36 days at sea: How these castaways survived hallucinations, thirst and desperation
The IndependentFor free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Their destiny, many say, was “in God’s hands.” Every young man like Dieye knows someone who made it to Spain and sent back remittances to support loved ones. “He was the first to die.” Dieye says he did not know the captain’s name or the name of those who assaulted him. “Sometimes I sat at the ledge of the pirogue,” Gaye recalls, “so if I died, I wouldn’t have to tire the others — they could just push me over.” An outsider on board Ncula, a 22-year-old seasonal farm worker from Guinea-Bissau, had been trying to save money by working in the fields of Fass Boye before he boarded the doomed pirogue. “If helped us, the children wouldn’t leave,” says Gotte Kandji, father of 16-year-old Mor Kandji, one of Gotte’s 27 children, who was among the survivors.