Heinz Offers Man Who Survived Off Ketchup at Sea New Boat

The company finally located a Dominica sailor who was lost at sea for 24 days.

Heinz was on a mission to find a man named Elvis Francois in the hopes of gifting him a state-of-the-art boat, and finally, they succeeded.

The company asked for the public's help to find Francois, a Dominica sailor who was lost at sea for 24 days in January somewhere to the northwest of Colombia’s Puerto Bolívar, surviving on ketchup, garlic powder, Maggi stock cubes, and water.

With the aid of a media outlet in Dominica called Emo News, which posted a Facebook Live video with Francois to share that he was located in Dominica, Heinz connected with the sailor and is working on getting him the new boat.

Heinz commented on the video, writing, "Incredible. We've hopped into your DMs - let's get Elvis his boat!"

Emerline Anselm, the CEO of Emo News, told Business Insider about finding Francois, saying, "I knew Elvis lived in the community near me, and I took a drive to go and look for him – and found him."

The publication spoke to Francois as well about the situation, and he revealed, "I spoke to Heinz yesterday, and they said they'll try to find a way to organize getting a boat for me."

He further stated that he felt "quite excited. Depending on the size of the boat, I could use the boat to do fishing or tours of the Caribbean."

In late January, the Colombian navy shared what happened to Francois in a video and statement, saying that the 47-year-old sailor was rescued after a plane spotted the word "help" engraved in the hull of his boat.

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Francois said that he got lost after bad weather pulled his sailboat out to sea, and he didn't have the knowledge of navigation to travel back to shore on his own.

He shared some of his thoughts during his time alone at sea: "Twenty-four days – no land, nobody to talk to. Don’t know what to do, don’t know where you are. It was rough."

Luckily, Francois was rescued and is in good health, with a brand new boat from Heinz on the way!