Storm Conditions Hit Wellington (Photo : Getty Images)
For days, 72-year-old French sailor Bernard Couvet was stranded in the Caribbean without any signal, water or food. A tanker passed him, but fortunately for Couvet, a vessel owned by Qingdao Winning International Management saved him.
By the time that Winning Joy, a Chinese cargo ship heard the distress signal from Couvet's yacht, SV Kaflo, the Frenchman had not eaten or drank for three days. That was because his electronic navigation systems broke down and he ran out of fuel.
Couvet could only hope that another vessel would respond to his Mayday calls. On Aug. 18, 2015, amid dangerous high winds, Winning Joy responded to the old man's request for help and rescued him. The rescue was only made known in January when Winning Joy docked at Qingdoa, its home port in eastern China, reports Chinadaily.
Lu Fubin, master of the ship, recalls getting weak and intermittent Mayday distress calls from a very high frequency radio. Despite the Caribbean Sea being pirate-infested waters, Lu responded to the request. Once the crew confirmed it was a real distress call, Winning Joy headed for the area while seeking permission from the ship owner to rescue the caller from the yacht.
After the first rope that tied the two vessels snapped, Lu ordered everyone on the crew to help in the rescue effort. Using a thicker cable did the trick by pulling the yacht closer to the cargo ship from where the Chinese sailors lowered a rope ladder to rescue Couvet.
"Offering timely help to those who suffer at sea is the duty and responsibility that any Chinese is obliged and we should all embrace our tradition and virtue of helping others," says Lu.
Following the rise of piracy in the area, in 2013, the U.S. deployed a senior official in the Bahamas to boost bilateral cooperation on countering piracy globally as the country was the chair that year of the Contact Group on Piracy off the Coast of Somalia, reports Quartz.
Besides yachts in distress, vessels plying the Caribbean Sea and Mediterranean Sea recently have also been involved in rescuing migrant vessels.
