Video: A man in a boat washed up on the remote Marshall Islands in the North Pacific, more than a year after setting sail from Mexico. If his story is true, it may be one of the greatest survivor tales ever told. Robin Stickley reports.
TORONTO – A man whose fibreglass boat washed up on a remote Pacific island claims he survived 16 months adrift.
The man was discovered Thursday when his boat floated onto a reef at Ebon Atoll, near Marshall Islands, according to Agence France-Presse (AFP).
“His condition isn’t good, but he’s getting better,” Ola Fjeldstad, a Norwegian anthropology student doing research on this island, told AFP.
The man claims he and a companion left Mexico in September 2012 and were heading towards El Salvador.
The castaway said his companion died at sea several months ago.
Fjeldstad told AFP the man was found dressed in a ragged pair of underwear and only speaks Spanish. The ship-wrecked man identified himself as Jose Ivan.
Ivan said he lived off turtles, birds and fish and drinking turtle blood when there was no rain.
According to AFP, the islanders who found Ivan took him to the mainland and called the town’s mayor, who then called the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Majuro.
“He’s staying at the local council house and a family is feeding him,” said Fjeldstad.
TMS debates: How believable is this man’s incredible lost-at-sea story?
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