49 days at sea in a fishing hut

The middle of July for most people involves enjoying the warm weather and having a good excuse to wear flip-flops, but for an Indonesian teenager named Aldi Novel Adilang, it meant having to spend several weeks alone on a small floating platform in the middle of the ocean.

(Adilangs rompong floating in the ocean)

Adilang worked as a fisherman, but his job was a bit different from the regular boat fishermen because he worked on something called a rompong, a small floating platform that had a fish trap underneath and a small hut on top to live in. The one Adilang worked on was 77 miles off the Indonesian coast, and his job involved operating the trap and storing the fish while waiting for the weekly supply run that would collect his catch and bring him supplies.

The rompong is anchored to the sea bed by several ropes, but on the 14th of July, high winds caused the ropes to dislodge and Adilang began to drift into the ocean on his tiny wooden platform. Because the rompong was designed to be static, it didn’t contain anything in the form of propulsion, not even a single paddle, and Aidlang was left at the mercy of the current.

Over the next few weeks, Adilang saw several ships in the distance and tried everything he could to signal them, but they either didn’t see him or ignored him. He later stated in various interviews that he was sure he was going to die, and would often cry when he began to think about his situation.

Back home his family didn’t realize he was missing for a while because of the nature of his job, but the first supply boat to reach his expected location was the one to raise the alarm, though there was little they could do since it had been several days at that point he would have been floating in the current for, and a search party with a handful of fishing vessels would be a waste of time.

(Adilang shortly after being brought onto the ship that rescued him)

The current took Adilang towards South America and further away from land each day, something that he realized and caused his already crushed spirit to sink even lower. The only good thing he had going for his situation was the fact he was on a floating fish trap, which managed to provide enough food for him to stay surprisingly well-fed. It’s not clear how he managed to stay so hydrated, but when he was eventually rescued he didn’t even need to be hospitalized for malnourishment.

There was a small emergency radio on the rompong, but it only had a short range and couldn’t send out a signal unless a ship was within a few miles. On 31 August, a ship called the Arpeggio sailing from Panama to Japan picked him up near the island of Guam, around 1,500 miles from his original starting location after hearing the emergency distress signal from his radio.

The ship was advised to take him to Japan, and then two days later he was flown back to Indonesia and was reunited with his family. Apart from needing a good meal and something to drink, he was in excellent shape and only had the mental trauma of his situation to deal with.