Castaway Jose Ivan

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A castaway who spent more than a year at sea before landing on a remote Pacific island has recounted his “incredible” voyage as he drifted for thousands of miles surviving on turtles, birds and hand-caught sharks.

Appearing bewildered after being told that he was in the Marshall Islands – a country he had never heard of – Jose Salvador Alvarenga, 37, a fisherman who set off from Mexico in December 2012, said his first words on spotting land were: “Oh, God”.

“I had just killed a bird to eat and saw some trees,” he told The Telegraph at a hospital in Majuro, the capital of the Marshall Islands.

“I cried, ‘Oh God’. I got to land and had a mountain of sleep. In the morning I woke up and heard a rooster and saw chickens and saw a small house. I saw two native women screaming and yelling. I didn’t have any clothes – I was only in my underwear and they were ripped and torn.”

Despite his ordeal, Alvarenga appeared to be in a healthy condition when he arrived in Majura from the remote Ebon Atoll.

He shuffled down the gangplank of a rescue boat before smiling as stepped off. He had a bushy orange beard, gaunt face and swollen ankles but was able to walk alone and was desperately hungry for bread; his parents in El Salvador are bakers.

Alvarenga said he has been working as a shark and shrimp fishermen in Mexico for 15 years. He has a 10-year-old daughter in El Salvador.

Castaway Jose Salvador Alvarenga

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He appeared well-fed and in good spirits, apart from his attempt to describe the loss of his fellow fisherman, a 15-year-old named Ezekiel who died four months into the voyage after refusing to eat.

Though various details remain sketchy and he sometimes appeared to contradict himself, Alvarenga said he set off for just a one-day trip to catch sharks with Ezekiel on December 21, 2012. The motor on their 24-foot boat stopped working on their first day and they spent some days drifting near land. But they soon drifted into the Pacific Ocean and realised they needed to fend for themselves. Ezekiel died four months later.

But Alvarenga mustered the courage to survive, armed only with a knife and a covering to protect himself from the sun.

“I didn’t know the hour, nor the day, nor the date,” he said. “I only knew the sun and the night… I never saw land. Pure ocean, pure ocean.It was very placid – only two days with big waves.”

Alvarenga said he lived off birds, turtles, fish and small sharks, which he would catch by putting one arm into the water as bait before grabbing the tail of the shark. He would frequently drink his own urine, particularly during periods without rain.

He said he contemplated taking his own life for the four days after the death of his shipmate.

“For four days I wanted to kill myself. But I couldn’t feel the desire – I didn’t want to feel the pain. I couldn’t do it.”

Asked how he survived, he said he was never bored and rarely scared and constantly prayed to god, though he does not belong to any specific religious order.

“I had my mind on God,” he said. “If I was going to die, I would be with god. So I wasn’t scared… I imagine this is an incredible story for people.”

Marshall Islands immigration chief Damien Jacklick said authorities were still gathering information and the foreign affairs department planned to contact overseas officials for his repatriation.

“With the help of the US ambassador, we were able to obtain information on his family members in El Salvador and the United States,” he said. “We hope this information will help us track down his family.”