Kin honor sailor’s feat, unsinkable dream

REUNITED Florentino Das’ relatives proudly pose with his recently unveiled statue and historical marker in Allen, Northern Samar. —PIO ARCE AND JED DERIQUITO

It took 62 years, almost an entire lifetime, for Sylvia Das Day to finally fulfill her father’s dream — or at least the second part of it.

The first he had achieved himself in 1956, after completing a historic solo journey across the Pacific Ocean, from Hawaii to the Philippines, on a 24-foot motorized boat with a canvas sail that he had built himself.

The voyage took Florentino Das, then only 37, almost a year to complete. He left Kewalo Basin Harbor in Honolulu on May 14, 1955, with a grand send-off by family and friends.

Guided only by the stars and a simple compass, Das managed to survive devastating storms and treacherous waves, until a final one forced him to seek refuge on Caroline Islands where he stayed for months until he could repair his boat.

Resuming his journey in February 1956, he finally landed on  Siargao Island in Surigao on April 25.

From there he was escorted to Allen, Northern Samar, by a Philippine Navy ship, and finally to a grand hero’s welcome, complete with a motorcade through Dewey Boulevard, when he docked at Manila Bay on May 4, 1956.

Last month, his daughter Sylvia, now 72 and one of the eight children he had left behind in Hawaii, visited the Philippines for the first time.

She traveled with her son David Das Day, daughter Lorita Lee Warden, niece Rhoda Das, and grandson David Day Jr., to San Antonio and Allen in Northern Samar, the towns of her father’s birth and youth, to meet relatives and friends who knew and remember him, and to witness the unveiling of the statue and marker honoring Das for his singular feat.

For the townsfolk of the island municipality and the port town, it was a much-deserved albeit long-delayed recognition of an almost forgotten hero.

For Sylvia, the trip was the fulfillment of the homecoming that her father had wanted to give his wife and children — the reason, in fact, behind his perilous journey across the Pacific.

‘Foolhardy excursion’

Sylvia was only 9 when her father left them in Honolulu to return to the country he had left 21 years before. He was convinced that life was better back in the Philippines and was desperate to take his family back to his homeland.

Though a crowd cheered him off in Honolulu, Das got no encouragement from the Coast Guard inspection official, who called his plan a “dangerous and foolhardy excursion” and ominously noted that it would cost the government $100,000 in time, manpower and fuel to launch a search should he go missing.

But Das was undaunted. Despite lack of formal maritime training, he was no stranger to the sea, being born to a family of fishermen on an island surrounded by the tumultuous San Bernardino Strait and the unpredictable Pacific Ocean.

He saw in the seawaters no boundaries to restrict his dream to carve a better future for himself and his family, even if it meant sailing to distant lands.

His first destination outside his birthplace was the port town of Allen on the mainland Samar, where there was always a steady stream of people waiting to travel by sea or to buy their catch.

But life was not easy even in Allen. So in 1934, the 16-year-old Das decided to board a British merchant ship bound for the United States as a stowaway.

He was discovered midway through the trip, but managed to impress the captain with his maritime skills that he was offered a job on board, where his skillful stevedoring made him a welcome addition to the crew.

He was also a natural boxer and joined boxing matches to pass the time at sea.

But the young stowaway had other plans for himself.  As soon as the vessel reached Honolulu, he jumped ship and decided to stay in Hawaii for good.

Maritime experience

His practical maritime experience served him well in Hawaii.  He was employed as a ship scalar, chipper and painter for interisland vessels.

Das turned to boxing as well, though his manager introduced him as a Japanese fighter to draw more spectators.  He met and married Gloria Espartino, a Hawaii-based Filipino, with whom he had eight children.

Despite a relatively comfortable life in Hawaii, however, Das wanted to return to the Philippines and take his family along with him.

He thought about building his own boat and use it “to prove to the world that Filipinos are not only good in boxing, but also in boat-making and sailing.”

He was largely inspired by Eric de Bisschop, a famous French seafarer who traveled from Hawaii to France aboard the Polynesian sailboat Kaimiloa.

Das had worked and sailed under Bisschop and learned a lot about sailing from him.

Using funds donated by the Timarau Boat Club, he designed his own boat and spent almost a year building it. He knew he needed a strong seacraft to withstand towering ocean waves driven by powerful winds.

“My father had a photographic memory,” recalls Sylvia. “He could reassemble anything he disassembled, especially motor parts, even without charts.”

But Das was all but confident shortly after he took off from Honolulu. In a June 19, 1956, entry in his diary, he told his wife that “Lady Timarau and I took a beating; I felt like a fighter who had high hopes of being a champion, but lost the round.”

The storm that ripped his sails also caused a major leak, forcing Das to make a distress call. A passing Japanese fishing vessel responded and brought his boat to Caroline Islands, where he was stranded for eight months.

He appealed for help from his sponsor, the Timarau Boat Club, to defray the cost of boat repairs, but the money came in trickles.  Once again, he accepted odd jobs and taught boat-building to some natives to generate additional funds to continue his journey.

‘You’re crazy’

On Feb. 21, 1956, Das again set sail, determined to continue his voyage despite frantic warnings from  authorities.

In the middle of the vast Pacific Ocean, a passing US Navy ship noticed a man in a small boat, tossed back and forth by waves, and offered to rescue him.

Das refused, but asked if he could have food, water and gasoline from them. The Navy men were stunned by his refusal. One of them yelled, “You’re crazy, you’re killing yourself.”

But Das was well and in good spirits when he arrived on Siargao Island two months after sailing off from  Caroline Islands.  Tecusa Patentes, who was 30 when it happened, remembers the event to this day: “He was calling people to help him pull his boat ashore,” she recalls. “I was afraid because I thought he was a pirate, but I was wrong. He was kind and generous.”

The epic journey on the high seas was well-received in the Philippines, with Das given the Legion of Honor and the honorary title of commodore of the Philippine Navy for his daring and patriotic zeal by then President Ramon Magsaysay.

But his joy was shortlived because he could not arrange to bring his family back to the Philippines.

US recognition

“It’s probably because Magsaysay died early and did not finish his term as President,” ventures Rep. Raul A. Daza, congressman of the district in Northern Samar to which the towns of Allen and San Antonio belong. “I was still in college when I heard about his feat, but I did not know then that he was from Samar. The nation owes him a lasting debt of gratitude for his momentous achievement that lifted to great heights the prestige of our country in the world.”

Rod Laurean Suan, the former mayor of Allen who chaired the committee behind the installation of the historical marker, said he had heard about Das from his aunt Marietta Lavin, a teenager when Das returned to Allen.

When Lavin and Sylvia met in San Antonio, the former presented her with a bell that Das said he had used to keep himself awake at sea.

The US government officially recognized Das’ feat on May 14, 2006, exactly 50 years after his solo voyage, with a bronze plaque that reads: “Florentino R. Das’ Solo Voyage, Hawaii to Philippines, May 14, 1955, to April 25, 1956, ‘Bold Dream, Uncommon Valor.’”

For the installation of a similar marker in Allen, Sylvia and other family members made their first trip to the country that Das had always talked about with fondness.

It was a chance to reclaim their connection to the proud heritage of a great Filipino sailor whose patriotic fervor established a name for the Philippines in maritime history.