Starving sailor found after 16 months adrift

NEW YORK — Islanders on the remote Pacific atoll of Ebon do not see much passing sea traffic, so when a battered fibreglass boat floated on to their reef, they were understandably curious.

To their amazement, an emaciated, bearded man with long straggly hair, dressed only in torn underpants, his skin weather-beaten from sun and salt, was inside the vessel, along with a turtle.

He said he had survived 16 months adrift on the Pacific, eating turtles, birds and fish that he caught with his hands and drinking turtle blood and rainwater.

And if details are confirmed, it is believed he will claim the record for surviving the longest time adrift after floating more than 13,000 kilometres from Mexico.

The details are sketchy, as the man speaks only Spanish and there is only one telephone and no Internet connection on the atoll, the southernmost outpost of the Marshall Islands.

He has said his name is Jose Ivan and that he left Mexico for El Salvador in September 2012 with a companion who died at sea several months ago. His story was relayed to the world by Ola Fjeldstad, a Norwegian anthropology student conducting research on the atoll.

“His condition isn’t good, but he’s getting better,” Fjeldstad said. “The boat is really scratched up and looks like it has been in the water for a long time.”

The men who found him took him to the main island on the atoll to meet Ione de Brum, the mayor, who called officials in Majuro, the Marshalls capital.

The man’s voyage is not over yet. The government airline has only one plane that can land at Ebon but that aircraft is out of service for maintenance and not expected to be available before Tuesday. Officials instead may send a boat to pick him up and bring him to Majuro, from where there are international air connections.