Three men rescued off deserted island after spelling ’help’ with palm leaves

Three men aboard a 19-ft skiff set off for a short sailing trip into the south Pacific. The weather grew rough, and the tiny ship was tossed into the sea on Monday night.

4号晚上，三名男子乘坐一艘19英尺的小艇，开启了他们短暂的南太平洋航海之旅。但是天气变得越来越糟糕，这艘小艇沉入了大海。

Stranded in the dark and their ship lost far from ground, the men could only swim.

船只沉没的地方离岸太远，黑暗中陷入困境的这几名男子不得不选择游泳。

Buoyed by life vests, they swam nearly two miles under a dark sky until they reached the long-deserted Fanadik, several hundred miles north of Papua New Guinea.

在救生衣的帮助下，他们在星空下游了近两英里的距离，直到他们登上荒芜已久的太平洋岛国密克罗尼西亚的法纳蒂克岛（Fanadik），此岛距巴布亚新几内亚北部几百英里。

For three days they remained stranded on the remote island, praying for rescue.

他们在这个荒岛上呆了三天，祈祷救援的到来。

Then, on Thursday morning, crew aboard a US navy plane zipping through the sky spotted three men waving fluorescent orange life vests. They stood next to piles of palm fronds that spelled: H-E-L-P.

接着，在7日早上，一架美国海军飞机正在该区域上空飞行时，机组成员发现有人正挥舞着荧光橘色的救生衣，他们的边上是用棕榈叶在沙滩上拼出的4个英文字母H-E-L-P（意为“帮助”）。

“This isn’t the set of Castaway ...” the US coast guard wrote in a statement detailing the rescue.

“这不是一队船只遇难者……”美国海岸警卫队在一份声明中详细地记录了本次救援。

The rescuers immediately notified their families that the men had been found alive and well. They were then taken by a local boat to Pulap, the island from where the initially departed.

救援人员立即告知其家属，他们还活着，情况良好。

The coast guard were first notified that the men were missing at sea just before noon on Tuesday. They issued an urgent marine broadcast that enlisted the assistance of the navy and local vessels in the area of the skiff’s last known location.

然后，这几名男子由当地船只带回普拉普岛，即他们出发前所在的岛屿。

Two large cargo ships that are a part of AMVER, a voluntary global ship reporting system sponsored by the US coast guard, diverted course and searched for a combined 17 hours, covering 178 miles of track line. A navy plane set out Thursday morning and two hours into their search, at 6am local time, they located the men.

当海岸警卫队5日中午前收到人员失踪报告后，立即发出紧急海洋广播，招募海军和当地的援助船只，在失踪者最后的已知位置附近区域进行搜救。

“Our combined efforts coupled with the willingness of many different resources to come together and help, led to the successful rescue of these three men in a very remote part of the Pacific,” said Lt William White, a coast guard spokesman, in a statement.

此次救助行动是美国海岸警卫队资助的船舶自动互助援救计划（AMVER）的一部分，出动了两艘大货船，它们改变航线，搜寻时间共达17小时，覆盖了178英里的航迹线。在当地时间7日，一架美国海军飞机出动，在搜寻了两小时后，终于在早上6点发现了失踪者。

After an introduction that included the theme to Gilligan’s Island, White told ABC News that the rescuers first spotted the island because of a fire the men had made. He said without the fire, it may have taken rescuers several more hours before they found the island.

海岸警卫队发言人中尉威廉·怀特在声明中说：“我们大家的共同努力再加上各方力量的支持，让我们这次的荒岛救援行动特别成功。”

The network reported that the men had been traveling to Micronesia to catch a flight when the boat capsized.

怀特首先做了一些介绍，包括对《梦幻岛》这一冒险主题的讲述，然后他告诉ABC(美国广播公司)新闻频道说，救援人员首次发现这一荒岛，是因为这几名男子生成的火堆。他说，如果没有看见火，可能要花更多时间才能发现这一岛屿。

In the last two weeks, the coast guard’s 14th district, which patrols this region of the Pacific, have coordinated seven such search and rescue missions, saving the lives of 15 people and enlisting the help of 10 AMVER vessels and six aircrews.

在过去的两个星期里，负责巡逻这个太平洋区域的海岸警卫队第14区已经进行过七次类似的搜救任务了，拯救了15人的生命，投入了10艘AMVER船只，以及6组机组人员的力量。

“The coast guard 14th district covers an area of responsibility more than 12.2m square miles of land and sea, an area almost twice the size of Russia,” said Jennifer Conklin, search and rescue mission coordinator at the Coast Guard Command Center Honolulu, in the statement.

“海岸警卫队第14区，所负责的区域涵盖1220万平方公的陆地与海洋，其面积几乎是俄罗斯的两倍，” 海岸警卫队指挥中心檀香山处搜救任务协调员珍妮弗·康克林在声明中说。

“Oftentimes, we are thousands of miles away from those who need help and because of that our partnerships with the navy, other search and rescue organizations, partner Pacific nations and AMVER are essential.”

“通常情况下，我们距离那些需要帮助的人有十万八千里。鉴于此，我们与海军、其他搜救组织、太平洋伙伴国家以及AMVER的合作关系是必不可少的。”

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来源:The Guardian爱语吧作者:文凤