended up being escorted out up to another court in front of another judge, and this time it was a single judge, and there were a lot of men, maybe thirty guys inmates, all sitting there, all mostly Greek, all sitting there and each one being called. All I heard all day long was I took about an hour and a half, hawky, hawky, Greek for no, no, no. I heard my name called, and my lawyer stands up and he's looking at me, and he wasn't all that happy, but I I was as nervous as could be. And the next thing I know, the judge a big giant stamp on the desk, nay nay, and said a bunch of other words. And I looked at my lawyer and he's got this giant grin. I'm going, yes, yes, you're you're out. You're out. They agreed, they agreed to let you out. An appeal. I couldn't believe it. I couldn't believe when the judge actually granted me release. Well, the conditions of this release were serious.

35:57 My passport would be would not be given back to me. I would have no passport. I was instructed more more like ordered not to leave the country at all, and I was to be check into the police station every week, to be monitored and checked on to make sure I did not leave that country. But I was finally getting out of the prison, and I knew once I was out, I could possibly implement my plan. But they were strict, strict orders. If I made any effort, any effort at all, to leave the country, I would be arrested and thrown back into prison. But none of that mattered to me. None of it mattered to be. I knew I had to get myself home. I knew I couldn't spend one more day in prison. I would either die or be killed.

36:46 There is no question about it. I had to get myself home. I didn't tell my lawyer, nobody, nothing, what I had planned to do. I immediately went to the American Embassy, which was downtown Athens, saluted the marine guards. They let me in and U and I will tell you when I walked into the American Embassy and escorted into the department, every single person one they knew of me. Of course, it had been in the news and had been talked about for a year. I'm just so grateful how they treated me. They treated me like a celebrity. They asked me if I was okay. They had followed my odyssey for this whole year and just fantastic feeling. I was a little fuzzy because of all the English being spoken, so I had to kind of concentrate and focus. I really wanted to get to the person who could maybe issued me a passport, which I did, and I did request set Now for the American embassy to issue me a passport was highly illegal, but I was brought in to see at that time the ambassador, who was now high up in the stage department os him on TV. He was wonderful. He issued some orders. In three hours, I had a passport, an American passport, brand new, albeit it came

38:17 with a small little piece of paper in the front instructing in Greek and in English that I was not to leave the country. I walked out the embassy doors. I was like my step with it, out of the hots, given a jump. I saluted the Marine Corps guards right at the gate and said thank you very much, and proceeded to rip that little piece of paper out of my passport. So I had already a plan in mind. I made my way to the downtown Athens bus station. There's a port on the very western side of the Peloponnese. Whether all the ferries going to Ancona or Italy leave out of I need to take an overnight bus trip, possibly hopefully get on the ferry and get myself out of the country. I was terrified.

39:06 I had that anxiety that just consumed that fiber of my body. Beyond the nervousness, I was exhausted. I couldn't chance going through the passport check because if I was caught, if there was, if there was any kind of alert against me leaving the country, I would certainly be brought to back to prison and be serving a lot of many, many many more. Here and I spotted him. I spotted two guys having amstall beer big amstel Beers nine o'clock in the morning, drinking away, and I decided to approach him.

39:46 And as it turned out, they were two English truck drivers. To be clear, Michael's talking about two complete strangers, men that he'd never met. He was about to risk his entire escape by asking them for the biggest favor possible. I've decided right then. Once they were engaging, they were friendly. I introduced myself as an American, and I decided just briefly flat out tell them what happened to me truthfully that I spent the last year in a Turkish and Greek prison. I got to get out of the country. They were incredibly empathetic, and one of the truck drivers said, well, they never checked the back of the back of the cab of the truck.

