THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, June 6, 1994 TAG: 9406060066
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: D3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY PERRY PARKS AND ANNE SAITA, STAFF WRITERS
DATELINE: 940606 LENGTH: ELIZABETH CITY
The two sailors, slightly dehydrated and malnourished, arrived at Air Station Elizabeth City in good condition with only some cuts and bruises to show from their ordeal.
{REST} ``They look very, very good,'' said Lt. Cmdr. Neal Collins, the physician who examined the two men in Elizabeth City. ``If they were at sea for 20 days, they were well prepared.''
The men, who said they'd been fishing off the Florida Coast, gave conflicting reports of their national origin.
One man, Easwar Persaud Ganase, 36, originally said he was Haitian but told another official he was from Guyana. The second man, Michel or Melila Joseph, in his early 20s, claimed to be from the Bahamas and later said he was from Fort Lauderdale.
Coast Guard officials held the men in an administration building, until a Norfolk-based officer from the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service arrived for interviews. After two hours of interviews, the two men were expected to be released, said Lt. Amy Paylor, a Coast Guard spokeswoman.
The men, weary, barefooted and waterlogged in ragged clothes, declined to talk with reporters or be photographed shortly after being led from the helicopter at 3:30 p.m.
A tugboat towing a barge off the North Carolina coast spotted the men's distressed 19-foot open pleasure craft Sunday and called the Coast Guard after being unable to reach the disabled boat by radio.
An HH-60 Jayhawk helicopter was launched at about 1:30 p.m. An 82-foot cutter was diverted to the rescue but recalled as operations moved smoothly.
Chopper pilot Dave Gundersen said the two men waved when spotted by the helicopter. Rescue swimmer Scott Adlon boarded the boat, gave the two men life jackets and sent them into the water to be hoisted by a rescue basket.
``Usually you don't find people who have been drifting 16 days,'' Gundersen said after the rescue. ``They were very lucky.''
The two men claimed to be from the United States and said they were on a fishing expedition off Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., when their 175-horsepower outboard engine failed and they became caught in the Gulf Stream.
Gundersen said he did not see fishing gear or identification numbers on the boat, named the Rapallo.
Both men were carrying identification, some of it conflicting.
Joseph presented a Bahamian affidavit and baptismal certificate that listed his first name as Michel and his age as 20. A voter registration card from the Bahamas, however, lists him as Melila, age 23.
Ganase, carried a Minnesota identification card that expired in 1992.
{KEYWORDS} RESCUE U.S. COAST GUARD
by CNB