Family members as well as media and well-wishers gathered to welcome home Jason Whyte, who was stranded at sea for seventeen days. He lost his father in the ordeal but managed to survive in the horrid conditions. Overcome with emotion, the youngster could not speak but managed to share that he was happy to be home.

Published Sunday, June 20, 1971

Drama of 15-year-old boy’s ordeal

–   Jason, of Jamaica, back from the sea

Jason Whyte, the teenage Jamaican boy who was adrift in the Caribbean Sea for 17 days and who had to bury his dead father, returned home to an emotion-filled welcome yesterday afternoon (June 19, 1971).

Tears of joy streamed from the eyes of Jason’s mother, sisters, and friends as he made his way unsteadily down the steps of the Transport Air Central America (RACA) aircraft at the Palisadoes International Airport.

And as the youngster was hugged and kissed by his family, he dabbed at his eyes with a white handkerchief.

“The Lord preserved and kept him alive,” Mrs Eva Whyte, Jason’s widowed mother, said, as two older sisters helped him to the VIP Lounge at the airport.

Made as comfortable as possible between a sister and his mother on a couch, Jason whispered that he was happy to be home.

He was unable to talk with the press, however. He merely hung his head, looking frightened, and unaware of much of what was happening around him. He wiped his eyes and nose, not saying a word. Brought a glass of orange juice, he drank this eagerly.

Hospital care

Mr Oscar Savage, the Jamaican Consul in Panama, who had accompanied Jason down yesterday and assisted him from the plane, said that the boy had been hospitalised in Panama.

However, the doctors there had felt that he was fit enough to travel. They recommended that he be given further medical attention here.

Jason was not in good shape yesterday. He was neither physically nor mentally back to normal, Mr Savage said.

Although his face looked hardly any worse for the 17 days he spent at sea at the mercy of the elements, Jason’s hands and feet were scorched. The skin on his hands and feet had peeled off in some places. He wore a pair of slippers.

His mother decided to take him home last night and to put him in the Falmouth Hospital, a short distance away from Rock in Trelawny, where Jason and his family live.

Mrs Whyte, her four daughters and a son came to Kingston to meet Jason.

The Hon Allan Douglas, Minister of Youth and Community Development, who is MP for the section of Trelawny where Jason is from, headed to the gathering at the airport to welcome home the boy.

“Proud of you”

Welcoming him home, Mr Douglas said that his family, the Jamaica Government, and the people of Jamaica were all proud of him, and the Government was thinking of ways of assisting him in his life.

Mr Savage said it was gratifying to see how well Jamaicans in Panama and other Panamanians had contributed liberally to see to Jason’s welfare after he was brought there by the German ship that picked him up at sea last week Monday afternoon.

So impressed was the captain of the ship with Jason, Mr Savage said, that he had sent a gift for him. The gift consists of a watch and a pair of cuff links. They were presented to Jason by Mr Savage in the VIP Lounge,

Dr Carlos Cabezas, Panamanian charge d’affaires in Jamaica, presented a cheque to Jason from the Panama Government.

The lounge was packed with family members, relatives, pressmen, well-wishers, airport workers, and others who had gathered to have a look at Jason, a living testimony to human endurance in the face of the terrible ordeal.

During Jason’s four-week ordeal at sea, he lost his father and was forced to live off raw fish and seawater for over two weeks.

Fishing trip

Jason and his father, William Dixon Whyte, 68, went on a fishing trip off Rock, Trelawny, on the afternoon of May 29. Their boat was the What’s That To You. Another boat with a Special Constable Charley Dennis and two other men set sail on the fishing trip.

Mr Whyte’s boat developed engine trouble, and he told Mr Dennis and the other fishermen that he was returning to shore. The What’s That To You never returned that night, however.

When daylight came and there still was no sign of the boat, members of the Whyte family and other fishermen began expressing concern for the What’s That To You and its occupants.

Fishermen from Rock went out in search parties to look for Mr Whyte and Jason but found no trace of them. By Monday morning, the What’s That To You and its two passengers were everybody’s worry.

The disappearance of the fisherman and his 14-year-old son was soon in the newspapers and on radio. The Air Wing of the Jamaica Defence Force launched a search for the missing pair.

Ordeal at sea

After several days had passed and nothing was heard or seen from Mr Whyte and Jason, most people gave them up for lost. The Air Wing search was called off.

By this time, however, Jason was far out at sea, hungry and lonely. His father had died and since been buried at sea and the boat was taking in water.

According to what Jason told Mr Savage, the drama of the boy’s ordeal was somewhat as follows:

Saturday, May 29: The What’s That To You developed engine trouble on the way back to shore. The boat began drifting out to sea.

Sunday, May 30: As the boat continued to drift away from Jamaica, Mr Whyte complained of chest pains. He lay down in the boat. He never got up again.

Monday, May 31: Not certain of the state of what happened to his father, Jason kept close watch on his father day and night.

Tuesday, June 1: Jason still saw no sign of life in his father. Father’s skin began peeling off. Jason decided his father was dead and threw him overboard.

The sequence of events hereafter is not certain, but the boat was becoming waterlogged, so Jason dumped the useless outboard motor to lighten the boat.

He had become hungry from Saturday night and subsequently began eating raw fish. He had also caught rainwater in part of the outboard motor, but this was not enough. After a while, he took to drinking seawater.

The next several days were all the same to Jason – long, hot days of hunger, appeased now and again with  raw fish and some seawater. Many nights were sleepless as the helpless boy watched for any light that could be a possible source of rescue.

Rescue ship

Jason saw planes flying overhead, but they were too high to see him.

Sunday night, June 13: Jason saw a ship passing nearby, but it had passed in darkness without noticing Jason in his waterlogged canoe.

Then at about 12.30 p.m. Monday, June 14: Capt Jurgen Pentzin, of the German freighter Elde Oldendorff' spotted an object in the water. The ship’s position was about 260 miles west of Jamaica. The captain investigated and saw someone waving in the boat. As the person waved, he slipped back to the bottom of the small craft.

The ship threw out a line to the small boat and the boy, Jason, grabbed the line and jumped into the sea. Two crewmen jumped in after him and took him aboard the Elde Oldendroff. The What’s That To You was also taken aboard.

The ship landed Jason at Cristobal, at the Atlantic end of the Panama Canal, on Wednesday afternoon. He was taken to the hospital in Panama, and Mr Savage took charge of him.

Mr Savage said yesterday that Jason told him he would never return to the sea.

The What’s That To You, meanwhile, had to be discarded in Panama as because of its condition, it can serve no useful purpose now, Mr Savage told Mr Whyte’s family. Also, it would be too expensive to bring back the boat to Jamaica.

Mrs Allan Douglas and Mr Louis Wilson, from the Ministry of External Affairs, were among those at the airport to welcome Jason.

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