Vietnamese 'miracle' fisherman admits lying

Aug 18, 2006, 12:20 GMT

Hanoi - When fisherman Nguyen Van Huong walked back into his home two months after his funeral, his family could hardly believe his tale of survival at sea after a typhoon sunk his ship.

It turned out Friday they shouldn't have believed it.

After a week of shifting stories, Huong has admitted that he lied about spending 13 days clinging to a half-full water bottle in the open sea after Typhoon Chanchu in May.

Instead, Huong, 34, was on another fishing boat off southern Vietnam, according to Nguyen Xuan Thanh, deputy chairman of the local People's Committee in Huong's remote district of Que Son in Quang Nam province.

'He said he made up the story because he didn't want the local authorities to take back the money the government gave his family to support the Chanchu victims,' Thanh said by telephone Friday.

Huong's incredible survival story had captivated Vietnam, especially in the central region reeling from the loss of more than 200 fishermen caught unawares when Chanchu blew past central Vietnam.

Huong had been presumed dead in June because he frequently worked on one of the fishing vessels lost in Chanchu.

Local newspapers published lengthy accounts of how he managed to survive without food for nearly two weeks before being picked up by another fishing boat.

But both authorities and newspapers became suspicious when Huong could not name the boat that picked him up and his story seemed to keep changing.

Finally, Huong admitted that he'd been on another long-range fishing boat all along, and hadn't contacted his family because they have no telephone.

When he returned home to find his photo on an ancestral altar honouring the dead - and his family rapturous to see him still alive - he quickly made up a story, according to Thanh the local official.

Thanh said he wasn't sure whether Huong's family knew the truth all along or if he had told them the tall tale, too. Either way, the family will still keep the 2,800 dollars - about 4 years' average wage in Vietnam - the government gave as relief for Chanchu victims.

'We won't take back the money because the family is very poor,' Thanh said Friday. 'We just reprimanded Huong strongly for telling a lie.'