An SOS message in a bottle has been found in Ireland that is believed to have come from the Taiwanese captain of fishing vessel Yong Yu Sing No. 18 (永裕興18號), who has been missing without a trace for over four years, along with nine Indonesian crew members.
The vessel, registered to Suao (蘇澳), went missing near Hawaii on Dec. 30, 2020.
The ship has since been recovered, but the 10 crew members have never been found.
Photo courtesy of Reddit user @almym
The captain, surnamed Lee (李), is believed to have signed the note with his name.
A post appeared on Reddit on Tuesday after a man and his friend found a message in a bottle washed up in a rock pool on the coast of Inis Oirr Island (Inisheer) off the west coast of Ireland.
The bottle contained a letter with the Chinese character for Lee and a note in Indonesian, translated by the Reddit user to “please send help, we have been lost since Dec. 20, there are three of us here, we don’t know the name of this island, we are injured.”
It also had the words “help hello SOS” and “Yong Yu Sing 18” in English.
Lee’s wife reported the vessel missing on Dec. 30, 2020, after losing contact.
No distress signal was received, although the vessel’s owner contacted the Suao Fishery Communication Radio Station on Jan. 1, 2021, for assistance.
Subsequent tracking indicated that the ship had likely gone missing near Midway Atoll in Hawaii.
A US aircraft later located the vessel drifting at sea, although all 10 crew members were missing when crew from nearby Taiwanese fishing boats boarded the boat.
The vessel was towed back to Suao port, a national record-setting journey of 18,250km, taking 57 days.
An investigation in 2021 found no evidence of a criminal act on board the vessel.
The Yilan District Prosecutors’ Office concluded that the incident was the result of severe weather causing structural damage in multiple areas of the vessel, closing the case on June 1 of that year.
The family of 63-year-old Lee has been informed and the Suao Fishermen's Association would report the incident to the government, association director Chen Chun-sheng (陳春生) said today.
Chen said he hopes the government can verify the message and coordinate an international search-and-rescue response if its contents are found to be true.
Additional reporting by Yu Ming-chin
‘NON-RED’: Taiwan and Ireland should work together to foster a values-driven, democratic economic system, leveraging their complementary industries, Lai said President William Lai (賴清德) yesterday expressed hopes for closer ties between Taiwan and Ireland, and that both countries could collaborate to create a values-driven, democracy-centered economic system. He made the remarks while meeting with an Irish cross-party parliamentary delegation visiting Taiwan. The delegation, led by John McGuinness, deputy speaker of the Irish house of representatives, known as the Dail, includes Irish lawmakers Malcolm Byrne, Barry Ward, Ken O’Flynn and Teresa Costello. McGuinness, who chairs the Ireland-Taiwan Parliamentary Friendship Association, is a friend of Taiwan, and under his leadership, the association’s influence has grown over the past few years, Lai said. Ireland is
A saleswoman, surnamed Chen (陳), earlier this month was handed an 18-month prison term for embezzling more than 2,000 pairs of shoes while working at a department store in Tainan. The Tainan District Court convicted Chen of embezzlement in a ruling on July 7, sentencing her to prison for illegally profiting NT$7.32 million (US$248,929) at the expense of her employer. Chen was also given the opportunity to reach a financial settlement, but she declined. Chen was responsible for the sales counter of Nike shoes at Tainan’s Shinkong Mitsukoshi Zhongshan branch, where she had been employed since October 2019. She had previously worked
FINAL COUNTDOWN: About 50,000 attended a pro-recall rally yesterday, while the KMT and the TPP plan to rally against the recall votes today Democracy activists, together with arts and education representatives, yesterday organized a motorcade, while thousands gathered on Ketagalan Boulevard in Taipei in the evening in support of tomorrow’s recall votes. Recall votes for 24 Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers and suspended Hsinchu City mayor Ann Kao (高虹安) are to be held tomorrow, while recall votes for seven other KMT lawmakers are scheduled for Aug. 23. The afternoon motorcade was led by the Spring Breeze Culture and Arts Foundation, the Tyzen Hsiao Foundation and the Friends of Lee Teng-hui Association, and was joined by delegates from the Taiwan Statebuilding Party and the Taiwan Solidarity
TRANSPORT DISRUPTION: More than 100 ferry services were suspended due to rough seas and strong winds, and eight domestic flights were canceled, the ministry said Tropical Storm Wipha intensified slightly yesterday as it passed closest to Taiwan, dumping more than 200mm of rain in Hualien and Taitung counties, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 11am, Wipha was about 210km southwest of Cape Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻) and was moving west-northwest at 27km per hour (kph). The storm carried maximum sustained winds of 101kph and gusts reaching 126kph, with a 150km radius of strong winds, CWA data showed. Wipha’s outer rainbands began sweeping across Taiwan early yesterday, delivering steady rainfall in the east and scattered showers in other regions, forecasters said. More heavy rain was expected, especially in the eastern
RSS