A man was saved by a bottle of ketchup! A castaway made it through 24 days alone with a bottle of ketchup, according to Colombia’s naval authority, before being rescued.
The Columbian Navy made available a video where people can hear “Elvis Francois,” a 47-year-old Dominican citizen (a person from Dominica, not to confuse with a person from the Dominican Republic) stating: l consumed a bottle of ketchup, some garlic powder, and Maggi (bouillon cubes). To survive for about 24 days, I combined everything with water.
On the sailboat’s hull, where the survivor was discovered about 220 kilometers northwest of Puerto Bolivar in the northern department of La Guajira, he had scrawled the word “help.” “On January 15, I witnessed a passing plane. I used a mirror to send signals using the sun’s reflection, and when I saw it pass twice, I knew they had seen me” he says. He was quickly rescued by the Colombian Navy with a merchant ship.
According to a statement from the Navy, this Dominican national was “carried out to sea” in December while working on a sailboat in front of a port on the island of Saint-Martin, which is located in the northeastern Antilles.
The same source continues, “Without any navigational knowledge, he was lost and confused at sea, and his efforts to maneuver the ship and the equipment on board were futile. He attempted to call several times, but in vain due to network issues. He said, “With no one to talk to, no idea what to do, or any idea of where I was for 24 days, all I could do was wait. “It was challenging, and I briefly lost hope as I considered my family.”
He was handed over to the immigration services, so they could make arrangements for his return to Dominica.
Now and then, various people, like fishermen and other people having fun on the sea, have faced similar situations where they got lost in the ocean. They often have to wait before being able to find the correct direction to navigate back to where they came from. Sometimes they wait until they are rescued, like Elvis. Sometimes they reach an unknown beach or port. In other cases, the end is tragic because they were not rescued in time or because no one heard about them, and their fate remains unknown.
