Indonesian teenager survives 49 days adrift at sea

An Indonesian teenager has survived 49 days adrift at sea in a fishing hut, before he was rescued by a Panamanian-flagged vessel and returned home, reports The Guardian.

Aldi Novel Adilang, 19, worked lonely shifts as a lamp keeper for a floating fish trap, locally known as ‘rompong’, 80 miles off the coast of Indonesia’s North Sulawesi.

The teenager was employed to light the rompong’s lamps, designed to attract the fish, and according to his father had done the job since he was sixteen.

Each week someone from his company would come to harvest the fish from the traps and deliver him fresh supplies of food, water and fuel.

But it was on July 14 when strong winds broke the mooring and pushed him thousands of kilometers away from home to Guam waters.

He was eventually rescued in late August by a ship sailing under a Panama flag that picked him up in the waters near Guam and then dropped him off in Japan, according to The Jakarta Post.

The teenager only had a few days worth of supplies and survived by catching fish, burning wood from his hut to cook them, and sipping seawater through his clothes to minimise his salt intake.

The Indonesian consulate in Osaka said that 10 ships had sailed past the Indonesian teenager before a Panamanian-flagged vessel, MV Arpeggio, finally picked him up in the waters off Guam on Aug 31 -- more than a month and a half later.

Aldi initially waved a cloth at MV Arpeggio but after failing to attract the attention of its crew, sent an emergency radio signal.

The rescue was complicated by high waves and crew members threw a rope to help him as the ship circled four times his tiny craft. In desperation, Aldi jumped into the water to reach it and was eventually pulled to safety.

The captain contacted the coastguard of Guam, a tiny US territory, but was told to carry on his planned route to Japan, where Aldi could be helped by his embassy.

Interviewed by local news portal TribunManado, Aldi said he thought he “was going to die out there”.

At one point he said was suicidal and considered jumping into the ocean, but remembered his parents’ advice to pray in times of distress. He had a bible on board so he did.

The teenager flew home to Manado on Sept 8, accompanied by consulate officials, and is reportedly in good health.