The owner of a Gorham-based marine salvage company is headed to Haiti this weekend on his ship loaded with supplies to help more than 200 orphans stranded when the main building of an orphanage collapsed in an earthquake Jan. 12.

“It’s worse than what you see on TV,” said Greg Brooks about the disaster in Haiti. Brooks is co-owner and general manager of Sub Sea Research of Gorham.

Haiti was rocked Wednesday with another earthquake while horrors of the first eight days ago are ongoing. The National Earthquake Information Center of the U.S. Geological Survey reported the earthquake at 6:03 a.m. Wednesday registered 6.1 and was centered 35 miles west southwest of Port-au-Prince, the capital.

“It’s an unspeakable tragedy,” said Westbrook Police Chief Bill Baker, who served in Haiti in 1998 as a senior Justice Department adviser to Haitian National Police.

Brooks said he talked by telephone with a missionary friend in Haiti before Haiti was dealt a second blow. “The worst part is the smell,” Brooks said Norm Houde of Topsham told him. “Bodies are starting to rot. People are putting Vicks up their nose. They’re worried about diseases. They don’t have enough equipment to dig people out.”

But Baker had heard from two friends earlier this week and both were OK. Baker, who lived in Petionville, part of the capital city of Port-au-Prince, was reached by e-mail this week from a former police officer at the palace in Haiti.

“He said things are horrible but they’ll survive,” Baker said Tuesday, just hours before the second earthquake struck.

But some orphaned friends Brooks knows are not so fortunate. Brooks, who had worked in Haiti five years, had often visited an orphanage outside Port-au-Prince that collapsed, killing three children and injuring 15 others.

Brooks, who lives in Gorham, was trying to call Haiti Wednesday for an update following the second quake, but said telephone contact is sporadic.

He had heard previously that the orphans remained on the property but with very little food, no clothes and no sleeping facilities.

“They’re sleeping under the stars” with a makeshift covering Brooks said.

Brooks said another orphanage would take them in, but roads to it are gone. So, he hopes to relocate the orphans by sea with his ship, the Sea Hunter. Brooks, who is captain, and a crew of 12 plan to cast off Saturday morning and would arrive in Haiti in five days, covering 1,700 miles, if the weather is good.

The 220-foot Sea Hunter is now berthed in Boston. Sub Sea Research is a treasure hunting and marine salvage company, Brooks said.

Brooks said Hannaford has donated 31,000 bottles of water, which will be trucked to Boston to be loaded aboard the Sea Hunter.

“Water is going to be a big issue,” Brooks said.

Carleen Cook, diocesan director in Portland for Catholic Relief Services, said Wednesday its national office is working with Brooks.

Plans now look like the Sea Hunter will dock in Miami to pick up additional relief supplies from Catholic Relief Services.

“We can carry 1 million pounds of aid,” Brooks said. “We’ve got supplies. I just talked with Catholic charities.”

Brooks plans to land in Leogane, a coastal city in Haiti west of Port-au-Prince.

Like Baker, who had lived in what became the epicenter of the first earthquake, Brooks also has friends in Haiti and he said the company’s Haitian attorney is OK.

“She was right in the airport when it happened. She helped pull people out,” Brooks said.

With people crying out for help, Brooks is determined to help. He estimated a round trip to Haiti would consume 25,000 gallons of fuel for the Sea Hunter and he is seeking donations. “If we can help, I have to do it,” Brooks said.

According to information posted online by Sub Sea Research, donations to help with fuel costs can be made at an account, Solid Foundation International, a 501-3c nonprofit Brooks set up at Ocean Communities Credit Union, 17 Westbrook Common, Westbrook, Maine, 04092.

Greg Brooks of Gorham, captain of the Sea Hunter, and a crew of 12 plan to steam Saturday from Boston with relief supplies to Haiti. Brooks also hopes to save 200 orphans stranded with dwindling food and other supplies after an orphanage collapsed, killing three kids. (Courtesy photo)