“Dutch” man found on deserted Bahamas island is actually German

The 64-year-old man rescued on Friday by the U.S. Coast Guard is German, and not Dutch, as was previously announced by the Coast Guard on Wednesday. He was stranded on the island of Cay Sal. His nationality was corrected in a later announcement.

Rescuers found the German man after he had spent three days on the uninhabited island. Cay Sal is about 50 kilometers off the coast of Cuba. He wound up there after he ran into problems with his sailboat.

Photos shared by the Coast Guard on X, formerly Twitter, showed that the man had written “SOS” in huge letters in the sand. He was eventually found after flares fired into the sky by the man from his boat were spotted. The boat later sank.

From the air, the Coast Guard then dropped water, food and a radio for communication on the island. The man was eventually picked up by a cutter that was nearby.

The German has been transferred to the Royal Bahamas Defense Force in good health, the Coast Guard said.