Starving sailor says he was adrift 16 months in Pacific
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.
It is a story reminiscent of the Tom Hanks film Cast Away, released in 2000. 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, who spoke by phone to the AFP news agency.
“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.”
Ivan indicated he survived by eating whatever he could catch by hand as there was no fishing gear on board. He drank turtle blood when there was no rain.
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, Agence France-Presse reported. Officials instead may send a boat to take him to Majuro, from where there are international air connections.
“He’s staying at the local council house and a family is feeding him,” Fjeldstad said. “We’ve been giving him a lot of water, and he’s gaining strength.”
Ivan was given a basic health check and was found to have low blood pressure, but he is walking slowly with the assistance of islanders and does not appear to have a life-threatening illness.
Home to fewer than 1,000 people, Ebon is a coral atoll of 22 islands, with a land mass of just 2.2 square miles and a highest elevation of nine feet, strung around a deep lagoon. It is one of 24 atolls that make up the Marshall Islands, which have a population of about 60,000.