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By the time 22 Pakistani sailors had made it to
safe harbor off the tip of Texas on the eve of Thanksgiving in 1998,
they had no fuel, no power, no water, no passports, and were starving.
They had been surviving on one hope -- to make it to U.S. waters.
The Bankruptcy
The 740 foot cargo ship, the Delta Pride, and her crew were shipping
bauxite for their Pakistani employer, Tri Star Shipping. Suddenly, they
were left to fend for themselves in a Mexican port when Tri Star went
bankrupt and severed their radio connection. Mexican shipping agents
gave the crew some food and water, but took their passports and ship’s
papers as collateral until harbor fees were paid, which effectively
marooned the ship. For more than five months the crew lived on
rainwater, boiled rice and the few fish they could pull up via milk
crate.
The Prayer
Dying
without any water, anchored at open sea with no one to help them, the
Muslim crew began to pray. Captain Maqsood Ahmed tells what happened
next. “Because we prayed to God, He sent Hurricane Mitch to us and
brought many tons of water and fish! For many people the hurricane was
very bad, but for us it was a blessing.”
Then the
captain found a ten dollar bill in his drawer. “I don’t know how it got
there. I had no money for many months!” Instantly the words,“ In God We
Trust” caught his eyes. “I never paid any attention to these words but
this time they were so attracting to me. I felt in my heart that this
was the answer to my prayer, like advice from God...go to the United
States and people can help you out there.”
The Escape
By buckets they amassed the dregs of low fuel tanks and fired a torch
to heat the heavy fuel to get them started. Two days into the journey
they had so many problems with the generator the captain wanted to turn
back. But the engineer said, “No. We'll keep these engines running.”
The Rescue
“It was a real escape story!” said Captain Eddie Max Stovall, III, from
Port Isabel, Texas, who heard their pleas for help on Thanksgiving Eve.
He called them back on his radio and within a few hours had turned it
into a rescue story. He formed a coalition of locals, the Propeller
Club of America and the Int’l Seamans Club to collect $500.00 worth of
food and water, which he delivered to them the next morning in his
boat. Stovall said they were so weak from hunger, “They couldn’t even
lift up the heaving line and the gallon of water attached.”
As a seaman, Stovall’s heart went out to them. His bride’s did too.
Just married that same week, she felt strongly that the homesick
sailors, who had been away from Pakistan for 18-27 months, should get a
chance to talk to their families again. So they hired a radio operator
to patch 22 calls home. Ahmed recalls, “Families were crying, children
were crying because they didn’t know if we were alive or dead.” The
marine operator then called the Stovalls back to say his boss would
cover the charges!
“This is just... you know, people don't believe in miracles. But I believe,” said Maqsood Ahmed, "I believe now!”
Investors were found to pay the necessary attorneys to place liens on
the ship, the first step in selling it to raise the two years back
wages due the crew and money to transport them back home. The process
will force them to rely on their friends in Port Isabel for another 2-6
weeks.
“We've Come Home”
For
the 36 year-old captain, the ordeal has strengthened his faith in God.
He cites the example set by the United States, “Many countries believe in God but they don’t declare it on their currency!”
The
ordeal has also sealed his love for Americans. “There’s a feeling that
we’ve come to our home. This is a country of immigrants. I’m an
immigrant here! (laughter) The people are so loving and so caring.”
“We
found more friendly people here than in other countries. More
open-hearted. They cooked their food from home and local churches
brought it. ...And because I came in very desperate conditions, I had
nothing to give them except my love.”
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