Maybe they should try sending him a message in a ketchup bottle.
Heinz has put out an SOS alert in its search for a sailor who survived weeks lost at sea on little more than ketchup and spices.
“We need your help tracking down an amazing man with an amazing story,” the company recently wrote on Instagram.
“Heinz wants to celebrate his safe return home and help him buy a new boat… but we can’t seem to find him,” Heinz added. “So we’re setting this message adrift into the sea of the internet because if anyone can help us find him, it’s you.”
Elvis Francois, from the Caribbean island of Dominica, was making repairs to his sailboat off the island of St. Martin in the Netherlands Antilles in December when the currents pulled his vessel out to sea.
Stranded at sea for 24 days, the 47-year-old man survived by eating ketchup, garlic powder, and Maggi seasoning cubes. He also drank rainwater that he managed to gather in a cloth.
The seaman was eventually spotted by a passing plane after he wrote “Help” on his sailboat’s hull, according to Colombian officials.
He was rescued by the Colombian navy roughly 120 nautical miles northwest of the La Guajira peninsula.
Heinz said that it had reached out to the government of Dominica and the Colombian navy for help in locating Francois, but the mission so far has been a wash.
“We’ve reached an impasse in our search for Elvis Francois, but we know he’s still out there,” the company wrote. “Now we need your help tracking him down so we can help buy him a new boat.”
[Written in collaboration with other media outlets with information from the following sources]
