Nguyen Van Xinh, a lucky Vietnamese fisherman who survived the monster typhoon Chanchu can hardly get rid of the bad memory of fishing ships in the deep of sea with floating dead bodies.

Nguyen Van Xinh was taken home on a rescue ship along with the body of his younger brother after a week of struggling in the jaws of death.

"While at Dongsha Islands with some 20 other fishing ships, we were suddenly hit by Typhoon Chanchu on May 17. One ship smashed into cliffs due to strong waves, and eight other sank. After the typhoon faded away, we searched for unlucky fellows. We picked up my younger brother Hoa's body, and carried seven other dead bodies. Other ships found and carried four alive fishermen," Xinh, 41-year- old captain of a ship from central Da Nang city, told Xinhua on Wednesday at his younger brother's funeral.

On the way ashore, the ship coded DNA90189 met with China's rescue ship Nanhaijiu 111 on May 19.

"The Chinese ship pumped several hundreds of liters of diesel oil into our ship, and gave us some items including one barrel of canned dried fish, a small amount of medicines, and two bottles of liquid antiseptic," recalled the man with a weather-beaten face and dark complexion from the Group No. 26, Thanh Khe district, Da Nang.

The Chinese rescue ship offered rice to Xinh's ship, but the captain refused to receive it because "at that time, we had enough rice to go home."

"Chanchu is a killer typhoon and killed many people. The bodies smelt badly. My elder brother with his own ship and I returned home alive, but my ill-fated younger brother did not," Xinh said with his eyes being dry, but covered with a gloomy cloud.

Also at Hoa's funeral, Xinh's elder brother named Pham Van Tham said that, after his ship DNA 95101 and some 20 other Vietnamese fishing ships were stricken by Typhoon Chanchu, he saw a Chinese ship meeting one of the fishing ships and supplying fuel and other things to them.

A Taiwanese helicopter and a Taiwanese canoe approaching the local ships. "The Taiwanese helicopter and canoe signaled us to go away from the site of incident, as we were sailing near a military base," said the 43-year-old chubby man with grey short hair and beard.

"After meeting with a Vietnamese rescue ship, Xinh and I embarked the ship to send ashore my ill-fated younger brother (Hoa) . He was 35 years old. How can his wife, a housewife, bring up two little children, including an 11-month-old boy?" he asked quietly as if he asked himself.

It is impossible to say whether the three siblings are lucky or not, because like them, there are some people within a family returning home on Tuesday, but unlike them, others have slim hope of finding their relatives on the sea.

"Four people, two of my brothers and two of my nephews, arrived home safely after one month and a half going to the far sea to catch cuttlefish. They told me that my son is still healthy far away on the sea. He is going ashore along with others later," said a woman named Le Thi Cu from the Thanh Khe district.

While Cu gladly said she would meet her 34-year-old son by Wednesday night or Thursday morning, a poorly-built former fisherman from the district said he had no hope of seeing his 21- year-old son again since there has been no news about him for 11 days.

"Besides my son, my younger brother was on the missing ship. My brother cooks rice on the ship. I am waiting for them in vain. If they were swept away to an island of China or the Philippines, I would already be informed by relevant agencies," the former fisherman named Phan Van Cu made a hopeless gesture while his emotionless eyes landed somewhere outside the door of his poorly- equipped house.

A navy ship carrying three dead bodies of local fishermen and 19 fishing ships from Da Nang with a total of some 460 people on board are expected to go ashore on Thursday, Nguyen Van Cu, deputy head of the Da Nang-based Border Post No. 248, told Xinhua on Wednesday, noting that two Vietnamese rescue ships brought ashore 15 bodies and 33 alive fishermen on Tuesday.

"According to our sources, a total of 29 ships from Da Nang went to the far sea to catch cuttlefish. After being hit by Typhoon Chanchu in Chinese waters, seven ships sank, and three others went missing. Over 200 people have either died or gone missing. The chance for their survival is slim," Cu said.

"I am not at the site of incident, but according to different sources, I know that Chinese ships have participated in rescuing our fishermen and supplied our ships with oil and some necessary items. For example, food, foodstuffs and formaldehyde to preserve dead bodies and prevent bad odor from spreading," he noted.

Chanchu, which means "pearl," formed in the Pacific, about 550 km east of Mindanao island in the Philippines on May 9. It hit the central Philippines, then headed to central Vietnam, but suddenly changed its direction to southern China, killing dozens of people and affecting thousands of others from the three countries.

Source: Xinhua