Heinz finds the man who survived at sea eating ketchup and wants to give him a bottle

“We found Elvis,” Heinz announced on his Instagram account Monday. This publication marks the end of two weeks of investigations carried out by the US agri-food giant to find Elvis François, a Dominican who survived 24 days in a boat eating, among other things, ketchup, says the Guardian.

“Help him buy a new boat”

The brand had launched a call on social networks on February 17 to locate the 47-year-old man who had been swept out to sea by a storm while repairing a boat. Rescued almost a month later off the coast of Colombia, he explained in a video released by the Colombian Navy that he survived with only “a bottle of ketchup, garlic powder and Maggi (bouillon cubes).”

Following this announcement, Heinz explained that he wanted to contact Elvis François “to celebrate his safe return and help him buy a new boat.”

It has done so since Monday, according to this post by Heinz, who also claims to have received “thousands of likes, shares and kindness messages in our search for Elvis François. It’s an incredible collective effort across six continents that has resulted in hundreds of of articles and clues and our final contact with Elvis”.

The castaway does not know how to navigate

Keep in mind however that a boat could be somewhat useless for the Dominican, since it is precisely because he did not know how to drive the boat that he could not take control of it and return to shore.

“Without any knowledge of navigation, he was lost and disoriented at sea, his efforts to maneuver the ship and the equipment on board were useless,” adds the same source,” the Colombian Navy explained in the press release accompanying the announcement. rescue.

In its search for the castaway, the company had multiplied the publications, explaining that it had contacted “the Dominica government” and “the Colombian army”, while exchanging in passing with many “people who try to usurp the identity of Elvis” . .

The company had also launched a hashtag, “#FindTheKetchupBoatGuy”, translatable as “Find the sailor with ketchup”, to give visibility to its initiative.

After 24 days adrift, Elvis Francois used a mirror to reflect sunlight onto a plane passing overhead and was able to see that the ship was adrift. The Dominican was then rescued by the Colombian army and a merchant ship some 220 kilometers from the coast, after having been adrift for more than 1,200 kilometers.