Scepticism at angler’s amazing tale of survival

But that is what a man identifying himself as 37-year-old Jose Salvador Alvarenga told the US ambassador in the Marshall Islands and the nation’s officials during a meeting. He was then taken to a local hospital for monitoring.

Mr Alvarenga washed ashore on the tiny atoll of Ebon in the Pacific Ocean last week before being taken to the capital, Majuro, on Monday.

“It’s hard for me to imagine someone surviving 13 months at sea,” said Ambassador Tom Armbruster in Majuro.

“But it’s also hard to imagine how someone might arrive on Ebon out of the blue. Certainly this guy has had an ordeal, and has been at sea for some time.”

Other officials were reacting cautiously to the Spanish-speaking man’s story while they tried to piece together more information.

If true, the man’s ordeal would rank among the greatest tales ever of survival at sea.

Mexico’s foreign relations department says the man told Mexico’s ambassador to the Philippines, Julio Camarena, he set out from an area near the coastal town of Tonala in southern Chiapas state. That would mean his journey covered a distance of more than 6,500 miles, if he drifted in a straight line.

Mr Armbruster said the soft-spoken man complained of joint pain and had a limp but was able to walk. He had long hair and a beard, the ambassador said, and rather than appearing emaciated he looked puffy in places, including around his ankles. Otherwise
he seemed in reasonable health.

Mr Armbruster, who speaks Spanish, said the survivor said that on December 21, 2012, he left Mexico in his 23ft glass fibre boat accompanied by a teenager he knew only as Ezekiel. A storm blew them off course, and soon they were lost.

“He talked about scooping up little fish that swam alongside the boat and eating them raw,” Mr Armbruster said. “He also said he ate birds, and drank birds’ blood.”

After about a month, Ezekiel died, the survivor told officials.