--- title: Men Saved From Deserted Island After Writing 'Help' On Sand description: Three men who were stranded on a remote Pacific island after their sailboat sank were rescued after three days. canonical: https://time.com/4288130/fanadik-help-desert-island-rescued/ author: Nash Jenkins article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-04-11T08:09:41.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:31:29.826Z og:title: Men Saved From Desert Isle After Writing 'Help' On Sand og:description: A military plane spotted their message after three days og:url: https://time.com/4288130/fanadik-help-desert-island-rescued/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt243e3d3638055a22/69888e760b72e344f76e8e45/rtx297jv.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2200 og:image:height: 1238 og:image:alt: Two of three men stranded on the uninhabited island of Fanadik in Micronesia wave life jackets as a U.S. Navy P-8A Poseidon maritime patrol and reconnaissance aircraft discovers them og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Men Saved From Desert Isle After Writing 'Help' On Sand twitter:description: A military plane spotted their message after three days twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt243e3d3638055a22/69888e760b72e344f76e8e45/rtx297jv.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Three Men Were Saved From a Desert Island After Writing 'Help' On the Sand > Sponsored content. 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The Brief is available free at time.com/newsletters, where readers can select it along with any of TIME's other six newsletters. There is no subscription required to receive it. #### Is The Brief free? Yes. The Brief is a free daily email newsletter from TIME. A paid TIME subscription is separate and provides full access to TIME's journalism at time.com/subscribe-agent. #### Who writes The Brief? The Brief is led by editor Richard Hall and draws on reporting from TIME's newsroom. Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically. by [Nash Jenkins](https://time.com/author/p-nash-jenkins/) ## Nash Jenkins Apr 11, 2016 8:09 AM UTC  Two of three men stranded on the uninhabited island of Fanadik in Micronesia wave life jackets next to palm fronds spelling the word "HELP." Two of three men stranded on the uninhabited island of Fanadik in Micronesia wave life jackets next to palm fronds spelling the word "HELP."U.S. Navy—Reuters by [Nash Jenkins](https://time.com/author/p-nash-jenkins/) ## Nash Jenkins Apr 11, 2016 8:09 AM UTC Three men who were stranded on a remote Pacific island after their sailboat sank were [rescued](http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/apr/09/men-rescued-help-palm-leaves-island-pacific) after three days, thanks to an old castaway trope — the word “Help” spelled out in palm fronds on the beach, which was spotted by a military plane passing by. The men were on a sailing trip in the southern Pacific Ocean when a sudden storm last Monday night sunk their boat and cast them into the sea, the _Guardian_ reported. They swam nearly two miles until they reached the island of Fanadik, in the Federated States of Micronesia, where they would remain for three days. The U.S. Coast Guard took note of their disappearance, and on Thursday morning, a navy plane spotted them on the beach, next to the message they had made in the sand. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4288130/fanadik-help-desert-island-rescued/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4288130/fanadik-help-desert-island-rescued/"},"headline":"Three Men Were Saved From a Desert Island After Writing 'Help' On the Sand","datePublished":"2016-04-11T08:09:41.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:31:29.826Z","description":"A real-life Castaway","url":"https://time.com/4288130/fanadik-help-desert-island-rescued/","keywords":["Newsfeed","World","pacific ocean","Ocean"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt243e3d3638055a22/69888e760b72e344f76e8e45/rtx297jv.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Nash Jenkins","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/p-nash-jenkins/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt243e3d3638055a22/69888e760b72e344f76e8e45/rtx297jv.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Two of three men stranded on the uninhabited island of Fanadik in Micronesia wave life jackets as a U.S. Navy P-8A Poseidon maritime patrol and reconnaissance aircraft discovers them","caption":"Two of three men stranded on the uninhabited island of Fanadik in Micronesia wave life jackets as a U.S. Navy P-8A Poseidon maritime patrol and reconnaissance aircraft discovers them","creditText":"U.S. Navy—Reuters","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4288130/fanadik-help-desert-island-rescued/","name":"Three Men Were Saved From a Desert Island After Writing 'Help' On the Sand"}}]}] ```