Anh Nguyen Austen

It's about 10 meters by 2.5 meters.

And then people were hiding and they had jumped on.

The people that we had paid to build the boat had sold passages to other people.

So that's how it got to this mass number of 101 people instead of 40 as planned.

Yeah, 101 people on a 10, you know, 9.5 is what it was reported at, and then by 2.5.

And then by the time we get to the boat, you know, I suddenly lose sight of my parents and just squeeze down to the bottom of the deck.

And it's kind of suffocating.

And I can see that closing of the hatch.

And then just waiting and then suddenly seeing my father open it and then pulling me out, you know.

But it was a very, something you had to do before the ship actually came out to the water.

No, I think my father and people that organized with us, that were families, were very Catholic in the sense that they felt that our fates were tied and we weren't going to...

push people off you know there was a bit of mutiny people had paid and said that we should you know club them off um from the boat because they were clinging on but my parents said no they decided not that we would launch and we would just kind of share in our fates together where were you put on the boat

Eventually, when I was pulled out of the under cabin, I was in the top little cubby.

And somehow in my child's mind, I remember like a little light globe that, you know, was very preoccupying for me.

It was probably the most exciting thing to look at.

Yeah.

Yeah, when we launched out, inadvertently, we had gone to where the police patrols are.

So we kind of went to the wrong place that day.

Like, you know, all the plans to go this way or that way and head for the Philippines had gone awry.

But I think luckily what happened was like the police patrol people had already gone out to look for boats to bring back.