Miraculous Sea Rescue: Indian Fishermen Lost and Found

• Two men made a commitment to return for Christmas before fishing trip.
• Lost contact for several weeks while deep-sea fishing in Arabian Sea.
• Group was at sea for over three weeks before being found.

Edison Davis and Augustine Nemus made a commitment to their families that they would return for Christmas when they left India’s southern coast on November 27 to go fishing.

After that, they remained silent for several weeks.

The two men travelled in a deep-sea boat for over three weeks to fish in the Arabian Sea with a group of 15 other fisherman.

First, the families of the guys didn’t freak out because they were accustomed to the fishermen spending days at sea.

However, the families started to worry when Christmas passed and the guys still hadn’t come home. Cyclone Ockhi, a severe cyclone that devastated India’s southern coast in 2017 and killed numerous fisherman, was still fresh in people’s minds.

They questioned if any of their family members had had a similar situation. But on January 2, the fisherman went back home.

The fisherman were stranded on a secluded island in the British Indian Ocean for days before being rescued by a passing British ship after their boat’s engine failed.

The fisherman had devised creative means of surviving, including sipping water from coconuts they had found on the island, as they had no idea when they would be rescued.
The fishermen had departed from Thengapattanam harbour in the southern state of Tamil Nadu aboard a wooden boat known as the Chrisha Mol.

But on the seventh day, the boat’s engine failed, and it started to float farther out to sea.

“Our boat was towed to a spot where the water was about 8 metres (26 feet) deep. We anchored there because we believed we were safe “, Mr. Nemus.

The crew instructed the fishermen to send radio messages asking for assistance from Indian fishing boats in the area since Sri Lankan fishing vessels are not permitted to enter Indian waters.

After three days, a boat answered.

Sadly, its engine was insufficiently strong to pull the heavier Chrisha Mol to shore. The group’s owner of Chrisha Mol removed the boat’s gearbox and departed with the Indian boat to get it repaired once they arrived at land.

In order for the fishermen to securely rope their boat and stop it from drifting, the crew also left their anchor behind.

On December 19, nevertheless, an unexpected wind blow forced the rope on one of the boat’s anchors to break. Three days later, the second rope also snapped, and the boat started to drift once more.

“We could only pray to God in the middle of the sea. We didn’t know where it was taking us,” Mr Nemus said. “I thought of my wife and two teenage sons.”

Advertisement

“The GPS showed us that there was an island 29 nautical miles away,” Mr Davis said. It was located on Salomon Islands in the British Indian Ocean.

Then, according to Mr. Davis, nine fisherman boarded a dinghy, a small boat they had dragged along, loaded it with rice and other supplies, and they sailed for the island.

The five crew members who had been waiting were then retrieved by two fisherman, although by that time the boat had drifted farther away.

After looking for the boat for more than an hour, Mr. Davis exclaimed, “We found the boat.”

The seven fisherman arrived at the small island, which Mr. Davis claims was unoccupied, after travelling for nearly five hours. They were now faced with a new obstacle: how would they continue to exist while their resources were about to run out?

They barely had enough food to last them ten days, and there was no drinkable water available.

Advertisement

The fisherman then looked to nature for assistance. They cooked with seawater. They hunted for coconuts and drank the water from them when they became thirsty. They laid down plastic sheets on the ground, caught the raindrops, and put the water in cans after it rained.

“We seemed to be standing in the presence of death. We cooked and ate minimally, and we weren’t getting enough sleep “explained Mr. Nemus.

“We worried that we would soon run out of supplies. We were unsure of our location and how long we would be stranded there.”

On December 27, five days later, they spotted a British ship far from the island. The delighted fishermen began calling for assistance by tying a bright red cloth to a tree branch.

“We made every effort to catch the ship’s attention. Four crew members came over to us two hours later bearing water and a fruit tray. They questioned our well-being, “added Mr. Davis. The fishermen were then transported in a dinghy to the ship.

The fisherman took their first shower on board the ship in days. The crew fed them, gave them clothes to change into, and assessed their health.

Advertisement

“When I reached home, my children hugged me and asked what had happened,” Mr Nemus said.

Advertisement

“I had a fairy tale to tell them. I don’t know how many times I repeated it. When we were stranded on that remote island, none of us thought we would return home,” he added.

Advertisement

Mr Nemus says that the experience has shaken him, and he’s only going to fish closer to shore. Mr Davis feels differently.

“This is my work,” he says. “This is my destiny.”

Advertisement

Also Read

10 fishermen released from Indian captivity reach Pakistan  

LAHORE: India handed over 10 Pakistani fishermen, who had been imprisoned in...