THE British captain of a Christmas cruise was hailed a hero last night after saving the lives of two young men who had been drifting helplessly in the Caribbean for 10 days.

Passengers on the cruise liner Sunbird spotted a 15-year-old fisherman and his friend drifting in a 12ft wooden boat as the cruise sailed from Aruba to the paradise island of Barbados.

The ship's captain Philip Rentell, 49, ordered the liner to turn around as soon as the alarm was raised and plucked the boys from the rough seas 200 miles from their island of Grenada.

Last night, Captain Rentell - who lives in Cornwall with his wife Helen and their nine-year-old son - said the boat had only been spotted by chance as he had changed course by 45 degrees to avoid a rainstorm hours before.

"It was a miracle we saw them as the boat was too small to be picked up by radar," he said. "They'd have died if they'd been in the water much longer."

Around 1,500 passengers from all over the UK were on the nine-day cruise organised by Sun Cruises, an arm of Airtours. Captain Rentell had left the bridge to prepare for lunch when his first officer spotted a small blue craft in the sea on the ship's starboard side. He paged the captain as passengers ran to the bridge to raise the alarm.

Speaking from Barbados last night, Captain Rentell said: "I ordered the boat to turn around and as we got nearer, I could see they were waving a red flag.

"They were in an obvious state of distress, and as we got closer I saw one of them make the sign of the cross."

Captain Rentell ordered a sea-boat crew to prepare a fast launch for the rescue - but the sea was too rough.

He said: "We opened the pilot door and arranged a scrambling net as I manoevered the ship to within 10 feet of them. We sent a heaving net out and one of them caught it and jumped into the sea. The other lad was too weak and one of the sailors clambered down and brought them on board."

Terence McGuire, who was on holiday with his wife Joan, said passengers had gathered on deck to watch the dramatic rescue.

Mr McGuire, of Fife, said: "A huge cheer went up when the crew reached the dingy and managed to save the boys.

"The captain later made an announcement that the boys had been in the sea for two weeks after setting out from Grenada and we were the first boat to pass them.

"It was a tiny boat and they only had oars. No-one knows how they managed to drift out so far."

The fishermen - Kellon Ashton, 15, and his friend Davies John, 27 - told the crew they had set sail at the beginning of December in their boat Kenda but the outboard motor failed. They drifted out to sea despite desperate attempts to row back.

Captain Rentell said: "We took them to our hospital and the doctor and two nurses on board put them on drips because they were so dehydrated.

"They were covered in blisters, not just from the sun and salt from the sea, but because they had tried desperately to row back.

"Once I got the ship back on course, I went to see them and they were extremely happy. When the doctor introduced me, they just gazed up and took my hand."

The fishermen were looked after by the ship's crew until they were dropped off in Barbados on Monday night.

The holidaymakers were so moved by the plight of the two boys that they started a collection for them and they will be presented with hundreds of dollars when the ship returns to Grenada.

Myra Shacklady of Sun Cruises said: "All ships have clear procedures for rescues at sea and there will have been no inconvenience for passengers. The Sunbird docked on time the next morning."

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