A sailor who fell overboard from a supply vessel in the Pacific Ocean at 4 a.m. spent more than 14 hours hanging from an old fishing buoy before being rescued.
Alone in the middle of the ocean and without a life jacket, at dawn he chose 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 transported back on deck for almost a full day after falling overboard on February 16, when his carrier made a supply between the New Zealand port of Tauranga on the country’s northern island. and the isolated British territory of Pitcairn.
He later told his son that he felt dizzy after finishing a night shift in the engine room and went out on the deck to recover before falling.
“She does not remember falling overboard. Maybe he fainted, “Marvet, Perevetilov’s son, told Stuff in New Zealand.
Perevetilov remembers that he gained consciousness by seeing his ship go dark. The crew did not notice that he was missing for six hours.
The ship made an emergency call and the French navy planes joined the search in Polynesia, while the French meteorological service examined the winds and currents to determine the likely patterns of drift.
The crew on board was able to establish that Perevertilov was on board at 4 a.m. because he had submitted a diary report at the time. At the time of crossing, the Silver Supporter was about 400 nautical miles south of the Austral Islands in southern French Polynesia.
In the middle of the ocean, with his ship in sight across the horizon, 52-year-old Perevertilov made a decision at dawn to save his life.
He saw a black spot on the horizon and, unsure of what it was, swam towards it.
“His will to survive was strong, but he told me until the sun came out that he was struggling to stay afloat,” Marat told Stuff. from Lithuania.
The point on the horizon turned out to be an abandoned fishing buoy. Perevertilov clung to him until he was found at about 6 p.m. His ship was in an established search pattern when a crew member heard a faint voice and an observer saw a hand raised from the ocean.
Perevertilov was taken out of the water exhausted but unharmed.
Vidam Perevertilov fell overboard about 400 nautical miles south of the Southern Islands. He was rescued after 14 hours, hanging from an old fishing buoy.
The British High Commissioner to New Zealand, Laura Clarke, who also serves as governor of Pitcairn Island, told the New Zealand Herald that everyone is “extremely relieved” to hear about the rescue.
“We were all afraid of the worst, given the size of the Pacific Ocean and its strong currents,” she said.
“So the fact that the Silver Supporter found him and survived is simply amazing: a survival story that even Captain Bligh … would have applauded.”
William Bligh was drifted by rebels on his ship Bounty 1789 and successfully sailed more than 6,000 km in an open launch to the island of Timor, then called the Dutch East Indies.
The mutineers will become the first inhabitants of Pitcairn Island, and their descendants still live there. The remote volcanic island remains British territory.
Perevetilov’s son, Marat, told Stuff that his father left the fishing suitcase in the sea, rather than take it as a souvenir.
“It’s funny. He said he wanted to leave it there so he could save someone else’s life.”