OWN CORRESPONDENT, Cape Town | Monday
TWO South African fishermen have told how they escaped drowning to spend nearly two hungry weeks trapped against a rugged cliff-face on Gough Island, holed up with penguins for shelter and praying for rescue.
Frank Wagenstroom and Patrick Watson saw two of their shipmates drown after the dinghies from which they catch crayfish capsized in rough waters near the island, some 2800km northwest of Cape Town.
Watson’s dinghy was flipped over by a wave on November 17. His shipmate drowned but he was washed onto the jagged rocks and sat alone without food and water for four days.
“I tried to eat penguin eggs and even one of the penguins, but I could not so I just sat and waited,” he said on board the South African navy survey vessel Protea, which finally rescued the men last week.
On November 21 Wagenstroom, Deon Davids and Quinton Apollis were washed off a rubber dinghy when they tried to fire food to Watson on a rocket line.
They were washed onto the boulders, but Apollis drowned, tangled in crayfish lines the fishermen had rigged days earlier.
Watson dragged an unconscious Wagenstroom out of the waves but could do nothing for Apollis.
“If I had a knife I could have cut him loose … when he washed out later I tried to resuscitate him but he was bleeding from his mouth and ears.”
For the next nine days Watson and the other two survivors burnt bits of wood and rope to keep warm in clothes that would not dry and talked to keep fear at bay as they sat trapped against the 200m-high cliff.
“We took turns to sleep so that one could keep the seals and the rats and penguins away and keep the fire going,” Wagenstroom said.
A hand-radio and food – nuts, fruit and a loaf of bread – had washed out with him, Wagenstroom said.
The men radioed their main vessel, the Edinburgh, then watched several rescue attempts fail.
Ships could not get near the reefed shore, while stormwinds forced weather forecasters – the island’s only inhabitants – to turn back after spending two days hiking towards the men.
On November 23, their food ran out and the Protea was sent out. It arrived five days later and the helicopter on board plucked them off the cliff while a storm threatened.
“I thought ‘God heard us and he is good’ when the helicopter came,” Wagenstroom said. Davids went back to the Edinburgh, the other two came home to tearful wives. – AFP