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A Far Eastern Shipping Company container vessel rescued three Portuguese fishermen who had spent seven days adrift on their boat in the Atlantic Ocean, a press statement from FESCO reported Wednesday.

The Ascold, chartered under the name Delmas Filao and traveling to the Belgian port of Antwerp, spotted a boat with three people on board, waving their life jackets, about 200 miles off the Portuguese coast on November 6. The vessel came to a stop and drew aside the boat, taking the three men on board by a rescue ladder.

According to the rescued, all of them Portuguese businessmen, they had left the Portuguese port of Olhao for fishing on October 30. Five hours later, the engine stopped and the boat started to drift away, the men spending a week in the open sea.

The saved were later passed by the Delmas Filao crew to a life-boat belonging to a Portuguese naval vessel.

The condition of the three is reported as satisfactory, the statement said.