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full screen The Spanish maritime rescue has taken care of three men who rode on the helm of a ship from Nigeria to the Canary Islands. Archive image. Photo: Andres Gutierrez/AP/TT
Spanish maritime rescue has rescued three stowaways who clung to a ship’s rudder all the way from Nigeria to the Canary Islands. The three men were dehydrated and hypothermic and taken to hospital, but survived the eleven-day journey just above the waterline.
The men were discovered on the oil tanker Alithini II in the port of Las Palmas on Gran Canaria. The ship, which is flagged in Malta, left Lagos in Nigeria on November 17 and called at Las Palmas on Monday.
It is not the first time that stowaways have been found on top of the helms of commercial ships bound for the Canary Islands, even though it is extremely dangerous. Last year, a 14-year-old boy from Nigeria survived two weeks on a rudder, writes The Guardian.