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Raft Man (Found April 2006 Floating In The Skagerrak)

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http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/world/a ... 2003304305

Swedish authorities ponder `stateless American' mystery


AP , STOCKHOLM
Monday, Apr 24, 2006,Page 7

Advertising Swedish authorities were trying to solve the puzzle on Saturday of a man calling himself a "stateless American" who was found floating on a raft in the waters between Denmark and Norway on Friday.
The man claimed he had been thrown off a ship several days earlier.

He was found by a Norwegian oil tanker on Friday morning, floating in the Skagerak sea on a raft made up of four oil barrels held together by a frame of wooden planks.

No details

He asked to be taken in by Swedish authorities, but police said they were mystified by the man as he had refused to offer details about why he was allegedly thrown off a ship and shielded his face from media photographers when he was taken to a port in southern Sweden.

"If he was thrown off a ship, they must have thrown off the raft for him to sit on as well, so I don't know," Swedish marine police spokesman Bengt Albinsson said. "We are trying to figure out the circumstances, but we will have to see how much he wants to tell us."

The man had no identification, but spoke perfect English and told police his name was George Williams, police spokesman Thomas Fuxborg was quoted as telling the Dagens Nyheter newspaper. He claimed to be a "stateless American" but born in Cape Town, South Africa, in 1959, Fuxborg said.

New York bound

"He says he has lived for a long time in the USA, but does not want to say where," Fuxborg said. "He has worked in Europe, but does not want say where and with what. He is not seeking asylum in Sweden but wants to go to New York."

The man was taken to a hospital in southern Sweden to be treated for dehydration and a frostbitten foot, but did not seem seriously injured, authorities said.

He will be held in police custody until today, when authorities will contact the US Embassy to try to confirm his identity, Fuxborg said.
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At least he didn't claim to have floated all the way from the U.S.A. But what kind of ship deliberately sets a man adrift in this day and age?
 
Maybe a cruise-ship that had hired that dumb gay German pianist on the strength of his original reviews? :)
 
Just need one more lying looney and we can (as management agents, natch ;) ) represent them as the fabulous Kasper Brothers, who reprise old Marx brothers' routines. Genius ne'est pas?
 
When I first read this news account a couple of days back I'd assumed that this fellow's being "thrown off a ship" referred to a freak ocean wave or even a sudden lurch or roll of the ship rather than purposely being given the heave-ho over the side.

It's my understanding when a ship first gets under power it "takes on green water." with a two or three foot wave rushing over the prow. It would sweep overboard anything not fastened down - including any human being foolish enough to be standing there.

As one old Merchant Mariner (who'd served on the Atlantic run during the worst days of World War Two U-Boat attacks) said to me concerning this, "if you don't lose your life you'll likely lose your seaman's license."
 
If he speaks perfect English surely he can't be American? :D
 
plusk said:
"If he speaks perfect English surely he can't be American?:D"
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Hey dere, fella, youse ain't lookin' f'r no kindsa trubble dere, is ya?

News reports state that this gentleman was born in South Africa and presumeably learned to speak there. Many Americans regard the South African English accent as less "foreign"-sounding than most, since South African English has been strongly influenced by German and Black dialects....just like home.

CBS (Columbia Broadcasting System) network radio announcer and early television personality John Charles Daly, regarded as pretty much a "regular home grown American," had actually been born and raised in South Africa.
 
plusk said:
"So, What's your point OTR?"
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Merely that this individual, although by press reports an American citizen, most likely learned his "perfect English" in South Africa rather than the United States.
 
Update ...

Within a few days of the reports cited above The Guardian reported that George Williams was a known homeless person who'd most recently lived in London.
Raft man is identified as Londoner

The mystery of a man who was discovered last month floating on a raft made of oil drums and wooden planks off the coast of Norway was partly unravelled last night as it emerged he was a homeless man who had been living in London for years. ...

Thomas Fuxborg, a spokesman for Swedish police, said several of Mr Williams's stories did not add up. He initially claimed to be a "stateless American" applying for a US green card in London. Mr Williams told police he was born in Cape Town, South Africa, in 1959 but was adopted by a Jewish family. "He will not tell us the names of his adoptive parents," Mr Fuxborg said. "He still claims he was out on the raft for four nights, but according to all the experts we have asked, that is impossible."

