Rescued boatmen were adrift for 25 days

The south-east Asian nation of Myanmar, were spotted by a routine customs service flight that patrols for far larger craft.

Two desperate, dehydrated men found bobbing in an ice box off Australia have revealed they spent 25 days adrift after their fishing boat sank.

But despite their rescue, officials today said there was no sign of 18 other crew members.

Authorities were amazed that the men, from the south-east Asian nation of Myanmar, were spotted by a routine customs service flight that patrols for far larger craft.

Monsoon rains in recent weeks may have prevented the pair from dying of thirst.

The men, 22 and 24, were rescued from the Torres Strait by a helicopter on Saturday and flown 106km south-east to a hospital on Thursday Island off Queensland state.

A photograph taken from the patrol plane shows both men waving frantically while standing shirtless in their pink ice box - a waist-high container barely larger than a bathtub and often used to store freshly-caught fish.

Maritime Safety Authority spokeswoman Tracey Jiggins said: "These two people being spotted is miraculous in itself in the huge expanse of ocean after drifting for 25 days."

Authorities have not said what the men ate or drank during their ordeal.

Some reports have said they survived on fish chunks that had been stored in the cooler before the boat sank and rainwater that pooled on the floor.

Greg Edwards, a Thursday Island commercial boat operator, said there had been a lot of rain in Torres Strait since Christmas, and 5093kph gusts.

"It's been pretty miserable weather," he added.

The rescued men told police they had been aboard a nine-metre wooden fishing boat that sank on December 23 with a total of 20 crew from Thailand and Myanmar.

One of the rescuers, pilot Terry Gadenne, told how each man drank about four pints of water within seconds of being hoisted aboard the helicopter.

"They were dehydrated, there's no doubt about it, and very keen to get out," Gadenne said.

Immigration Department spokesman Sandi Logan said the men would be kept under department supervision while officials determined their identities.

Neither man had identity documents.