(CNN) The San Diego-based USS Rushmore spotted and rescued 65 people who were stranded on a makeshift bamboo raft while transiting through the Makassar Strait between the islands of Sulawesi and Borneo in Indonesia, on Wednesday, according to a U.S. Navy report.

Having recently departed an Indonesian port, lookouts aboard the U.S. Navy dock landing ship noticed distressed persons waving orange and white flags and quickly alerted the Rushmore's commanding officer, Cmdr. Thomas Stephens.

"They had their eyes and ears open; they were looking out and spotted them," said Capt. Clint A. Carroll, commander of the Essex Amphibious Ready Group, in a Stars and Stripes interview

The U.S. military vessel provided assistance to the people on the raft by sending a small boat with two search and rescue swimmers.

"There was a lot of trash and junk breaking off on this raft, and in the end we realized the raft was 80 percent underwater," Stephens said.

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