Teenagers prayed to go peacefully after being lost at sea for a week

A sunburned Troy Driscoll is looked after by his mother Deb Fowler, left, and father Tony Driscoll, right, in his hospital room in Charleston, S.C., Sunday. Driscoll, 15, and his best friend, 17-year-old Josh Long, were lost at sea for six days without food or fresh water. ASSOCIATED PRESS

SOUTHPORT, N.C. — Two teenagers who had survived nearly a week at sea, clinging to a 14-foot Sunfish, prayed to go peacefully in the hours before they were discovered.

‘‘I asked God to take me,’’ 15-year-old Troy Driscoll told The (Charleston, S.C.) Post and Courier on Saturday night as he lay in the emergency room of Dosher Memorial Hospital. ‘‘You’re out there fighting for your life. We didn’t want to fight anymore.’’

Driscoll and 18-year-old Josh Long were spotted by fishermen aboard the Renegade about 4:30 p.m. Saturday. The boys were about seven miles off Cape Fear — six days and more than 100 miles from where they had put in off Sullivans Island, S.C., on April 24.

The boys were sunburned, dehydrated, exhausted and beat up by their six days at sea on the small sailboat, but Coast Guard and other officials said they were in pretty good shape considering what they had been through.

‘‘We were praying for a miracle and we got one,’’ Charleston Coast Guard Cmdr. June Ryan said. ‘‘Everybody on the East Coast has been looking for these boys.’’

Their families had never lost hope of finding the two best friends.

‘‘This is unreal,’’ Long’s older brother Jonathan Goerling told The Post and Courier as he drove toward North Carolina late Saturday to reunite with his brother.

Shane Coker said first he would hug his little brother Troy. ‘‘Then I’m gonna hit him and let him know how much he made us worry.’’

The two sailors had put in on a blustery day that came with a National Weather Service warning for small boats to stay off the water. The realized they were in trouble almost immediately and tried to swim back to shore, pulling the boat along with them.

They could see the bridge linking Sullivans and the Isle of Palms. They yelled to people on the beach for help, but were unheard. Within hours of putting in, they were out to sea.

‘‘We lost our tackle the second day,’’ Driscoll told one of his relatives on the phone. ‘‘So we couldn’t catch any fish.’’

They had no fresh water and drank seawater, even though they knew it was bad. They would slip into the water to cool off, but sharks chased them back onto the boat. At night, they shared a wet suit to keep warm.

After they were plucked from the water by the Renegade, the teens were transferred to a Coast Guard vessel where they got medical attention and got to make a much anticipated phone call.

Tony Driscoll didn’t recognize the phone number calling his cell phone, but he knew the voice.

‘‘He started screaming ’It’s my boy, it’s my boy. He’s been found, he’s been found,’ ‘‘ family friend Kay Withrock said. ‘‘Then the whole house started screaming and crying.’’

Soon after, Josh Long called his father who was staying with at the same Sullivans Island beach house as Driscoll’s family while they awaited word on their boys.

The families went to North Carolina for the reunion.

Richard Goerling is Long’s uncle and a member of the Coast Guard Reserve and a police officer in Oregon. He flew to the East Coast to give support. He said he thought there was no way the boys could survive, but the families ‘‘refused to give up. I latched onto their hopes.’’

The boys’ own hope waned as the week wore on. They stood up on their Sunfish every time they saw a boat and waved their paddles and yelled. One night they were awakened by water splashing in their faces and found a large containership bearing down on them.

‘‘It was like some monster building in the water,’’ Driscoll said.

It rained one night and they tried desperately to catch the fresh water for drinking.

At one point, they thought they had drifted across the Atlantic Ocean and were close to Africa. Instead, they were about 111 miles north — well outside the Coast Guard’s search grid — but close enough to spot one more fishing boat.

They got up one more time and made some noise. This time, they were heard.

‘‘What we have is an absolutely miraculous story of survival that’s going to be studied for years to come,’’ Richard Goerling said. ‘‘I think those two boys have a book to write.’’

The Coast Guard wants to review the case, Charleston Cmdr. Ryan said, to see how the boys took a route so unanticipated by computer models and weather and nautical data.

The boys said they don’t remember much about their rescue.

As they were pulled aboard the fishing boat and given some water, their rescuers asked what they wanted to do with the Sunfish.

‘‘We told them we didn’t want to see it again,’’ Long said.