GORHAM – Success with a previous relief mission after Hurricane Katrina lashed Louisiana had encouraged Greg Brooks to launch a similar effort for earthquake-devastated Haiti. It appeared easy.

And so in early February, on the Sea Hunter, his treasure-hunting boat that was loaded with supplies, he sailed off, not suspecting the mission would run headlong into the bureaucratic trouble in Miami, customs issues in Haiti, Caribbean pirates, gun-toting Haitians on docks, a translator friend now hunted in Haiti, and a hungry Haitian mob in boats swarming the sea.

But, a month later, talking about the ordeal from his home in Gorham, Brooks said he’d do it again.

“Yeah, I would,” he said Monday. “But I wouldn’t stop in Miami. I’ll never stop in Miami again.”

With spirits buoyed by generosity of donors, Brooks and his crew on the Sea Hunter sailed from Boston on Feb. 4 with its holds stuffed with aid. Even North Atlantic snow, sleet and heavy seas proved no match for the crew.

But just days later, optimism on board would flounder when it made port in Florida to pick up relief containers.

“In sunny Miami, it turned to hell,” said Brooks, co-owner of Sub Sea Research and its ship, the 220-foot Sea Hunter, recalling the mission while sitting Monday in the comfort of his living room.

In Miami, the Coast Guard had concerns about lack of crew licensing and cargo safety issues. Customs also got involved and the ship was detained 12 days, mired in regulations and red tape.

An official statement released Wednesday by the Coast Guard in Washington, D.C. read, in part:

“The earthquake in Haiti mobilized governments around the world as well as private industry and citizens to help those who were affected by this tragic event. Some U.S. citizens decided to use their own vessels to support disaster relief by transporting supplies and other items to Haiti. For those vessels, one important role of the Coast Guard was to enforce regulations established to ensure the safe carriage of cargo on vessels that met certain gross tonnage thresholds. The Sea Hunter is a documented recreational vessel with the regulatory tonnage of 250 GT. As per 46 U.S.C. 8304, a vessel over 200 GT must have a licensed master serving onboard when underway. Upon arrival to Miami, Coast Guard inspectors assessed the ship and determined that the vessel did not meet requirements resulting in a Captain of the Port order being placed temporarily on the vessel because:

Cargo: At the time of the inspection none of the relief cargo onboard was properly secured for sea posing a hazard to the vessel. There were no clips and turnbuckles onboard the vessel. Additionally, there was a large vehicle on deck that was not secured for sea, the battery was not disconnected and the fuel had not been drained.

Loose gear: There was a significant amount of loose gear on deck that needed to be stored inside a container or secured which presented a hazard.

Stability: There was no stability manual or cargo loading documents onboard to identify how much the vessel could safely carry and the crew did not know how much relief cargo was onboard or the ideal stowage plan for such cargo.

Crew Proficiency: None of the crew possessed a Coast Guard issued license to serve as a Master. The majority of the crew onboard were volunteers with no formal training in basic safety or navigation and no fire or boat drills had been conducted since the voyage started.

Licenses: 46 USC 8304 requires vessels of 200 gross tons to have a licensed master. At the time of the inspection, no licensed master or crewmembers were onboard the vessel.”

As far as safety aboard, Brooks said this week the ship was in full compliance with safety regulations and containers on board had been securely chained to the deck. About six months before the Haiti trip, Sub Sea Research had spent $1 million upgrading the ship, he said.

The Coast Guard initially told him he needed eight licensed crewmembers. He asked for a 30-day grace and his crew offered to sign waivers.

“They wouldn’t bend,” Brooks said about Coast Guard officials.

In trying to free his ship, his cell phone rang constantly, according to the ship’s cook, Cindy Hart, who is Brooks’ sister. In February, he had 2,300 cell calls, including some from the William J. Clinton Foundation.

“We were pretty depressed day after day” in Miami, Brooks said.

Hart said their boat cat, Nine, was a “stabilizing force” on board, as Brooks and his crew fought discouragement.

“He’s our buddy,” Brooks said.

There was customs runaround in Miami, too, with an agent telling him the cargo “isn’t going to Haiti on your ship.”

But 30 minutes later, he had approval along with a $39 fee to pay. He clutched the paperwork and left the customs office.

“I never paid the $39,” Brooks said.

Congressional offices intervened in the Miami dilemma. “They were getting tons of political pressure,” Brooks said.

Brooks suffered a lung infection and turned 59 in Miami.

“I sat next to a Dumpster with a can of beer and a paper bag” containing a burger, Brooks said about his birthday.

