emergencies
Shipwrecked man and dog rescued after months
A catamaran on the Baltic Sea. In the Pacific, an Australian man and his dog were rescued from a disabled catamaran after three months. photo
© Daniel Reinhardt/dpa
An Australian sails from Mexico with his dog Bella – and runs into problems: After a storm, the on-board electronics of his catamaran fail. For three months he and Bella floated on the Pacific.
Today the trawler “María Delia” with the survivor on board is expected in the Mexican port city of Manzanillo, said the company Grupomar, which owns the rescue ship. The man is fine, said the port captain, Marciano Valdez, of the German Press Agency. The company wants to welcome the crew like heroes.
Emaciated and with a bushy beard
Smiling, with a bushy beard, looking emaciated and tired: This is what Timothy Shaddock looked like in the photos distributed by the company. Some showed him with a blood pressure monitor on his arm. The bitch Bella also seemed to be doing well there, given the circumstances. However, Shaddock was in an extremely precarious situation on the catamaran “Aloha Toa” without adequate food and accommodation, the company said in a statement. Accordingly, the man is 54 years old. The media from Australia had spoken of 51 years.
At the end of last week, the sailor was sighted by a fishing helicopter, several Australian media reported. The Guardian newspaper reported that he and his dog only ate raw fish and rainwater for weeks. The on-board electronics had previously failed after a storm. Shaddock himself told 9News that the past few months had been “a terrible ordeal.” “I just need rest and good food because I was alone at sea for so long. Otherwise, my health is very good.”
According to media reports, the catamaran was discovered by the trawler, whose crew was on the lookout for schools of tuna with a small helicopter. The fishermen set course for the catamaran and brought the man and dog on board. According to these reports, the shipwrecked man set sail in April in La Paz, Mexico. The original destination was French Polynesia – thousands of kilometers away in the Pacific.
Tuna Union: “God is Great!”
The man and dog are in surprisingly good condition, 9News quoted a doctor who was able to examine Shaddock on board. The association of tuna fishermen “Atuneros mexicanos” posted on Facebook: “It has been announced that the trawler “Maria Delia” of the Marindustrias company has just rescued a shipwrecked man after three months. There is no doubt: God is great!” Marindustrias is owned by the Grupomar group. “I’m proud of my sailors,” said company boss Antonio Suárez.
Survival expert Mike Tipton told 9News that Shaddock was extremely lucky. Discovering such a small boat in the ocean is “like finding a needle in a haystack”. The fact that the dog was there probably “helped enormously” in the long time without human contact, said Tipton. “I think maybe that made the difference.”