A sailor who fell overboard from a feed ship in the Pacific Ocean at 4 a.m. held on to an old fishing buoy for more than 14 hours before being rescued.
Alone in the middle of the ocean and without a life jacket, he chose at dawn to swim to a black spot on the horizon, a decision that would ultimately save his life.
Vidam Perevertilov, the chief engineer aboard the Silver Supporter, was dragged back on deck for almost a full day after falling overboard on February 16 when his cargo was a supply between the Tauranga port in New Zealand on the North island and the isolated British territory of Pitcairn.
He later told his son that he felt dizzy after completing a night shift in the engine room, and walked out to the deck to recover, before falling.
“He can not remember falling overboard. He may have fainted, ‘Perevetilov’s son Marat told the New Zealand Stuff.
Perevetilov remembers regaining consciousness and seeing his ship sail away in the dark. The crew did not notice for six hours that he was missing.
The ship sent an emergency call and French naval planes joined the search from Polynesia, while the meteorological service of France investigated winds and currents to determine possible drift patterns.
Crew on board was able to determine that Perevertilov was on board at 4 a.m. because he was submitting a log report at the time. When he went overboard, the Silver Supporter was about 400 nautical miles south of the southernmost Australian islands of French Polynesia.
In the middle of the ocean, with his ship off the horizon out of sight, 52-year-old Perevertilov made a decision at dawn that would ultimately save his life.
He sees a black spot on the horizon and, unsure what it is, swims there.
“His will to survive was strong, but he told me until the sun came up, he was struggling to keep his head above water,” Marat told Stuff. from Lithuania.
The point on the horizon appears to be an abandoned fishing buoy. Perevertilov held on to it until he was found around 6 p.m. His ship was in a fixed search pattern when a crew member heard a faint voice, and saw a lookout as a hand was lifted out of the ocean.
Perevertilov was exhausted but unharmed.
Vidam Perevertilov fell overboard about 400 nautical miles south of the Australian islands. He was rescued after 14 hours and clung to an old fishing buoy.
British High Commissioner to New Zealand Laura Clarke, who also serves as governor of Pitcairn Island, told the New Zealand Herald that everyone was “very relieved” to hear of the rescue.
“We all feared the worst, given the enormous size of the Pacific Ocean and its strong currents,” she said.
“The fact that the Silver Supporter found him and that he survived it is therefore only surprising: a story of survival that even Captain Bligh … would have applauded.”
William Bligh was driven by mutineers on his ship, the Bounty 1789, and successfully sailed more than 6,000 km in an open launch to the island of Timor, which was then called the Dutch East Indies.
The mutineers would become the first inhabitants of Pitcairn Island, and their descendants still live there. The remote volcanic island remains a British territory.
Perevetilov’s son, Marat, told Stuff that his father had left the fishing buoy in the sea, rather than taking it as a souvenir.
“It’s funny. He said he wanted to leave it there so it could save another person’s life.”