Elvis Francois was missing at sea for more than 20 days with nothing to eat but ketchup and condiments. When he closed his eyes and went to sleep, he usually dreamed of limes.
“I was so thirsty,” said the 47-year-old, who dreamed of squeezing the green citrus and squirting the juice down his throat.
Mr Francois spent 24 days drifting across the Caribbean Sea from St Maarten to the Colombian coast before being rescued by the Colombian Navy in January. Mr. Francois said he survived by sipping a soup mix made from ketchup and spices. News of his ordeal prompted Heinz, Kraft Heinz Co.’s namesake ketchup brand, to launch a social media campaign last month asking people to locate Mr. Francois so the company could help him to buy a new boat.
Mr. Francois said the boat he was on wasn’t his. He had moved to the island of St. Maarten from Dominica in search of work. He found a job on the sailboat, which he said was about 35 feet long. He lived and worked on the boat, painting it and helping to repair the engine. Then one day in December, a strong current pulled the boat out to sea with only him in it, he said.
The engine didn’t work. The radio had no signal. There was no turning back.
He didn’t eat much for the first 10 days, Mr. Francois said. Sometimes he pulled seaweed from the sea and dried it on the boat. Other times he ate the insides of shellfish stuck to a rope. He felt weak, he said, and could hardly move.
Inside the boat, which included a kitchen and two beds, he found a glass bottle containing Heinz ketchup, garlic seasoning, and a bottle of liquid Maggi seasoning, which is typically used to flavor chicken, roasted vegetables, and other dishes.
He found water in a large container, he said, but it was dirty. He strained it through a T-shirt before drinking it and did the same before putting it in a pot to make his soup, which included seaweed, ketchup, garlic spice and the Maggi sauce. He heated it with a propane tank he found on the boat.
How did it taste? “It was fine for me,” Mr. Francois said of the soup. “I could live on that”
He sipped from it three times a day and regained his strength. “The ketchup worked for me,” he said. “If I didn’t have it, I don’t think I would be alive today to tell that story.”
The day he was rescued was the same day he drank the ketchup bottle, he said.
“I’m not surprised he survived,” said Dr. Uma Naidoo, Director of Nutritional and Lifestyle Psychiatry at Massachusetts General Hospital.
The water is key to keeping it alive, she said, and the ketchup and liquid condiments contained enough sugar to strengthen it. “Although these are not nutritious foods, they do contain ingredients that could maintain his body energy,” said Dr. Naidoo.
The Colombian Navy said in a Jan. 18 statement it found Mr. Francois in the boat 120 nautical miles northwest of Puerto Bolívar, a port in northern Colombia on the Caribbean Sea.
His boat was discovered because the word “HELP” was written on the hull, the Navy said. Mr Francois said he wrote the word several times using gray spray paint.
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His first meal off the boat was two slices of toast, cheese, and oatmeal. He washed it down with hot tea. “It was very good after not eating anything serious for 24 days,” he said.
Mr. Francois was taken to Cartagena, Colombia where he was sent back to Dominica.
The Colombian Navy released pictures and videos of Mr. Francois and shared his story, which made international headlines. Almost a month later, Heinz said he wanted to find Mr. Francois to help him buy a boat, but couldn’t locate him. Heinz created the #findtheketchupboatguy social media campaign and found him through a local news source in Dominica.
Mr Francois said he was glad to be rescued but his return to Dominica brought challenges. He left last year because his home was damaged by an electrical fire. He had no money to fix it and he currently lives in it without running water or electricity. “It’s still a big problem for me,” he said.
A Heinz spokeswoman said the company is “providing him with the resources for his new boat,” which could be money. Mr Francois said he had spoken to the company and would welcome a new boat to live on.
“I love to explore,” he said.
Write to Joseph Pisani at [email protected]
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