three men in a boat.docx

1、three men in a boatShipwreck Survivors: Three men in a boatThey claim to have survived for 289 days at sea, but, four months on, the awe-inspiring tale of the Mexican fishermen looks less like a miracle and more like an elaborate hoax. Mike Guy reportsSunday, 7 January 2007ShareCloseo Digg o del.ici

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3、Savings Rateswww.OffshoreSavingsDProut CatamaransSailing and Power Catamarns,Trimarans & Luxury YachtsSail San Blas to Panamafind a boat through the San Blasusing the San Blas Boat Finderwww.erikaslist.infoIts still night-time, but dawn will be coming soon. One of the most famous men in Mexico is ly

4、ing awake in his boarding-house bed, listening to thunder pound the church on the town square. He hasnt slept in days. When I close my eyes, he confesses, I see nothing but the sun. Last October, Salvador Chava Ordoez and four other fishermen embarked from San Blas, a village on the west coast of Me

5、xico, for what was supposed to be a three-day shark-fishing expedition. On the first night they ran out of petrol (or the engine broke down, or both, depending on which version you read) and their small boat was swept away by the same strong winds and currents that carried Portuguese spice traders t

6、o Micronesia in the 17th century.Nine and a half months later, the 27-ft craft was spotted by the crew of a tuna-fishing boat in the waters off Baker Island, a tiny atoll some 5,500 miles west of San Blas. Two of the men had died of starvation, but 37-year-old Chava Ordoez survived, along with Jesus

7、 Vidaa and Lucio Rendon, both 27. In English, their names translate to the Saviour, Jesus, and the Light.Los Perdidos, as theyre known in Mexico, claimed they survived by drinking rainwater from the filthy bilge and eating seagulls, raw fish, and sea turtles. They read aloud from Chavas tattered Bib

8、le, while Lucio, a musician, played air-guitar concertos to stave off boredom, as toxic on a small boat as the seawater around it.The three pescadores (fishermen) had apparently endured the most remarkable odyssey of survival ever recorded: 289 days at sea, utterly exposed to the blazing sun, with n

9、othing but two useless outboard engines and their own inner toughness. It was the kind of accidental epic journey that brought the Vikings to North America, the Maoris to New Zealand, Noah to Mount Ararat.As news of their rescue flashed around the world, the fishermens journey took on near-biblical

10、significance. The Catholic Churchs League of Bishops declared their survival a profound miracle, an example of the power of faith. Before long, a mysterious Christian film producer from the US had signed Chava and his two fellow survivors to a reported $4m (2m) movie deal. But when photographs surfa

11、ced showing Chava and his companions looking rested and well-fed after their ordeal, the media turned sceptical. Had they eaten their companions? Were they drug-runners gone astray? The accusations came to a head at an unruly news conference in Mexico City.But the bishops had a point: the tale of Lo

12、s Perdidos is sufficiently fantastic that it requires a certain degree of faith to believe it at all.San Blas is a small, mud-spattered fishing village on Mexicos Pacific coast, about 60 miles north of Puerto Vallarta. Many of the 9,000 residents are shrimp, shark and dorado fishermen, while others

13、operate eco-tours for bird-watchers. San Blas is best known for its jejenes, ravenous gnats that rise from the sand at dusk to feast on human flesh.Three blocks down Calle Batallon from the town square, Chava is drinking Pacifico beer in the courtyard of Hotel Ranchero, the shabby, musty boarding ho

14、use where he lives. People stop by the Ranchero every day in search of Chava, or El Perdido - city functionaries, union (omega) representatives, old friends, old friends, book publishers, parishioners, journalists, incredulous fishermen, and eager women. Jesus and Lucio have already left town; he ha

15、snt heard much from them.Chava is a favourite in the local bars. Soon after he arrived in San Blas for the shrimp season 15 years ago, he earned the nickname Ballena, after his preferred beer. On this rainy night, Chavas friend May, who owns the Ranchero, and his old buddy Carlos, from the off-licen

16、ce, have stopped in (with a bottle) to hear Chava talk about his ordeal. Ballena used to fall down a lot, Carlos says, smiling. It seemed like every night, eh, Chavita?Short and stocky, with dark skin and a kindly face, Chava smiles and nods. A football match plays silently on the TV; Chavas eyes fi

