Three men of sub-Saharan origin have been hospitalized with moderate dehydration after surviving an eleven-day crossing of the Atlantic sitting on the rudder blade of an oil tanker, from the port of Lagos (Nigeria) to Las Palmas de Gran Canaria.
The three have been rescued this Tuesday by the Salvamar Nunki in the port of the capital of Gran Canaria, after being sighted in that dangerous place on the ship’s hull, with barely half a meter from your feet to the wateras can be seen in a photograph provided for Maritime Rescue.
The emergency medical assistance gave them first attention at the sports dock, as soon as they disembarked ashore, but They were immediately referred to hospitals. Doctor Negrin (two of them) and Insular (the third), given their situation, a spokeswoman for 112 in the Canary Islands has reported.
The three were traveling clandestinely on the Maltese-flagged oil tanker Alithini II, which left from Lagos on the 17thaccording to the data on its route collected by the maritime tracking portals Vesselfinder.com and Marinetraffic.com.
The place where they were found is a small space located in the upper part of the rudder blade, on the outside of the hull, under the stern, out in the open and at the mercy of any blow of the sea.
It is not the first time that stowaways have been detected in the port of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria in such a dangerous place on the ship: in November 2020, three other people were found on the rudder blade of the Ocean Princess II, a tanker from Saint Vincent and the Grenadines; and a month earlier, another three on the Champion Pula, another Norwegian oil tanker. The two ships had left Lagos.
