51-year-old woman was in a shipwreck — she relied on an unexpected companion for two days before she was rescued
Animals can sometimes help humans in surprising ways. However, over five decades ago, no one had expected a woman to survive the aftermath of a shipwreck because of a sea turtle. The incident happened in the Philippines back in 1974. The woman, Candelaria Villanueva, rode the turtle's back for two days before she was finally rescued. The sight left all of her rescuers in complete surprise, as they had never seen something like that before, per The Montreal Gazette from June 25, 1974.
Villanueva was on a ship with 277 other people when it caught fire on June 2, 1974. The ship then sank off Zamboanga, which is situated 600 miles south of Manila, per the source. The navy shared that the woman rode on the back of the sea turtle for two days before a passing navy vehicle, RPS Kalantia, finally rescued her from the water. "I would not have believed it if I had merely heard it. The truth is, I was an eyewitness myself, together with practically everyone else aboard the Kalantia," Lt. Cesario F. Mana said in a Navy report about the unusual sight.
Initially, the people on board the navy ship thought that the woman was holding onto an oil drum, but they were stunned to see what it actually was. The "giant" sea turtle swam up to the woman after the shipwreck and she climbed on top of it. 243 people out of the 277 passengers had survived the horrifying incident onboard the inter-island passenger ship, Aloha. The navy had been doing the rounds after the shipwreck to save anyone they could when they saw Villanueva and pulled her out of the water. "Someone threw her a life ring. The moment she transferred her hold to the life ring, the drum sank," Mana revealed.
"We did not realize it was a giant sea turtle until we started hauling up the woman, for the turtle was beneath her, apparently propping her up," the lieutenant added. "The sea creature even circled the area twice before disappearing into the depths of the sea, as if to reassure itself that its former rider was now in good hands," Mana went on. Villanueva, on the other hand, didn't talk much about the incident or the sea turtle afterwards. She even gave some people the idea that she either didn't remember the sea turtle or thought that such a thing had "happened at all."
Villanueva hasn't been the only person to receive such a surprise from sea creatures. In another story, a man who was rowing across the Atlantic by himself was surrounded by a pod of pilot whales. In the beginning, when the whales surrounded his boat, the man, Tom Waddington, was a little terrified that they might hit his boat. But it actually turned out to be a joyful moment later on, per NPR. The creatures kept the man company for hours and played around by popping their heads out of the water. Surprisingly enough, Tom had been having a bad day at that time after covering 2000 nautical miles all alone. The encounter with the whales managed to lift his spirits as he continued his journey from the Newfoundland coast to Penzance, United Kingdom. Tom successfully finished his journey on August 21, 2024.
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