COAST GUARD PHOTO PROVIDED BY KITV Forgae the dog, seen here as a short horizontal white line in the middle of the highlighted circle, was rescued yesterday.

Dog won’t leave tanker

Fishermen try to coax the
2-year-old dog off the ship,
but she keeps getting away

---

By Rosemarie Bernardo and Treena Shapiro
rbernardo@starbulletin.com
tshapiro@starbulletin.com

After drifting alone for 19 days on the disabled Indonesian tanker Insiko 1907, Forgea, a 2-year-old mixed terrier, seems reluctant to be rescued, an effort that may end up costing about $250,000.

The crew of a Honolulu-based longline fishing boat boarded the burnt-out Insiko yesterday at about 10:30 a.m., but this morning they were still trying to coax the dog aboard their ship.

The dog keeps running below deck, explained Rusty Nall, vice president of American Marine Corp., who has been in touch with the fishermen. "Because of the fire, it's really dangerous to go down below deck," he said.

The March 2 fire killed one crew member, severely injured another, and left the Insiko drifting without power for three weeks. The crew was rescued by the Norwegian Star cruise ship but Forgea and the crew member's body were left behind, prompting a massive rescue effort by the Hawaiian Humane Society.

Nall said he expects the fishermen will be able to coax the dog off the tanker.

"Fishermen are pretty resourceful. I'm pretty confident they'll rescue the dog."

Yesterday, the Humane Society announced that the fishermen had boarded the Insiko, which was drifting 700 nautical miles south of Honolulu.

The Humane Society hired American Marine Corp. at a cost of $50,000 to search for the tanker earlier this month, said Pamela Burns, president of the Hawaiian Humane Society.

She said the actual cost may be up to five times that amount.

The Humane Society has since received about $40,000 in donations for the search effort.

"The dog is well. It is certainly walking and running around. It is quite scared," said Burns. Because it had been raised by Mandarin-speaking owners, Forgea could not understand its English-speaking rescuers, she said.

The fishing boat, which officials declined to name, is expected to arrive in Honolulu with 2-year-old Forgea within five to seven days, Burns said.

In the meantime they are feeding and comforting the 40-pound female white mixed terrier.

Finding the dog eased the minds of officials at the Humane Society after earlier attempts to locate Forgea failed.

On April 5, the Humane Society launched a $50,000 search effort for the dog but the search ended a few days later and the Humane Society reported the ship was presumed sunk.

But at 3:45 p.m. Saturday, the crew of a Coast Guard C-130 aircraft found it on radar.

After a sensor operator spotted Forgea with a zoom lens, crew members dropped a container on the Insiko filled with food left over from box lunches that included pizza, granola bars and oranges.

"It's remarkable," C-130 pilot Lt. Ben Boyer said of Forgea's survival.

The Coast Guard was searching for the tanker for environmental reasons.

"We wanted to find out whether it's going to run aground on Johnston Island," he said.

Around 8:30 a.m. yesterday, the Honolulu-based longliner located the tanker on radar. Two hours later, the fishing vessel pulled alongside the Insiko 1907 where crew members boarded the tanker.

Burns said Forgea is expected to undergo a physical evaluation by a veterinarian once she reaches Honolulu.

A decision will be made on whether Forgea will be transported to the Kauai Humane Society, which offered to quarantine the animal at no cost.

However, a friend of dog owner Capt. Chung Chin Po of the Insiko 1907 informed the Hawaiian Humane Society of his interest in adopting Forgea. Officials said they have yet to contact Po in Taiwan of Forgea's rescue.

Martha C. Armstrong, senior vice president of the Humane Society of the United States, said: "It is nothing short of a miracle that Forgea was discovered and found alive.

"For almost three weeks, Forgea has been fighting exposure and hunger, yet somehow she continued to survive. Forgea's chance of staying alive decreased every day that passed since the April 2 rescue of the Insiko crew. We never wanted to give up hope, and Forgea showed us why. Her instinct to survive overcame the odds against her."

"As time went on, it got more and more scary," said Burns of the society's search effort for Forgea.

She added the survival of the dog was based more on the availability of water than food. Insiko crew members had left food behind for Forgea, Burns said.

Coast Guard officials are monitoring drift movement of the tanker, which contains 240 tons of diesel fuel, said Lt. Desarae Atnip, spokeswoman for the 14th U.S. Coast Guard District. Atnip said there are no signs of leakage.

"If it starts to drift too close to Johnston Island, then the U.S. Coast Guard will respond," Atnip said.

Nall said the tanker drifted about 500 statute miles from the point where the crew was rescued. He added there are no plans to recover the body of the dead crewman left aboard the ship. Fishermen aboard the vessel are ill prepared to handle recovery of the body, Nall said.

Time line of crew and dog rescue

Here is the sequence of events involving the Insiko 1907 and Forgea the dog.

March 13: Fire sweeps through the engine room of the Insiko 1907, killing one crewman, injuring another and disabling the tanker.

April 2: Norwegian Star cruise ship spots signal from Insiko at 1:45 a.m. about 220 miles south of the Big Island and rescues 11 crew members. The body of the dead crew member is left on board the tanker. The Norwegian Star has maintained that it did not know about Forgea until it was too late.

April 5: Hawaiian Humane Society launches $50,000 rescue effort for Forgea with American Marine Corp.

April 6: Insiko captain and injured crewman fly home to Taiwan.

April 7: Rescue effort is called off after an air and sea search covering 14,800 square miles turns up no sign of the Insiko. Humane Society declares Forgea lost at sea.

April 9: Japanese fishing vessel makes radar contact with ship believed to be the Insiko. The vessel gets close enough to see darkened hull, but not close enough to see the ship's name.

April 10: It is revealed that the nine remaining Insiko crew members disappeared April 3 and are believed to be hiding in Honolulu.

April 12: American Marine organizes another search but cannot find Insiko.

April 13: The nine missing crew members turn themselves in at U.S. immigration office.

April 20: Crew of Coast Guard C-130 aircraft on an environmental mission find Insiko drifting 250 miles east of Johnston Atoll and report seeing a dog running along the deck. Crew drops food for the dog to eat.

April 21: Crew of fishing boat out of Honolulu boards the Insiko and rescues Forgea.