Tseng Lien-fa, who cannot swim, survived 60 hours drifting in rough seas by clinging onto a floating coffin lid.
He was catching baby eels on a beach in Haulien county when the huge freak wave swept him away.
‘I managed to hold on as the first wave hit me on the chest, but I was overwhelmed by the second and bigger wave,’ he told the United Daily News.
‘On the lid, I was drifting and drifting … during that period I hoped I could be picked up by any ships passing by,’ he said.
There is no explanation for how the lid came to be in the sea but it was a remarkable stoke of luck for Tseng.
He was eventually swept him onto a beach in Taitung, 75 km away from where his ordeal began, the reports said.
Coastguards searching for Tseng found him lying on the beach on Sunday.
‘Considering the fact that he had not taken in any food or water while drifting at sea for 60 hours and he remained conscious, all I could say about him was that this was a miracle,’ said Chen Tien-su, a doctor at Hualien Hospital.
Picture via Getty Images
