New Robinson Crusoes: fishermen marooned for 3 months in Far East
Published 04 January, 2008, 18:08
For three months eleven fishermen lived like Robinson Crusoe. Their two small vessels were wrecked in Berezovaya Bay, 100 kilometres from the city of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky in Russia’s Far East.
The crew members were lucky to find an abandoned military base where they unsuccessfully tried to repair their vessels. When it became clear that no one was searching for them, the fishermen sent a group of five people for help. They travelled for four days overland until they reached a military post.
“It's been really hard for them. They were so exhausted. Their skis got broken down and they had to continue on foot until they arrived and were given warmth and food,” said Sergey Popyonov, frontier guard.
The fishermen can't clearly explain why they didn't go for help earlier, as their two vessels had been almost completely destroyed.
“We decided to repair them first. When we failed to do that, we decided to send a group,” Aleksandr Lazarev, the captain of the team said.
They fed themselves on caught the fish they caught and limited onboard food reserves. They warmed themselves with a stove, burning furniture and even found felt-boots and several sacks of flour at the base.
“We were drinking shelf fungus when we ran out of tea. We found salt here but had no sugar. We barely remember its taste,” one of the fishermen said.
Among other remarkable findings that cheered them up was a jam-jar and New-Year decorations, as they celebrated the holiday far from home.
One of the things in this movie-like story that astonishes most is that the relatives of the wrecked fishermen had not even reported their absence, and no one was searching for the two registered vessels.
“They strictly followed the map, travelling 30 kilometres to the military post. They are experienced fishermen and would alreadyhave been in similar situations. So they knew how to act and didn’t lose heart,” Aleksey Sivolap, head of the regional Emergencies Ministry, said.
Now all eleven fishermen have safely returned home by helicopter. They say they’ll have another New Year celebration, this time with their families.
