Imagine this: You’re out on your back porch, staring at the Gulf at sunset. The day’s fading, the sky’s all pink and blue, and there, way off in the distance, you catch a flicker, a set of lights blinking.
That’s exactly what happened to hometown hero George Shopp, his wife Julie, and their dog Johnie. Where they live, seeing random flashes on the water isn’t unusual, but this time, something clicked for George. Maybe it was all those years as a boy scout, or maybe it was Johnie barking his head off at the lights, but the pattern seemed too deliberate. He realized he was seeing an SOS signal.
The SOS isn’t just some Navy acronym. It’s Morse code: dot-dot-dot, dash-dash-dash, dot-dot-dot. Back in 1906, people adopted the classic call for help because it is easy to recognize, not because it spells out “Save Our Souls.” George remembered it from scouting.
“I hesitated at first,” George tells us, laughing. “I really thought it could just be some kids messing around. But I figured, just in case, I should call 911.”
Good thing he did. The neighbors down on the beach saw the flashes too, but didn’t know what they meant. One even said they tried looking it up, but never figured it out, so they just let it go.
Because no bridges connect Little Gasparilla Island to the mainland, only boats, George watched the sheriff’s boat speed from Gasparilla Marina after he called 911. Searchlights swept across the black water. George remembers wondering why they even needed lights if it was a stranded boat, but then he realized there wasn’t even a boat out there, just people clinging to a buoy, flashing a flashlight.
Turns out, the divers, Antonio “Tony” Rivera and Brianna Rutledge, had been out scuba diving at 2:30 p.m. that afternoon. Their boat drifted off, leaving them stranded five miles from safety. They spent hours fighting currents, eventually making it to a buoy a mile offshore just as the sun disappeared.
No dramatic rescue story would be complete without someone mentioning sharks, but in reality, the biggest stroke of luck was having someone who recognized the SOS and cared enough to act.
The next day, the sheriff’s office called to congratulate George for making the call. He didn’t think it was a big deal, but everyone else did. “It was the persistence of it,” he says. “Who flashes a light like that over and over unless it’s an emergency?”
In the end, thanks to George, Julie, and trusty Johnie, and a bit of old-fashioned Boy Scout training, two people made it home safely that night. Sometimes, all it takes is paying a little extra attention when the world is trying to tell you something. That’s the act of George Shopp, our very own hometown hero.
