Three Men Survived 11 Days Clinging to an Oil Tanker’s Rudder Across the Atlantic

Their extraordinary journey from Nigeria to the Canary Islands exposed the terrifying risks faced by migrants seeking a better life

For eleven days, three men from Nigeria lived through conditions that would be almost impossible for most people to imagine.

They were not traveling inside a ship.

They were not protected from the weather.

They had no cabin, no proper food supply and almost no protection from the enormous Atlantic Ocean beneath them.

Instead, they reportedly remained hidden on the exposed rudder of a massive oil tanker traveling from Lagos, Nigeria, toward Spain’s Canary Islands.

For more than a week, they clung to a narrow metal structure at the stern of the vessel, suspended only a short distance above the water.

Their survival was extraordinary.

And when the tanker finally reached the port of Las Palmas, Spanish authorities discovered the three men in a place where they were never supposed to have survived the journey.