An Indonesian teenager survived seven weeks adrift at sea after the wooden fish trap he was working on slipped its moorings. For three years, Aldi Novel Adilang worked as a lamp keeper on a floating fish trap around 80 miles out from the Indonesian coast. He lit lamps to attract fish, which would then be harvested and picked up once a week by his company. His hut would also be resupplied with food, water and fuel.
However, on July 14, heavy winds broke the moorings that held the fish trap, casting him adrift. Over the next 49 days, Adilang drifted thousands of miles from home with no paddle or engine. Adilang recently told The Associated Press that he turned on a lamp every time he sighted another ship and can’t remember how many sailed past him.
The teenager said he ran out of food within a week and had to survive by using the hut’s wood to cook fish while sipping seawater through his clothes to filter out the salt.
With the ordeal becoming more difficult to bear, Adilang considered jumping into the ocean. Thankfully though, he remembered his parents telling him to pray during times of distress and said that reading the Bible on board helped.
Finally, on Aug. 31, the carrier Arpeggio rescued Adilang. He was handed over to Indonesian consulate officials in Japan and he was flown home to Manado, Indonesia, on Sept. 8. The Indonesian consulate general in Osaka, Mirza Nurhidayat, told the Jakarta Post that Adilang was in good health.
By: Maytinee Kramer
