During their journey across the Atlantic Ocean, German sailors made a horrifying discovery: on the 11th day of their trip, between the Canary Islands and Guadeloupe, they found a wooden boat filled with the dead bodies of refugees.
Michael Atug and his two friends, traveling on a yacht, noticed a strange smell of decomposition and saw a shark swimming near the boat. As they approached, they saw that the entire floor of the eight-meter-long vessel was covered with the bodies of men, women, and possibly children.
It’s hard to say how many there were, but they likely died from heat, hunger, and thirst, Atug told the German publication BILD. He described the scene as a true “ship of the dead.”
The men suspect the boat was heading from West Africa to the Canary Islands, where such vessels often carry up to 50 people fleeing poverty and war.
After contacting both the Spanish coast guard and Senegalese authorities, no help was provided. The boat with the corpses is likely still abandoned in the open sea.