With his wife, Kathy Brooks, home in Gorham, he felt alone in Miami. She fielded telephone calls on the home front.

Finally, the Coast Guard, after running the crew through fire and man-overboard drills, allowed the Sea Hunter to continue on its mission after one licensed captain from Maine joined the crew as a volunteer. It departed Miami on Feb. 23 after a struggle of nearly two weeks.

“Oh God, we were so happy,” Brooks said about leaving Miami. “It was such a nightmare. Everything about Miami was a nightmare. It was bureaucratic bull—-“

Two days after departing Miami, the Sea Hunter made port at Miragoane, Haiti, but Haitian authorities there wouldn’t let it unload.

“I didn’t even think about customs, ” he said. “A week before there was no customs in place,” Brooks said about the situation in Haiti.

At Miragoane, where the Sea Hunter couldn’t unload, Hart said Haitians in wooden boats “swarmed our boat.”

Brooks said Haitian customs officials wanted to be bribed. “They wanted money or half the cargo,” he said.

The Sea Hunter then proceeded to Les Cayes, anchoring a quarter mile off shore, but ran into similar custom snags there. The director of the orphanage where much of the relief supplies were headed paid $1,100 to have a manifest prepared.

A Haitian man Brooks identified as Felix, his interpreter, negotiated with the Haitian officials. “The government didn’t really like him,” Brooks said.

The Sea Hunter finally got to off load at Les Cayes where cargo destined for the orphanage had to be taken ashore in small boats by workers.

Pirates stole one boatload.

“They threw everybody overboard and took off with it,” Brooks said.

“We had U.N. gunboats around,” Brooks said, but they were not authorized to use force.

During the unloading, some Haitians rowed out in boats and indicated they were hungry.

“They rubbed their stomachs,” Brooks said.

From the ship, Hart tossed a bag to a hungry family. A young girl she thought to be 8 years old caught it but she was smacked by an adult. Haitians were desperate. Hart said one was willing to trade sex with his daughter, who was about 11 years old, for food.

A mob scene developed as some Haitians armed with ropes and clubs were beating one another in the small boats.

“I took my pistol and shot over their heads,” Brooks said about quelling the disturbance.

“We had to hide Nine,” Hart said. “They were asking if they could have him (for food).”

“They were jumping from boat to boat” with some of the food, said Hart who said many boats tipped over.

The orphanage received the bulk of the ship’s cargo but the Haitian government got what was left over. ‘To this day, I don’t think it’s been distributed,” Brooks said.

Some Haitians had waited in boats all day under a hot sun hoping to get food.

“It would break your heart,” Brooks said.

Felix, who handed out supplies to needy families got arrested and he’s now hiding out, according to Brooks. “We’d like to get Felix out of the country,” Brooks said.

Brooks was familiar with poverty in Haiti, as he had visited in years past on treasure hunting trips.

“I saw things I never saw before,” he said. “People living in squalor. The poorest people in Maine are rich by comparison.”

Hart told of sewers in the streets in Haiti and kids with no shoes playing on piles of trash. “People begging in the streets,” Hart said.

And in Port au Prince, the capital city, the stench of death lingered in the air when Brooks was there nearly two months after the earthquake struck.

He called the capital a disaster scene with its tent city, some tents made of trash bags. “You can’t believe it,” he said. “As far as the eye can see.”

Citing reports he has heard, Brooks said more than $100 million in aid money in Haiti is missing.

“No one can explain where it went,” Brooks said. But he also has heard some Haitian officials have bought new homes in Miami.

Despite the frustrations of the Sea Hunter’s mercy mission, Brooks said turning back had never been an option.

“We knew the amount of aid would do good for quite a while,” he said.

Brooks visited the orphanage and greeted the children.

“Most smile at you. They want to be loved,” he said.

“It was a relief. You were proud because you got the mission accomplished. And see the kids with smiles because we were there.”

The Sea Hunter returned to its berth in Boston from Haiti on March 19. “I’m glad they are all home safe. They did an honorable thing and had beautiful results,” Kathy Brooks said Monday.

“We’re all proud because we did it together,” Hart said.

Now Brooks and the Sea Hunter crew are readying for a return to treasure hunting. They are eyeing a shipwreck off Cape Cod and another in Maine, a World War II wreck that could net millions in treasure.

Brooks wouldn’t reveal any details about it or its whereabouts. He did say 20 percent of what they recover would be donated to Maine charities.

Greg Brook of Gorham greets a child in Haiti, weeks after leaving Maine with relief supplies on his ship, the Sea Hunter. A month after the trouble-plagued effort, he said it was all worthwhile. (Courtesy photo)