“We stared at death in the face... We had given up hope as we waited for our vessel to go down on each pounding by savage waves in pitch darkness.”

This is a graphic account by Ali Khedri, the captain of the fishing trawler Lorenzo Madre, of the endless moments of terror on the high seas before being saved by the Armed Forces of Malta on Tuesday.

Mr. Khedri and his two Tunisian crew members - Mohammed Ali Khalil, 31, and Hatem Busfara, 34 - went through terrifying moments after the engine of their trawler stalled in huge waves churned by Force 6-8 winds.

The three were located by the AFM on Tuesday afternoon after Mrs. Khedri managed to make satellite phone contact with her husband.

Mr. Khedri, who is married to a Maltese and is a father of five, appeared to be more concerned now at the recovery of Mr. Khalil who sustained serious leg injuries during the ordeal at about noon on Monday.

Mr. Khalil was injured when he was hit by iron railings that were dislodged by the rope of a parachute used at the bow to keep the drifting trawler going in the direction of the wind and, thus, preventing it from taking water from its side.

Mr. Khedri, who has been living in Malta for the past 20 years and is a Maltese citizen, said that since the injured crewman was not entitled to free treatment, he was asked for a total of Lm1,500: Lm500 in advance to carry out the necessary treatment before two operations, each costing Lm500. His stay in hospital will cost an additional daily Lm110.

He said the injured crew member was not in a position to pay such money as he had just arrived from Tunis to work.

Mr. Khedri said he will pay for Mr. Khalil’s recovery as he felt responsible because it was he who had brought the injured crewman over to Malta to work for him on the trawler.

Mr. Khedri, whose youngest child is seven months old and the oldest is 12, said he could not possibly fork out the money in one lump sum. He still has debts on the boat apart from a bill of Lm900 to cover the cost to tow the Lorenzo Madre to shore as well as the cost of repairs to the boat.

Mr. Khedri, owner of the Lorenzo Madre, said this was his first job with the tuna penning company Fish-to-Fish and his assignment was to dump the heads of slaughtered tuna at a distance of 13 nautical miles out at sea.

Although the sea was a little rough on Saturday he decided to sail out because the operation would not have taken longer than a couple of hours. After the operation was over, trouble started when the engine stalled after water somehow mixed with diesel.

”As I went down to the engine room to try to restart the engine we began to drift with the strong current and from 13 nautical miles we ended up over 72 nautical miles away from land. The 80-foot trawler behaved like a matchbox and was constantly battered by the high waves. We could not do anything but abandon ourselves to our fate,” he said as he recalled his ordeal.

”Hell broke loose after the engine stopped and we experienced storm after storm... At that time we were drifting at a rate of six nautical miles an hour. I have been going to sea for 25 years and I have never seen anything like that,” Mr. Khedri said.

The vehicle monitoring system, a satellite system used to keep fishing vessels under surveillance, did not function and the radio was also out of action as there was no power.

The satellite phone’s battery was running low. Yet, it was through this sat-phone that contact was made between Mr. Khedri and his wife; coordinates were supplied enabling the AFM’s search and rescue unit to locate the trawler.

“I think a miracle occurred leading to our rescue. I placed the phone under the sun for a couple of hours and the batteries must have received some charge because the phone functioned enough to allow brief contacts,” Mr. Khedri said.

There was still that little power in the trawler’s batteries that enabled the GPS to function for a while, he said.

Mr. Khedri explained that, usually, everything would be in tip top condition and batteries charged when he goes on a long journey. But that day he did not expect to stay long at sea.

He had informed his wife by mobile phone that they had engine trouble on Saturday and that it would probably take them until Sunday evening to return.

At no time did they see any other vessels or aircraft during the time they spent at sea. “All we saw was heavy rain, sea spray and whirlwinds.”

”Everything started going wrong so suddenly... the sea is like a fierce dog. You have to be prepared for it, because it will destroy you,” he remarked.

This was the second time he nearly lost his life in an incident at sea. At the age of 16 he had spent two days clinging to a piece of wood before he was saved off the Tunisian coast after the trawler on which he was employed foundered in rough seas. Five persons had died in that incident.


The Lorenzo Madre off Marsaxlokk