2023-10-27 05:31:00
Half a century ago, Douglas Robertson and his family were involved in a maximum risk expedition in the waters of the Pacific. With water up to his hips, Robertson watched his sailboat sink, while a group of killer whales prowled around the damaged vessel.
The shocking story of this family that loves traveling on the high seas dates back to 1972. On the website BBC News They reproduced the statements of the castaway “I still remember the terror, We watched the killer whales rise to the surface.; One had opened her head and her blood was spilling into the sea,” Douglas recalled fifty years following the incident.
The whales rammed the sailboat and the nightmare began. Douglas and his family were left adrift in the Pacific Ocean for 38 days.
In this period, They ate dehydrated turtle meat and had to ration the consumption of the scarce reserves of drinking water. that they had at their disposal.
The dream of crossing the Pacific on a sailboat actually belonged to Douglas’ father, Dougal Robertson, an old captain who wanted to imitate the feat of the British Robin Knox-Johnston, whose name became popular in 1969 following becoming the first to sail around the Pacific. to the world on a sailboat without companions.
Douglas’s father planned the daring expedition over three years, until he decided to sell his family farm in central England and used the proceeds to buy Luthisa 13 meter long schooner which, unfortunately, would end up at the bottom of the seabed.
Douglas remembers her with a nostalgic air: “It was old, but in perfect condition.”
Dougal was extremely excited regarding the journey they were going to undertake as a family. “My father insisted, he said we had to sail around the world because it was something very different from the life we were living,” Douglas said according to the chain’s site. BBC.
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The first part of the journey took them to Lisbon, in Portugal, and then to Tenerife, in the Canary Islands.
The next destination was Jamaica and then they crossed the Panama Canal.
There was an encounter with “a large whale, 15 meters long” that ended up becoming a premonition.
The cetacean approached the boat and “had infested the entire boat with its smell.”
The size of the creature frightened the family, but following 15 minutes it moved away and they continued their journey.
The next stop would be the Galapagos, and from this point they undertook a 45-day journey to the Marquesas Islands, in French Polynesia.
The fierce attack of the orcas
Douglas recalled that “it was 10 a.m. on June 15, 1972 when we heard ‘bang, bang, bang.’ “We didn’t know what had hit us.”
Both he and his brother were on deck, from where they saw a group of orcas emerge from the water, one of them with blood flowing from an open wound on its head, following having hit the boat.
“He lifted the boat completely out of the water, shook it completely,” the witness stated.
Douglas ran to find his father, who was below deck, ankle-deep in water. Before his father might explain to him that the boat was sinking, the water had already risen to his waist.
“That’s when he said ‘abandon the ship’, but my question was ‘abandon it where?’”Douglas observed.
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Little by little, terror began to take over the young castaway: “I began to think that everything had to be a dream, that I would wake up and everything would be fine.”
“But all was not well,” Douglas reasoned.
When he managed to come out of his stupor, He ran to inflate a couple of rafts that they had bought in the Canary Islandsand began to load them with the basics to survive.
In the few minutes it took for the boat to disappear under the Robertsons’ feet, Lyn (Douglas’ mom) managed to grab a few essential things: a knife, 10 oranges, 6 lemons and some sparklers.
“I was the last one to get on the raft, and I saw that the twins were crying, but they weren’t crying out of fear: they were crying because we had just lost Lucette”, warned the protagonist of the shocking story.
While the orcas disappeared in the distance, the family was left adrift on two small rafts, in the immensity of the Pacific.
Matter of life or death
The dramatic thing was that the water supply It was going to last them for 10 days and the closest place, the Galapagos Islands, was regarding 20 days away.
But fortunately it rained
In terms of food, A turtle approached the raft and they had to sacrifice it to be able to feed and survive..
“I had her very close, and I hit her in the head with the oar. Her eyes filled with blood and she just swam away. The second one, I caught it but I didn’t take into account the sharp fins they have on it, and it slipped out of my hands. It was only until the third turtle that we were able to capture the prey, and realized that we might drink the blood because it was not salty. “We thought it might replace water,” Douglas said.
Over the course of those 38 days they learned to dehydrate the meat in the sun so that it would last longer and to use rainwater.
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Douglas added that when water became scarce once more, His mother had an idea to use dirty rainwater mixed with blood and grease. that had accumulated on the floor of the raft: administer it through enemas.
“That’s how we were able to consume that water, through the enema, because your intestine absorbs the water, but, since it is entering through the other side of the stomach, it is not absorbing any of the toxins. It’s almost like a filter”explained the castaway.
Until Douglas came up with the idea of using the flares to attract the attention of a ship.
“He lit the second flare, and we saw how the ship altered its course, regarding 20 degrees, in our direction, but not towards us. Then, when she turned another 20 degrees I thought ‘ships at sea don’t alter course like that without purpose’ and that’s when she sounded the horn.”
“They were going to rescue us, the moment we were waiting for 38 days”said the survivor.
It was a Japanese fishing boat that finally rescued the Robertson family.
The final return
When they arrived in Panama City, the story began to circulate and attract the attention of the international press. The survivors were taken to the hotel restaurant, and ate to satiety. Logically, they were anemic and dehydrated, but full of happiness for the miraculous rescue.
After a few days, they returned by ship to England.
When he told the details of the story, Douglas acknowledged that he believes his parents never got over the trauma of having put their children in this dangerous situation and that is why they ended up divorcing.
Lyn returned to the farm. Dougal wrote a book regarding the voyage and spent the rest of her life on a boat in the Mediterranean.
Instead, Douglas entered the Navy and later sold yachts. He also wrote a book regarding the journey called “The Last Voyage of the Lucette.”.
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