Louis Jordan was reported missing on 29 January and was spotted by German tanker far off North Carolina coast

This article is more than 5 years old

This article is more than 5 years old

An American missing at sea for 66 days was rescued from his capsized boat 200 miles off the North Carolina coast, telling coastguards he survived on drinking rainwater and catching fish.

Louis Jordan, 37, who was reported missing by his family in January, was spotted sitting on the overturned hull of his 35ft boat by the crew of a German tanker.

“Every day I was like ‘Please God, send me some rain, send me some water,” Jordan told WAVY-TV. He said he initially did not believe the German container ship was real when he saw it and the crew did not see him until he began waving his arms.

“I waved my hands real slowly, and that’s the signal: ‘I’m in distress help me,’” he said. “I blew my whistles. I had three whistles. They never heard them. I turned my American flag upside down and put that up. That says ‘rescue me’.”



He said he rationed his water to about a pint a day but “for such a long time I was so thirsty”.

A coastguard helicopter crew airlifted him to a hospital in Norfolk, Virginia, and he was said to be able to stand and walk without assistance, but has a shoulder injury and was dehydrated.

His 1950s single-masted sailboat had lost its mast in a storm, which also damaged his communication equipment. It was not known how long ago it capsized.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Louis Jordan (centre) walks from the Coast Guard helicopter to the Sentara Norfolk general hospital in Norfolk, Virginia. Photograph: Steve Earley/AP

His family had feared the worst. Until January, Jordan had been living on his docked sailboat at the Bucksport Plantation marina in South Carolina when he told relatives he was “going into the open water to sail and do some fishing”.

“We expected him to come back and he did not return,” his mother, Norma Davis, of Jacksonville, North Carolina, told the Associated Press. “We knew something had happened. To us it’s just a miracle. We’re just so thrilled that he was found alive”.

According to Jeff Weeks, manager of the marina where Jordan’s boat was docked, he had spent months sanding and painting it. Weeks said Jordan appeared knowledgable about wild fruits and mushrooms, and fished for his meals in inland waterways, but his January trip may have been his first time sailing in the open ocean.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Louis Jordan (second left) was found off the North Carolina coast. Photograph: Steve Earley/AP

“He might sail up and down the Intercoastal Waterway, but he didn’t have the experience he needed to go out into the ocean,” Weeks told AP.

Records show Jordan sailed out of the marina in Conway on 23 January on board the sailboat Angel. Coastguard spokeswoman Marilyn Fajardo said officials in Miami were notified by Jordan’s father, Frank, on 29 January that he had not been seen or heard from in a week.

Alerts were issued from New Jersey to Miami to be on the lookout, and his financial data was also searched to determine whether he had come ashore, but there was no indication that he had. A search was begun on 8 February but the coastguard abandoned its efforts after 10 days. Despite reports from other sailors claiming to have seen Jordan’s boat, none of the sightings was confirmed.

As he had not filed a “float plan” - the nautical equivalent of a flight plan – giving details of his route and destination, there was not enough information to narrow down the search.

Jordan told coastguard officials he had survived by eating rations he had already packed and catching fish.

“We don’t know where he capsized. We won’t really know what happened to him out there until we talk to him at length,” said coastguard chief petty officer Ryan Doss.

In an emotional phone call to his father, released through the coastguard, Jordan is heard telling him: “I haven’t heard you in so long.”

His father replied: “Oh man, it’s nice to hear your voice. People have been praying for you.”

Jordan says of the boat: “I couldn’t fix it, I couldn’t sail back with my boat – I’m so sorry, it’s such a huge loss.”

His father reassures him: “Hey, Louis, you’re fine son. I’m so glad that you’re alive. We prayed and prayed and we hoped that you were still alive. So that’s all the matters.”

He was found 200 miles east of Cape Hatteras, off North Carolina.

NBC reported that coastguard official Lt Krysten Pecora told a press conference at Sentara Norfolk general hospital: “Obviously his family is overjoyed to see him after such a long time out there. I just attribute that to his strength and willingness to live and keep on going. It’s a pretty remarkable.”

His mother told AP: “We do plan on having a wonderful Easter celebration with family and I can’t wait to get him back.”