Fishermen survive eight days on raft of debris

DARWIN – Four Indonesian fishermen have been rescued by an Australian ship after drifting for eight days in international waters without food in a life raft they cobbled together from debris and a foam ice box.

The rescued men were able to recover plenty of water bottles from their ship before it sunk, according to Gary Finlay, the skipper of the Darwin boat Exodus, which picked them up in the Timor Sea.

The men were physically well when rescued but were hungry and their skin had deteriorated to become like soap, Finlay said.

He said his crew were alerted when they saw an Australian Border Patrol helicopter fly over them when they were about 300 nautical miles off the coast of Darwin on Tuesday afternoon.

“We were pulling the fish traps and Australian border patrol aircraft flew overhead and about four minutes after that they radioed and advised us to stand-by and that there were four persons stranded in a life raft,” he said.

Finlay said he and his three crew were then called to action to help rescue the men, whose traditional Indonesian fishing boat had sunk.

“We steamed west for about four hours to get there,” Finlay said. “They were about 140 miles off the nearest Kimberly Coast. Basically in the middle of nowhere,” he said.

Finlay said his crew were nervous on the way to find the castaways.

“I did have thoughts as to what condition they were in and if anyone had been lost,” Finlay said.

When the Exodus finally reached the men, about 8pm local time on Tuesday, the Indonesian sailors were up to their knees in water, and had squeezed themselves on a 1.5-square-metre makeshift raft they had made from debris from their sinking ship.

“It was a wing and a prayer keeping them afloat,” Finlay said. “They had two fuel cells latched together as the base of the boat, then around the two fuel cells they had plastic 20-litre drums, either empty oil or empty water drums,” Finlay said.

“They had a couple of 40-litre plastic blue containers latched there and a 400-kilo ice box that was half submerged,” he said.

Luckily the Exodus had two Indonesian crew members on board who managed to communicate with the rescued fishermen, who were hungry after not having eaten since their vessel went down.

The Darwin boat then travelled another hour-and-a-half towards the Ashmore Reef where they met Australian Navy warship HMAS Maitland.

Finlay said medical staff from HMAS Maitland came on board and were surprised by the condition the Indonesian men were in. “They were hungry. They were in a bit of shock of course – eight days of sea in that situation.”

The rescued fishermen are expected to be sent back to their home port of Kupang in Indonesia. - ABC