Another police spokesperson, Anna Rosenberg, said: "He says that he has been working in London, but he has not been paying any taxes. He does not want to answer all our questions. He does not want to say from which ship he was thrown overboard." ...

Last night the Rev Logan Dunn, a minister at Whitefield Memorial Church in central London, told the Guardian he knew Mr Williams well. "He came to us a couple of years ago and was involved with us as a client in our soup kitchen. Then he became a regular visitor to the church, and would often help out with odds and ends that needed to be done, particularly if something manual needed doing during church functions.

"George was always smartly dressed considering he didn't have a home, and he always wore the same thing: olive slacks, a burgundy shirt and a black vest.

"I expect most of the congregation didn't realise he was homeless. He never showed any signs of drink or drugs. He was of sound mind and pretty sharp. He was friendly and courteous, and pretty talkative, but always reticent when it came to talking about the past. I don't think he ever let anyone too close to him."

Other reports suggest Mr Williams, who is said to have a strong accent, possibly from the Balkans, was required to report to police on a regular basis. A spokesperson for the Metropolitan police said it had no knowledge of Mr Williams.
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FULL STORY: https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2006/may/03/uknews2.mainsection
 
Two weeks after the Guardian article Swedish radio reported George Williams was actually Czech.
Raft Man Identified

Published tisdag 16 maj 2006 kl 13.23

A man that was found floating on a raft between Denmark and Norway in April, and who was taken into custody by the Swedish Police, has finally been identified.

The 49 year old claimed to be Mr George Williams. After nearly a month’s investigations, it is now confirmed that he in fact is from the Czech Republic.

The man had earlier spent some time in England, and now wants to go to the US. However, he will most likely be sent back to his native country.

How the man ended up on the raft is still a mystery.
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SOURCE: https://sverigesradio.se/artikel/858425
 
Here's the original Norwegian newspaper account of Williams' discovery at sea, preserved at the Wayback Machine:

https://web.archive.org/web/2006042...tenposten.no/english/local/article1287765.ece

The Norwegian article originally included a photo taken of him when he was originally discovered floating in the Skagerrak.

RaftMan-0604-Skagerrak.jpg

​
 
Finally ... Swedish authorities confirmed Raft Man's identity and deported him back to the Czech Republic less than a month after he'd been discovered at sea. No explanation was ever obtained as to how he'd ended up on the raft.
Sweden deports Czech raft drifter

A man rescued from a makeshift raft in Scandinavian waters has been deported from Sweden to his homeland - the Czech Republic. ...

The name he gave officials was found to be fake and Swedish police tracked down his real identity through Interpol.

But they are still no closer to knowing why he was allegedly cast adrift. ...

Swedish police spokesman Jan Bertilsson said the man's fingerprints were sent to Interpol, who received a reply from the German authorities that they matched those of a Czech man calling himself Jiri - who was deported from Germany in the 1990s. ...

The Czech authorities confirmed the man, identified as Jiri Kvapil, had been born in the Czech Republic in 1957.

Czech police told the local media that he had travelled to Germany in 1989 and was abroad until 2002 - the last time his relatives saw him in the Czech Republic. ...

Mr Bertilsson told the BBC News website that the man had no passport or papers to show that he should be in the UK legally or in Sweden.

"When he said he did not want asylum in Sweden, and the fact that he had committed no crime in Sweden, the only thing left for us was to identify him and send him home," said Mr Bertilsson.

"The question we all want to know, what the whole world wants to know, is why he ended up on the raft. The officers have asked him but he hasn't given an answer."

A police officer and two officials accompanied him on Friday to Prague, where he was handed over to the Czech authorities.

The Czech officials later released him, saying he had not committed any crime.
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SOURCE: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4997566.stm
 
OldTimeRadio said:
CBS (Columbia Broadcasting System) network radio announcer and early television personality John Charles Daly, regarded as pretty much a "regular home grown American," had actually been born and raised in South Africa.
Click to expand...
TANGENT WARNING
As a child I watched and listened to him for years on What's My Line and never to this day thought of him as anything other than American. He even wore a bow tie!
:botp:
 
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