Edison Davis and Augustine Nemus promised their families that they would be home for Christmas when they set out to fish from the southern coast of India on November 27.

After that, they didn’t respond for weeks.

A group of 15 fishermen, including the two men, set sail in a deep-sea vessel for nearly three weeks to fish in the Arabian Sea.

At first, the men’s families did not panic; They had grown accustomed to the fishermen’s long days at sea.
However, as Christmas approached and the men remained absent from their homes, the families began to worry about the worst. They were still thinking about Cyclone Ockhi, a powerful storm that killed dozens of fishermen on India’s southern coast in 2017 and was still fresh in their minds.

“We spend hours at sea, but there are no fish,” they said, wondering if their relatives had experienced something similar. However, on January 2, the fishermen returned home.

The fishermen were stranded for days on a remote island in British Indian Ocean territory after their boat’s engine became stuck. They were eventually rescued by a British ship that was passing by.

The fishermen had devised novel strategies for surviving, including drinking water from coconuts found on the island because they had no idea when they would be rescued.

From the Thengapattanam harbor in the southern state of Tamil Nadu, the fishermen had traveled in a wooden boat known as Chrisha Mol.

However, on the seventh day, the boat’s engine failed, and it began to sink further into the water. This went on for five days before a boat from Sri Lanka showed up.

“The crew dragged our boat to a location where the water was approximately 8 meters (26 feet) deep.” “We dropped anchor there because we thought we were safe,” Mr. Nemus told the BBC.

The crew advised the fishermen to send wireless messages to Indian fishing boats in the area for assistance because Sri Lankan vessels are not permitted to enter Indian waters.

A boat came to the rescue three days later.

How India is developing a pearl farming industry Sadly, its engine was insufficient to pull Chrisha Mol, which was heavier, to shore. The owner of Chrisha Mol, who was also in the group, took the gearbox of the boat and went with the Indian boat to get it fixed when they got to the shore.

In order to secure the fishermen’s boat and prevent it from drifting, the crew also left behind their anchor.

However, on December 19, a sudden gust of wind snapped one of the boat’s anchor ropes. The boat began drifting once more after the second rope snapped three days later.

“In the middle of the ocean, we could only pray to God. Mr. Nemus stated, “We didn’t know where it was taking us.” My wife and two teenage sons came to mind.

On board, the crew checked the navigation device.

Mr. Davis stated, “The GPS showed us that there was an island 29 nautical miles away.” It was situated in the British Indian Ocean, on the Salomon Islands.

Mr. Davis stated that nine fishermen then boarded a dinghy, a small boat they had towed, loaded it with rice and other supplies, and made their way toward the island.

After that, two fishermen came back to retrieve the five crew members who had been waiting back on the boat; however, by that time, the boat had moved further away.

Mr. Davis stated, “We found the boat after searching for it for more than an hour.”

The seven fishermen had to travel approximately five hours to reach the tiny island, which Mr. Davis claimed was uninhabited. A new obstacle awaited them now: With their supplies close to running out, how were they going to survive?

The Indian fishermen who perished in the cyclone Ockhi lacked drinking water and only had enough food to last them ten days.

The fishermen therefore sought assistance from nature. They cooked with sea water. They foraged for coconuts and drank their water when they were thirsty. They spread plastic sheets out on the ground, collected the raindrops, and stored the water in cans when it rained.

I had the impression that we were confronted with death. We cooked sparingly and did not get enough sleep,” Mr. Nemus stated.

We feared that our supplies would ever run out. We didn’t know where we were or how long we would be stuck there.
On December 27, after five days, they saw a British ship far from the island. A bright red cloth was fastened to a tree branch by the ecstatic fishermen, who then began calling for assistance.

“We tried everything we could to get the ship’s attention. After two hours, four crew members came up to us carrying a basket of fruits and water. “They inquired as to our health,” Mr. Davis stated. The fishermen were then taken to the ship in a dinghy by them.

The fishermen took their first shower in days while they were aboard the ship. The crew examined their health, provided them with food and clothing to change into, and served them.

At Vizhinjam port on the southern Indian coast, on January 2, the ship delivered the fishermen to the Indian coastguard. After a day of identity verification and other formalities, they were brought back to their families.