People in the News
Castaway sailor rescuedafter four months at sea eating turtles, seagulls
This photoreleased by the US Navy 25 September 2002 shows crewmembers fromthe US Navy frigate USS McClusky (FFG 41) riding back in one ofthe ship's inflatable boats 17 September after rendering assistanceto 62-year-old Richard Van Pham (3rd L, front w/ ball cap), whowas spotted adrift in his small sailboat by military aircraftconducting drug interdiction operations in the region. Van Phamwas rescued by the US Navy frigate USS McClusky after being adriftat sea for 3 1/2 months. Van Pham had set out for a short tripbetween Long Beach, CA, and Catalina Island, when high winds damagedhis mast, disabling his boat. AFP PHOTO/US NAVY
LOS ANGELES, (AFP) - A sailor who survivedfour months adrift at sea in a crippled sailing boat by drinkingrainwater and eating turtles and roasted seagulls has been rescuedand returned to his home in the US state of California, officialssaid Wednesday.
Vietnamese immigrant Richard Van Pham, 62,drifted for almost 4,000 kilometers (2,500 miles) after his 7.8meter (26 foot) sailing boat got caught in a storm during whatwas supposed to have been a simple 35-kilometer (22-mile) pleasurecruise.
The tired but healthy castaway, who setout from his home in Long Beach, California to the nearby resortisland of Catalina in early June, was rescued by the US CoastGuard on September 17 off the coast of the central American stateof Costa Rica.
"This amazing survivor subsisted duringthis time only on rain water and the fish he caught," saidthe crew of the US Coast Guard frigate McClusky in their onlinelogbook.
"It's a three-hour cruise gone bad,"Coast Guard Captain Terry Bragg told reporters, adding that hehad never heard a story survival like Pham's.
His short jaunt went wrong when his boat,dubbed the Sea Breeze, got caught in a squall which broke itsmast. Then both the outboard motor and the radio failed, leavingPham adrift at sea with no means to contact the shore.
Because Pham, who has no family, had notfiled a float plan, nobody reported him missing and no searchwas launched.
The Robinson Crusoe-like survivor, who returnedto California on Tuesday, told reporters he had survived by roastingturtles, tuna fish and seagulls, which he lured by tying fishto his broken mast and then cooking them on the deck of the smallboat.
"If you travel at sea, you take whatyou find," he told reporters after returning to Los Angeles.
"I (could) see nothing (on the horizon),"he said of his ordeal at sea. "Then one day I see a plane.I know I'm close to people.
They tip their wings to say hello. Two hourslater a ship comes to my boat. I am very, very happy." Whenrescuers reached Pham, he was thin but in good spirits after spendingthe daylight hours below deck to escape the sun. Instead of askingto be rescued, Pham asked Coast Guard officers if they could simplyhelp him repair his mast.
But because his boat was deemed to not beseaworthy, the Coast Guard sank it and dropped him off in Guatemala.Pham bought a plane ticket home after sailors aboard the frigateMcClusky took up a collection for him.