Bermuda’s Indonesian community has been brought closer together by helping their countrymen who lost everything after a maritime accident.

Ayu Trisna-Simons, of Pembroke, praised her fellow Indonesians and the island as a whole for rallying together to support the 16 stranded sailors.

“I was really amazed by the response both from the Indonesian community, other Asian communities and also the Bermudian people,” the 40-year-old told The Royal Gazette.

“Everyone chipped in and did whatever they could, gave whatever they had to spare. I’m very proud.”

Captain Zi You Wong, a Chinese national, and his 18 Indonesian crew members, one of whom later died, were rescued by bulk carrier K Coral after their fishing vessel went up in flames. The crew was dropped off in Bermuda on June 24, and one of the men, who was in a critical condition, was flown to the United States for medical treatment accompanied by another crew member, while the others found shelter at the Bermuda Sailor’s Home.

Upon hearing about their situation, Ms Trisna-Simons reached out to the small Indonesian community in Bermuda via Facebook.

“I asked them if they would be willing to donate anything because as far as I knew at that time, they did not have anything, no clothes — they had to leave everything on the boat.

“It’s very touching how they reacted and how they responded to this,” she said, adding that donations included clothes, shoes, toiletries, food and money.

Ms Trisna-Simons, who is married to a Bermudian, added: “We learnt a lot by just doing this. Indonesians here work different jobs, different shifts — we don’t see each other much, especially me. This actually brought us together.

“We just tried to help them as much as we can because that’s how we want to be treated when something like that happens to us.

“I know not all the Indonesians here have that much to begin with but they are willing to give whatever they have and it makes you feel so fortunate.

“It makes you think that all of your problems are really not that important when it comes to a matter of life and death and not having anything. It makes you appreciate what you have.”

Ms Trisna-Simons dropped off donations to the men, visited them daily and through her company, the CellOne employee also made sure they could call their families.

“They felt more comfortable telling me in our language everything that happened,” she said. “They told me they thought they were going to die.”

Ms Trisna-Simons said they started to feel better by about their third day on the island.

“I tried to take their minds off of what happened, have them move forward. I tried to distract them with all of the other activities.”

Ms Trisna-Simons took the sailors to Harbour Nights and also helped organise a birthday party complete with cake for the youngest crew member who turned 18 while they were here.

“He couldn’t thank us enough for that,” she said. “They were a little bit overwhelmed because they said this was the first time that they got this type of response from people. I was really proud of everyone here on the island.”

She added that the sailors were “unbelievably” grateful for all their help and were hopeful that they would one day be able to visit the island again under different circumstances.

Five of the crew men departed on July 1 while the rest followed on July 2. They left with mixed feelings, Ms Trisna-Simons said.

“They said they were sad because the time they spent here in Bermuda, getting all of this attention and getting to see how nice people are, is different for them.”

Ms Trisna-Simons hopes to stay in touch with her new friends, and has even agreed to help one of them learn English.

She said the unexpected detour had motivated the men to learn the language, with many wondering what would have happened had they not met any local Indonesians.