Anything under the Sun
The sinking of MV Don Juan (4)
Many passengers were clinging to floating debris-a piece of wood, a sack of garlic, a gasoline drum and even to a lifeless co-passenger-and survived. A man on a wood plank found a seven-year old child and placed him on the wood where it slept soundly until they were rescued. Meanwhile, seven men clung around this plank and all were saved.
A young lady floating with a life vest felt something touching her side. It was a 3-year old child. She embraced her like a long lost sister until they were rescued hours later. A man with P3,000 cash inside his pocket was restricted in his movements by people clinging to his trouser. The force of this people took off his trousers from him.
That night, many who did not know how to swim, learned to instantly and were saved. Many too, who did know how to swim died in the process of trying to save others.
The rescue
Twenty minutes after MV Don Juan sank, the crew of Bata-an bound MV Tacloban City which was about a hundred yards away, began fishing for survivors and the dead.
A man about to board the rescue tanker swam back for a lost bag and never returned. One dead woman fished out from the sea had her two-year old son tied to her back by a blanket-dead too. A dead nun in gray habit was found with her watch which stopped at 10:30.
One of the survivors, a beautiful co-ed, stepped aboard the rescue ship completely naked-but unashamed. While in water, she found her pants, sweater and nightie restricting her movements. She took off all of them. Another lady lost her watch, earrings, ring and bracelets. Her cargo of textiles for an entire bridal entourage of a friend to be married went down with MV Don Juan.
(To be continued)