Samoans survive four months adrift

3.30 pm

Two Samoan fisherman have been rescued after spending 132 days drifting in an open boat.

Wind and currents carried the pair 4000km west to the Milne Bay province of Papua New Guinea where their distress signal - a blue cloth - was spotted from a hilltop.

The men said two of their companions had died at sea and their bodies were thrown overboard.

The fishermen got into trouble when their eight-metre aluminium dinghy began to sink under a full load of fish. They jettisoned their two outboard motors, but kept some of the fish which helped keep them alive as they drifted.