Castaway arrives at Marshall Islands capital This is the first picture of the 'Miracle Man of the Pacific' - the fisherman who survived on turtle blood, raw fish and seagull flesh for more than a year as he drifted helplessly across the world's largest ocean. Stumbling ashore today at a dock in the Marshall Islands, Jose Salvador Albaniaga managed a smile before telling MailOnline: 'I'm alive - I'm alive and I can't believe it.' When asked about his ordeal he simply replied: 'I cannot remember much about my journey. It has all gone into one thought - the sea, the sea.' It had stretched out endlessly on all sides as Jose and his teenage fellow shark fisherman endured the most soul-destroying of conditions after their boat was left at the sole mercy of the currents when their engine broke down on December 21, 2012. Despite their attempts to attract other vessels, they continued to drift further out to sea. He watched his teenage fishing companion, aged between 15 and 18, slowly die under the relentless sun. Jose continued his own struggle for survival that was to endure for week after week, month after tortuous month, as he was forced to drink his own urine and pick ravenously at the raw flesh of seagulls. But today as he stepped ashore on the dock at the Marshall Islands' capital, Majuro, he told MailOnline exclusively: 'I survived because I prayed. I prayed all the time.' And while he believed that his faith had helped carry him through the 14 months he was adrift, it was also his determination to stay alive - grabbing turtles to drink their blood when there was no rain water, swallowing down his own urine, snatching seagulls to eat their flesh and hooking fish and eating them raw - that ensured his tenuous hold on life. 'I thank God that I am here,' he told MailOnline after his 24ft boat had drifted helplessly across 8,000 miles of treacherous seas, remarkably staying upright in storms, sitting idly in calm conditions, as the sole survivor thought about his family on a far-away continent. 'I'm alive, it is so good,' he said from his hospital bed after being brought to the Marshall Islands capital, Majuro. 'I thank God and I thank the birds I caught to eat. I caught fish and at times I drank my own urine to have liquid.' Of his ill-fated companion, all he would say is 'I'm sad for him'. Jose said he desperately wanted to phone his family - his wife and his 10-year-old daughter - in El Salvador but he cannot remember the name of the village or a phone number. 'I have forgotten many things,' he told MailOnline. Marshall Islands immigration chief Damien Jacklick said: 'With the help of the US ambassador, we were able to obtain information on his family members in El Salvador and the United States. We hope this information will help us track down his family.' Jose has even forgotten exactly how old he is. He 'believes' he is about 36 to 38, even though his ordeal has made him appear much older. 'He is here, with us, but he isn't here with us,' an interpreter who has spoken to Jose told MailOnline. 'He is still disorientated, there is no doubt about that.' Jose said: 'It has been a long time, but I feel safe now. I know, too that I will get back home.' When he arrived at the port in Majuro on board the naval ship that brought him from the atoll where he was found, he told MailOnline: 'I'm alive - I'm alive. I cannot believe it.' Nor could the village people of Ebon atoll, which he had luckily struck, believe it when they saw the tussel-haired man with a thick beard, standing on a beach in tattered shorts, which had been decayed by sea-salt. They stared in astonishment at the stranger, whose skin was burned dry by the sun and the sea spray - but typical of their generosity they put him into one of their own small boats and carried him to their main village where they clothed and fed him and gave him fresh water. A Norwegan anthropology student, Ola Fieldstad, who was in the area managed to learn a little of his extraordinary story through sign language and a series of drawings. Then the local Mayor put a call through on the atoll's only phone to alert the authorities in Majuro about the castaway. Astonishingly, the man who was in the care of the village for several days before he was brought to Majuro today, bore a striking resemblance to Tom Hanks' character in the movie Castaway, with his brown beard and tangled hair. Elements of Jose's story raced around the world...he had been at sea, said first reports, for 16 months; his companion had died after four months; he was completely emaciated. But as MailOnline established through his first words in the island capital and also witnessed he appeared in much better health than expected from such an ordeal. Jose doesn't appear emaciated from months of starvation. Doctors said, however, that his body was bloated from the conditions he had suffered.

• published: 03 Feb 2014
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