‘The wave reduced the boat to matchsticks’

TWO Irish rowers who cheated death after being capsized mid-Atlantic described how a massive wave pulverised their boat to “matchsticks.”

Ciaran Lewis, 34, and Gearóid Towey, 28, were thrown in the ocean 1,200 miles from shore late on Sunday evening after a punishing day of angry seas and mechanical problems ended in disaster.

Their ordeal only ended five hours later when a giant gas tanker staged a daring rescue, plucking the two men by rope while still moving, and hoisting them onto a ladder where they fought high winds and a fierce swell to climb 45 feet to the deck.