Tragedy as two men adrift for two months die within hours of being rescued

Seven Papua New Guinean men have been rescued after spending more than two months adrift in the Pacific Ocean after their boat ran out of fuel. The group was spotted drifting near the island of Nauru by a helicopter belonging to US fishing vessel Ocean Encounter on Sunday.

Seven men were onboard and told Ocean Encounter captain Ben Maughan they left Tabar Island in the New Ireland area of Papua New Guinea on September 14 to return home to Lihir Island, a distance of about 30 miles. However, they ran out of fuel during what was expected to be a daytime trip and drifted to the northeast, Mr Maughan said in a report to a shipping agent in the Marshall Islands.

Ocean Encounter took the group to Majuro, the capital of the Marshall Islands, to get medical treatment for the survivors, who Mr Maughan described as suffering from "overexposure and aggressive signs of malnutrition."



However, two did not make it. One of the rescued men died on board Ocean Encounter about five hours after the rescue and on Tuesday a second man died, according to Majuro-based Uliga Shipping Agency official Morton Enos. An eighth passenger of the small boat, a 17-year-old, was washed overboard and lost at sea during a storm last Friday, Mr Maughan reported the survivors as saying.

After being picked up, crew spoon-fed small amounts of water and a rice-and-water mix to the survivors because "their systems could only accept small amounts under their condition," Mr Maughan said in a report to the shipping agent. It was not immediately known what the men had to eat or drink during their two-month ordeal.

Mr Maughan also reported that the survivors said they saw several fishing vessels during their two months at sea, but these "ignored their gestures (calling for) assistance."

There's a audio report on this page.