Chinese tourist falls off cruise ship, survives 38 hours adrift at sea

Royal Caribbean's Mariner of the Seas sails cruisers to different Asian countries. (Royal Caribbean)

A woman who tumbled off a cruise ship without a life jacket kept herself alive for 38 hours, dodging large ships that could pull her under in their wake and dozing off while treading water, before she was rescued by fishermen in the South China Sea.

The 32-year-old Chinese tourist, identified only by her surname, Fan, was traveling with her parents last week aboard a five-day Royal Caribbean cruise from Shanghai to South Korea to China, the South China Morning Post reported.

She said she was out alone when she leaned too far over a fourth-deck railing and fell the equivalent of seven stories into the sea. The local coast guard said she was lucky even to have survived the fall.

Fan said no one saw her go overboard or heard her cries for help because it was late at night.

The following morning, after her parents reported her missing, the staff and more than 100 volunteers conducted a search for her aboard the ship, The Telegraph reported. Surveillance cameras showed her walking alone on the deck, but they did not capture her fall, her father told police.

Fan said after her rescue that she swam away from large ships during her ordeal to avoid being sucked under by their wake. She said she became exhausted and, still treading water, dozed off the next night.

When she woke up, after more than a day and a half in the water, she saw a fishing vessel and swam toward it. The fishermen pulled her onto their ship late in the morning, police said.

“Only after I heard my daughter’s voice did I believe she was still alive. It’s a miracle,” the father said.

Fan was taken to the hospital with nothing more than some blisters on her arm, the result of jellyfish stings.

FoxNews.com has contacted Royal Caribbean for comment.