17、x on it as he recounts his long voyage. We left from Boca de Camichin at dawn with hooks ready to catch the tuna, he begins. Boca de Camichin is San Blass sister village, about 12 miles away. Then we used the tuna and skipjack to fish for shark, because the dark meat gives off a lot of blood.Commerc

18、ial shark fishing is a brutal, controversial industry. Fishermen slice the fins from the sharks and toss the bodies, sometimes still alive, overboard. Asian buyers pay around 25 a pound for the fins, which are used to make shark-fin soup, which costs upward of 50 a bowl.Chava and his companions were

19、 not rich men. Lucio Rendon lived with his grandmother, aunt, and uncle in a nearby pueblo called La Limon; Jesus Juanchito Vidaa grew up in a fishing village in Sinaloa, to the north. Both men are tall and slightly paunchy, with thin moustaches and long, curly, mullet haircuts. The owner of the boa

20、t, known around the docks as Seor Juan, lived in Mazatlan, six hours north. The fifth man was older and didnt talk much. His boatmates called him El Farsero.Before heading out, they stopped in San Blas harbour to pick up supplies. We started down where the shrimp boats are, Chava says. We had sandwi

21、ches wrapped in paper for later, and there were also plantanos bananas. And of course there were jugs of water, but they were empty very soon.No one took note of Seor Juans launch leaving San Blas on 28 October, 2005. Thus the fishermen were never officially declared missing, and the government neve

22、r searched for them.Seor Juans boat was a 27-ft fibre-glass sled with an open cockpit and plenty of workspace, but no VHF radio, radar, fish-finder, GPS, or any other electronics. None of the fishermen had a mobile phone. Nor was there a canopy to provide shelter from the sun, and Chava regretted th

23、at he hadnt brought a baseball cap. This type of boat, called a bugy or lancha by the locals, is common on the coast, and dozens are tied along the docks and rock-lined shore of San Blass small harbour. Although most lancha engines are held together with duct tape and baling wire, Seor Juans boat sp

24、orted two 250-horsepower outboard motors, each of which cost upward of 8,000 new.Seor Juan steered for the Islas Marias, a small archipelago 60 miles off the coast that is home to a massive prison complex, the Alcatraz of Mexico. It was very sunny, Chava says. There were waves, but they werent very

25、big. It is four hours to the islands. We set our lines in the water for the tuna and ate sandwiches for lunch. There were also beans on the boat.According to Chava, Seor Juan pulled into the harbour of the largest island and topped off the fuel tanks. Then they headed back out to sea. They set their

26、 longline tackle on the first morning. In longline fishing, 80 to 100 baited hooks are spaced three- to six-feet apart on a long rope that spans two buoys. The gear is left to drift for as long as a day before it is hauled in, one hook at a time.After they set the equipment, the sky darkened and a s

27、torm rolled in. The wind picked up strength and the waves began to gather and crest. Night fell, and the fishermen lost sight of their equipment. Seor Juan panicked. That equipment is expensive. So he started a frantic search for the gear, his twin outboards burning precious fuel.It was a long and f

28、rightening night, and Chava, the most experienced of the five, tried to convince Seor Juan to give up the search and head back to the Islas Marias to refuel. But Juans concern for his lost gear clouded his judgement. He zigzagged around in the dark for hours before the engines sputtered and ran out

29、of gas. In the ensuing silence the five of them realised they had much bigger problems than missing fishing gear. At that point we got really serious, Chava says quietly. We started drifting out to sea.After the storm passed, the sun returned, and thirst overwhelmed them almost immediately. They wer

30、e at the mercy of the wind and the currents, well out of sight of land, without a cloud in the sky.After four days I got a plastic container and then I relieved myself, Chava says. It was an empty fuel tank that he washed out with seawater. I said I was going to drink my own urine, but the rest of t

31、hem refused. I said I wanted to live.More than nine months later, on 9 August, 2006, the Koos 102, a 240ft purse-seine fishing boat, was plying the waters off Baker and Howland Islands, in the same lonely, atoll-specked region where the American aviator Amelia Earhart is said to have disappeared in

32、the 1930s. At around three in the afternoon a mate on the bridge noticed the drifting lancha, which hadnt appeared on the radar.I was awake when the boat rescued us, Chava says. The three usually tried to sleep during the sun-scorched days and fished for food at night. There was a small enclosure in the bow, and they took turns sleeping in its meagre shade. Jesus had a compass, and he had been assuri