A 60-year-old fisherman in China has returned home alive after being missing at sea for 11 days, by which point his family had already made arrangements following his presumed death.
The fisherman, identified only by his surname Zhang, disappeared from a shrimp-fishing boat near Luomen in Zhoushan, Zhejiang province, on 3 September.
Then, on 13 September, Zhang unexpectedly made it back home.
Crew Realised He Was Missing Around Midnight
According to a report by Hangzhou-based news outlet Chengshi Interactive and the Metropolitan Express, the waters around Zhoushan were being affected by the outer conditions of a typhoon on the day Zhang disappeared.
The fishing boat therefore returned to port earlier than planned.
Zhang was supposed to get up for work at around midnight on 3 September. When his fellow crew members could not find him, they concluded that he had fallen overboard.
A search followed, but after 11 days without finding him, his family had largely given up hope and had already dealt with arrangements associated with his presumed death.
That made what happened next especially unexpected.
He Returned to an Empty House
Zhang returned to his home in Luomen on 13 September, but nobody was there when he arrived.
His son had gone to Daishan. Despite the increasingly slim chances of finding his father alive, the son had apparently still not completely abandoned the search.
When reporters reached Zhang’s home that evening, his son said his father was not in a good mental state and had gone to rest.
People familiar with Zhang told the outlet that he appeared to be in reasonably good physical condition after returning, although his skin had become noticeably darker following prolonged exposure to the sun.
How He Survived the 11 Days Is Still Unclear
Perhaps the biggest question is also the one that has yet to be answered: how did Zhang survive for 11 days after apparently falling into the sea?
The original report said Zhang had not yet explained what happened because he needed time to recover.
Some villagers speculated that currents could have carried him to a reef or an island after he fell overboard. However, this remains only speculation and has not been established as what actually happened.
For now, what is confirmed is that Zhang vanished on 3 September, remained missing for 11 days and returned alive on 13 September, after his family had already prepared for the possibility that he would never come home.
