Four Taiwan seamen who disappeared on Friday after their ship caught fire were found alive on Wednesday afternoon by Chinese mainland rescuers.

The four began their 114-hour ordeal after their Taiwan-registered vessel caught fire at 8:10 p.m. on Friday off Beiwo, Xiapu County, Fujian Province, as it was returning to Taiwan from Ningde, Fujian.

Xu Changyun, a Xiapu fisherman and crew member, was pulled from the water near Beishuang island, Xiapu, at 11:30 a.m. on Sunday.

Xu said the fire spread quickly and the five crew decided to abandon ship and plunge into the sea.

The captain, He Maoxiong, and three other Taiwan crew members took on life jackets, grabbed two life rings bound together and drifted with the currents.

Xu, who thought himself a much better swimmer, also took on a life jacket and swam towards Beishuang island alone. He reached the island was saved.

Acting on information provided by Xu, the Fujian border police organized more than 50 vessels to search for the seamen.

At 1 p.m. Wednesday, fishermen saw the seamen waving from the uninhabited island of Beiwo and immediately informed border police.

Rescuers reached them at 2:31 p.m. and confirmed they were the missing Taiwan sailors.

The four, who were extremely weak, are receiving treatment in a hospital in Xiapu.

They drifted for two days before they arrived at Beiwo island. They survived by drinking their own urine and rainwater.

(Xinhua News Agency July 31, 2008)