Heinz, the largest producer of ketchup in the United States, is looking for a man who survived more than three weeks at sea with nothing but ketchup and other condiments so that they can buy him a brand new boat.
The company put out the request for assistance on its social media page, writing that they need help from the public in searching for “an amazing man with an amazing story”. The amazing man in question is a brave sailor named Elvis Francois, who survived on nothing but ketchup while lost at sea for 24 days.
According to reports, the 47-year-old sailor had been doing maintenance on his boat in St. Maarten two months ago, when he started drifting out to sea. To make things worse, the weather had suddenly changed, which prevented him from being able to navigate, according to a video clip that was later released by the Columbian Navy.
In the same video, Francois said that he had tried to go back to port but that it was difficult as it took a long time for him to fix and mount the sail. His coworkers and friends had also tried to contact him but there wasn’t service where he was.
He eventually wrote “help” on the back of his boat. 24 days later, he was rescued by the Colombian navy. He was taken to the Port of Cartagena, where he received medical treatment, and was later sent home.
According to a spokesperson for Heinz, the company would like to gift the sailor a new state-of-the-art boat, one that will be fully equipped with a navigation system, so that he will not have to worry about being lost at sea again in the future.
The company’s Instagram post, which was posted on February, 14, has since received 3,895 likes. However, Francois has not yet been located.
