Teen survives 49 days adrift
Parents agree it is time to find a new job after ordeal
An Indonesian teenager who survived 49 days adrift at sea has told how he survived on fish and seawater he squeezed from his clothing and turned on a lamp every time he sighted another ship in the hope of being spotted.
Aldi Novel Adilang told the Associated Press that he can’t remember how many ships passed by, apparently not having seen the light, “unaware of my ordeal”.
The 18-year-old was set adrift when the wooden fish trap he was employed to mind slipped its moorings. he said he ran out of food within a week.
The Indonesian Consulate in Osaka, Japan, said Adilang was rescued by a Panamanian-flagged vessel off Guam on August 31, about 1920km from his original location, and returned to Indonesia with officials this month.
He was employed since age 16 in the one of the world’s loneliest jobs: lamp lighter on a rompong — a wooden raft with a hut on top that’s lit at night to attract fish — moored about 125km off the coast of North Sulawesi.
The coastline is not visible from the fishing rafts and the numerous rompong are kilometres apart, said Adilang’s mother, Net Kahiking. Supplies including food and fuel for a generator are dropped off about once a week. The minders, who earn US$130 ($195) a month, communicate with fishing boats by hand-held radio.
“I was on the raft for one month and 18 days. My food ran out after the first week,” said Adilang. When it didn’t rain for days, “I had to soak my clothes in the sea, then I squeezed and drank the water.”
The boy’s father, Alfian Adilang, said the family is overjoyed at his return but angry with his employer. It was the third time the teen’s raft had drifted. The previous two times it had been rescued by the owner’s ship, the boy said.
The rafts are anchored with ropes and Aldi Adilang said strong friction caused them to break.
“I thought I will never meet my parents again, so I just prayed every day,” he said.
Adilang’s portable radio, known as a handy-talky or HT in Indonesia, would prove to be a lifesaver. “It was early morning on August 31 when I saw the ship and I lighted up the lamp and shouted help using the HT,” he said. “The ship had passed about one mile but then it turned to me. Might be because I used the English word,” he said. “Then they talked on the HT.”
The MV Arpeggio, which rescued Adilang off Guam, contacted the Indonesian mission in Japan when it docked in Tokuyama and officials from the Osaka consulate collected him on September 6, the consulate said in a statement. He returned to Indonesia on September 8.
Adilang, who is the youngest son of four siblings, said he no longer wants to work on a rompong.
“My parents agree,” he said. —