“Overboard Dog” Luna was given up for drowned by owner Nick Haworth after the blue-eyed mongrel disappeared from a boat on February 10, 2016. The dog reappeared alive on land Tuesday, March 17. Vanishing while fisherman and San Diego State University student Haworth was collecting lobster traps two miles off San Clemente, California, Luna was spotted over a month later on the island owned and operated by the United States Navy.
According to The San Diego Union-Tribune , 20-year-old Haworth expressed his joy on social media about being reunited with the 1½-year-old German shepherd-husky mix he lost overboard. The student/fisherman made the following March 17 entry on his Facebook page about the dog’s return.
“Beyond stoked to have Luna back. I always knew she was a warrior.”
Haworth and an associate realized the dog had gone overboard before dawn on February 10. They were on the 45-foot Elizabeth H,two miles off San Clemente Island when Haworth noticed “one moment Luna was there and the next she was gone,” but he was not sure how the 40-pound dog ended up off the boat.
Acting on Haworth’s request, the U.S. Navy went overboard rendering assistance, but the search proved futile.
The “overboard dog” owner stayed in the area for two days looking for Luna, but she was never spotted.
Navy wildlife biologist Melissa Booker said the tan-and-black mongrel that slipped overboard from the fishing vessel blended right in with her surroundings when Navy crews extended their search to the nearby island. Despite on-ground and aerial scrutiny, they never spotted the dog.
Five weeks into her disappearance overboard from the Elizabeth H , when all optimism was gone for the dog’s return, the improbable happened. According to Booker, crewmen driving on an island road found Luna sitting along the wayside. Booker described the encounter.
“They literally opened up the car door, whistled, and she jumped right in.”
ABC30 reported that Luna was flown to a naval base on the mainland, no worse from her overboard adventure. Haworth’s best friend, Conner Lamb, assumed guardianship of the dog until her owner’s return on Thursday night. Meanwhile, the Navy gave her a dog-tag replacement displaying her name and the Navy-Marine admonition: “Keep the Faith.”
Booker made the determination that Luna apparently swam to shore after going overboard and survived on small rodents for five weeks. The dog was malnourished but uninjured, and she became the hit of the island, where no domestic animals are permitted.
A similar dog story emerged in 2009 about Australian cattle dog Sophie Tucker going overboard from a sailboat and swimming five miles in choppy waters to an island, where the house pet lived on a diet of wild goats for four months. The adventure began when Dave and Jan Griffith took their dog along for a sailing trip off the coast of Australia and a rough sea knocked Sophie into the water.
According to Today , Sophie swam to the island of St. Bees, in Australia’s Great Barrier Reef. The island, uninhabited by humans, harbors a fairly large koala bear population, and a patrol of rangers was caught by surprise when they stumbled upon what looked like a wild dog among the native fauna.
Jan Griffith shared her “overboard dog” narrative with the National Australian Associated Press News Agency .
“She surprised us all. She was a house dog and look what’s she done, she’s swum over five nautical miles, she’s managed to live off the land all on her own. We wish she could talk, we really do.”
In a separate interview, Griffith explained to the Brisbane Times how, after going overboard, her dog ended up paddling to the remote island of St. Bees.
“We searched well over an hour. We thought once she hit the water she would have been gone because the wake from the boat was so big.”
Other “overboard dog” stories old and new, inspired by Luna, are making their way onto the internet.
[Photo by U.S. Navy/Getty Images]
