Chinese fishermen recount 3-day ordeal in lifeboat on high seas | Their, Hours, Vessel, Captain, Lifeboat

Home

Chinese fishermen recount 3-day ordeal in lifeboat on high seas

GUANGZHOU, March 11 (Xinhua) -- Seven Chinese fishermen have told how they drank their own urine in a desperate bid to stay alive for more than three days in a lifeboat on stormy seas after their vessel sank with five other crew members aboard.

The fishing boat with 13 crew left Dongshan Port, in east China's Fujian province, at midday on Monday and capsized in high winds later that night.

"The captain told us to abandon the ship, and within five minutes, it sank," said Chen Yueyou, one of the survivors who spent 80 hours being tossed about in the lifeboat by the high seas.

The captain and five other crewmen went down with the vessel, he said.

They fired emergency flares, waved and yelled to at least three passing ships in the next three days, but were not detected.

"Our food, water and extra clothing sank with the vessel. We were all wet, shivering with cold, hunger and fear," said Chen, the only one who was well enough to talk at the end of the ordeal.

They managed to survive the third day by drinking their own urine and dozing the hours away to avoid exertion.

Chen said he had lost hope and was only semiconscious when he saw a fishing boat in the distance. "With all our might, we rowed toward it."

They boarded the fishing boat "Haifeng 11206" at 9:00 a.m. on Friday, about 20 nautical miles southeast of Dangan, an islet at the mouth of the Pearl River in the southern Guangdong Province.

They had been in the lifeboat for 80 hours and had drifted 200 nautical miles from where their own vessel sank, said Yu Wenjie, captain of the "Haifeng 11206".

"Some of them were barely conscious and nearly everyone suffered allergies and wounds after all those hours at sea," said Yu.

He reported their location to the Guangdong provincial maritime rescue center, but offered to take the seven men to Zhuhai on his boat.

Yu's boat, however, lost direction in the heavy fog and the crew spent at least 10 hours trying to ascertain their location. His mobile phone stopped working because he had run out of credit on his account.

The rescue center, unable to contact Yu by Friday afternoon, recharged his cell phone, identified their position with the help of China Mobile, and sent a rescue ship to meet them.

The two ships rendez-voused at around 8 p.m. on Friday. The seven survivors were sent to Yantian Port in Shenzhen in the small hours on Saturday for medical treatment.

Rescuers are still searching for the six missing fishermen, although they believe their chances of survival are slim.

Trackback(0)

TrackBack URI for this entry