"... he said, he was hopeful, but more than 10 ships had sailed past him. None of them stopped or saw [him]."
From "Indonesian teenager survives 49 days adrift at sea in 'fishing hut'" (BBC). The "fishing hut" is "a 'rompong' - a floating fish trap without any paddles or engine... which... floats in the middle of the sea but is anchored to the seabed by ropes." Before the ropes snapped, the 19-year-old Aldi Novel Adilang lived alone out there, visited once a week by "someone from his company who would come to collect the fish" and give him food and water. It's a hard, lonely life even when you are not adrift.
ADDED: If isolated, floating rompongs are a common sight, why would anyone on a passing ship notice that one was no longer properly anchored?
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17 comments:
“It's a hard, lonely life even when you are not adrift.”
You couldn’t ask for a better summary of the human condition.
The article doesn't say how long stints typically are. Or if his company did anything when they came for the weekly fish pick-up and the raft wasn't there. It seems like a nice job for a monk or a hermit, but a fate worse than death for a 19-year-old.
I helped pull a billion guys like that out of the ocean. Got a medal for it and everything. We'd find them in what looked to me like laundry baskets, floating around, drinking their own piss. Then (if they had actual boats) we'd use them for target practice. We learned not to do that until we got them below decks because they'd get real emotional. You learn a lot about the world from that perspective.
But not enough.
"If isolated, floating rompongs are a common sight, why would anyone on a passing ship notice that one was no longer properly anchored?"
That is a problem. Plus it looks like a piece of abandoned junk. But if it was too far from land, floating where the water is thousands of feet deep, it would be impossible for it to be anchored.
The hope would be that someone would take a moment and think about it and then care enough to investigate what most likely is just a piece of abandoned junk.
" But if it was too far from land, floating where the water is thousands of feet deep, it would be impossible for it to be anchored."
Good point.
"The hope would be that someone would take a moment and think about it and then care enough to investigate what most likely is just a piece of abandoned junk."
The companies that fish this way are taking advantage of other businesses (or govt) to rescue the workers they endanger by using this cheap method.
"I helped pull a billion guys like that out of the ocean."
Tell us more about that experience. Interesting. It annoys me that our tax money is spent making up for the deficiencies of the business model of those fishing companies.
"taking advantage of"
I mean, I presume they don't really care if the lost boys are rescued. Maybe they'd rather lose them.
I doubt the guys on the bridge on these cargo freighters glass every piece floating junk they see. You'd have to be very lucky and pass closely enough for a sailor to have his curiosity aroused, pick up his binoculars and see you screaming and waving your arms.
The BBC chose to omit the fact that the boy had a Bible with him.
I doubt the guys on the bridge on these cargo freighters glass every piece floating junk they see.
Unlikely that one of those cargo freighters would heave to and lower a boat, especially when those waters are infested with pirates.
"It annoys me that our tax money is spent making up for the deficiencies of the business model of those fishing companies."
You could say the same about a lot of stuff - firefighters risking their lives to same houses built in the middle of areas very likely to be subject to wildfires, rescue operations for people who get in trouble while undertaking very high-risk activities, financial bailouts, etc. Generally not holding people accountable for their actions. They should bill the fishing company for at least some of the rescue costs.
That's a consideration, I'm sure, but they can see what is around them and have radar. I expect every sailor can imagine himself in a similar situation and would be loath to just sail on and leave someone to die.
Ann Althouse said...
"I helped pull a billion guys like that out of the ocean."
Tell us more about that experience. Interesting.
It was so common, on the way back home from tour, I started to think of looking for boat people as my second job. Boats, rickety and over-stuffed with people, or just baskets with one or two individuals, out in the middle of nothing and nowhere, waiting for the sharks or the weather to get them. I remember a few of these rigs (rompongs) but had no idea what they were, beyond good targets. My captain actually got busted for deliberately leaving some people in the water so he could rush off to something he thought would bring him prestige - he was a jackass.
Commercial vessels have very limited crews. Most are below deck. Seeing a rompong from the bridge is not easy if you aren't looking. It is night half the tiime and when the sun is low you can't see much either. It would almost have to be in the ships path.
The companies that fish this way are taking advantage of other businesses (or govt) to rescue the workers they endanger by using this cheap method.
They don't care about rescue. The cost of the rompong is almost nothing and finding another dude to fish is pretty easy, depending on what part of Sulawesi. North Sulawesi is 95% Christian and much better off relatively speaking compared to Central and Southern.
He did have a radio. Apparently couldn't ever connect with the other 10 ships.
You can't really see a floating pile of wood with regular marine radar - wood doesn't really "reflect" well *and* in the ocean it's not unusual to have 8-12 ft waves which means the top of a small pile like this is "at wave level."
If you ever see a little xmass ornament looking thing in the rigging of a sail boat that is a radar reflector. Oddly it can make a 36' sailboat look a lot like an aircraft carrier.
FWIW, one reason cargo boats don't have high resolution radar is that they can't really turn away from anything anyway and if it's small they just ... ride over it.
That dude was lucky.
-XC
Am I the only one who thought about Life of Pi when I saw this story?
"Am I the only one who thought about Life of Pi when I saw this story?"
I did too.
If a radar reflector is too expensive or high-tech to be practical... A flag or banner to indicate distress?
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