TWO Burmese men rescued from a giant icebox in the Torres Strait off Queensland had survived 25 days at sea after a fishing boat sank southeast of Indonesia. The men drifted hundreds of kilometres in the red box before a Coastwatch plane spotted them on Saturday about 60 nautical miles off Horn Island, in the Torres Strait.

They told rescuers they were forced to crew a 10m-long Thai fishing boat that broke up about 200 nautical miles north of Australia, sources told The Courier-Mail. As the wooden boat splintered into the ocean, the crew sent out distress signals but were ignored, the men told authorities. The two survivors climbed into the icebox as other crew searched desperately for something to grab from the wreck. They saw a Thai man floating past them in the ocean but were unable to help, they said.

It is understood the men managed to survive by drinking rain water that gathered at the bottom of the box and by eating pieces of fish that were also in the container.

It is believed that 11 other Burmese crew and seven Thais were on board but none has been found.

If only it had been at least half-filled with beer……