40:31 They never ever looked there. Why don't you just get in the back of the cab. We'll load the truck. You just stay on on the inside the truck until we get to the other side. And I looked at the two of them, I go, are you sure? And they both both looked at me directly, but I can tell they were mesmerized by my story angles and they said, yeah, I'm right, Yank. We'll get you home. We'll get you home. And they hid me in the back of the truck onto the ferry. And that's how I've made my way across across into England. I had gotten out of Greece. I couldn't believe the feeling I had. It was a crystal blue hot day and I took a deep breath and I couldn't I almost almost buckled my knees, and I've just had that. The English guy spotted me and they came over and welcome, Captain welcome. And by that time I think they even realized that they were part of a greater adventure. And I made the decision then to call the American Embassy in Rome. And I got onto a guy who I told who I was, told him who I was and what had happened to me and what I was doing. And I was very leary, very nervous to tell anybody anything but what I wanted to cover myself if I was stopped by Interpol or

42:07 security chats at Rome Airport. I needed to have the American Embassy right there to possibly be able to take custody of me. That was my only that was my hope in case something went south. He agreed to meet me at the airport with the automatic weapons everywhere, the chaos going on, and I just took a deep breath and I told him to just keep an eye on me, and he said, I will, good luck, You'll be fine. And I made my way through the security lines back forth, got to the window, looked at my passport, didn't really look at it, but my heart was like beating out my chest and he stamped it, stamped at exit and I was through. Next thing I know, I was on a plane flying to New York. I finally arrived in New York City. I got off the plane, and you know, most people might apply that I've just dropped to my knees, kissed the ground, but it wasn't that.

43:04 For me. It was there was a sense of being overwhelmed, quite frankly and completely out of focus. But I managed to get to the phone immediately. First thing I did was get to a pay phone and find the connecting flight to Fort Lauderdale. But I've managed to call Stephen and tell her, Stephanie, tonight, I will be in Fort Lauderdale tonight. She was there at the airport to meet me. We both sobbed uncontrollably. But I had made it home. I had made it home, and I told her, I don't care about anything else. I'm home. You got me home. As the days evolved, I didn't understand what had happened to me. I knew something was wrong because I couldn't focus. I couldn't even go into a grocery store. And then the media were on top of me, calling for interviews and even camped out in my front yard. Again. That type of thing through. Stephanie starting to learn and realize the entire community and how huge the effort was in our town of Fort Latrille, that also spread nationally and internationally to famous pie pobol like Dustin Hoffman, Ross Perot and of course mister R. Their efforts to get me home was so I felt so intimidated because there was no way I could begin to thank all these people. After being confused out of focus for a few weeks, there was really only one person

44:37 I felt I needed to go see, and that was mister R. And he had called me and I had spoken to him and invited me up to his office in Palm Beach Gardens, big big, huge building that he owns. He said one thing, and this is this is the epitome of who mister R was. He said, Michael, the world out there as a uncle, and you're one of the lions. I knew immediately he understood what I was going through. He knew what I needed again, he knew I needed to go back to see. He knew I needed to be who I was. And I walked out of the odd of his office as feeling more alive. I just felt like I could move forward. And that's exactly how he set things up. A few weeks later, he called and asked me if i'd be willing to go down to Australia and take a look at another boat that he's interested in buying, and I sworked. To this day, I still think he bought that vessel for me. He knew I needed to be who I was now. Back at the helm of the Meggiata, Michael finally had a moment reflect on what he'd been through. And then we were getting ready to make our last long trip from New Pheeva through the Galophicos,

46:08 which is a long stretch of open ocean up to the Equator. And I was up on watch and I'm doing my captain thing, and I'm out on the wings looking through the binoculars, and I see like this gurgle of ocean way off, way off, that was building and building like a tsunami of water. And I'm going, what, Oh my God, Go down below, get everybody, Get all everybody, all the crew on deck, Get them on deck. You've got to witness it. I am talking thousands and thousands and thousands of dolphins swimming and diving and jumping straight at us. They heard the hum of our engines from miles and miles away and came and came running to greet us. And it lasted probably three hours. The crew was exhausted. I just shook my head. Are you kidding me? That was a majestic moment. And I literally thought to myself, right at that moment, eighteen months earlier, I was in the depths of these feign despicable prisons, and here I was, in this beautiful paradise. Here I was.

47:30 I was back where I belonged, as captain of one of the great ten years. Allegedly as a production of Voyage Media, the series is produced by nat Mondel, Robert Midas, and Dan Bettimore. This episode, American Captain, was produced by Chris Goldberg Executive produced by Michael Churchward. Michael wrote a book about his experiences. God Waits Outside. It's available on Amazon. A link is in the show notes, edited by John Higgins. Original music by Derlas Gonzalez. If you're enjoying the show, please leave us a five star review on Apple Podcasts or anywhere you're listening, and subscribe now for future episodes.