Snickers & Gulliver: From Jerry and Darla Merrow’s Side

I am writing on behalf of my sister and brother-in-law, Darla and Jerry Merrow, who after being shipwrecked on Fanning Island, had to leave behind their pets Snickers and Gulliver. The cocker spaniel dog and macaw bird have become quite famous after Jack Joslin graciously took the time and effort to adopt Snickers, saving him from being euthanized. Unfortunately, this story has painted a picture of Darla and Jerry that inaccurately portrays them to be irresponsible and uncaring towards their pets. I would like to respond to some of the remarks that have been made by both the authors of the many stories that have appeared on the internet and the bloggers who have commented on the stories.

The best way to clear up the misunderstandings is to start at the beginning of the story. Darla and Jerry have lived on a boat since they got married 10 yrs ago. After our family had a rough year in which 5 family members passed away, including both mom and dad, Darla and Jerry decided to take a break from work and go on an extended vacation. They took most of the money they had and outfitted their boat to standards needed to make a trip to Hawaii. (Please note that they NEVER iintended on taking their animals out of the country.) They left San Francisco late August 2007. Immediately, they hit a bad storm that seriously damaged their boat. They were able to turn around and dock at Moss Landing where they discovered that their boat was beyond repair. They purchased a different boat and again went through the process of getting it ready to sail. This ate up all of the money they had left.

Three weeks later, they set sail again. Darla told me it would be several weeks to a month before she would be able to make contact. Two months went by without word. Our family was worried sick, afraid that their boat had gone down and they were floating on a life raft in the middle of the ocean or worse. We weren’t that far off. I emailed the United States Coast Guard and asked for help locating their boat. The very next day I got a reply saying that someone in the office just happened to be reading an online sailing magazine, Latitude38. They remember reading a very short entry:

“On the morning of December 2, the 47-ft San Francisco-based motorsailer Darla Jean wrecked on the reef on the southeast side of Fanning Atoll in the Central Pacific.”

The story reported that all four of them were safe. The coast guard included a link to Robbie and Lorraine Coleman’s webpage. (they are an American couple who are currently staying on the island.) I emailed them and got more information about Darla and Jerry’s well-being. I continued to stay in touch with the Coleman’s until Darla and Jerry left Fanning for Christmas Island on the steamer “Nei Momi”.

When they left Moss Landing with their new boat, Darla and Jerry hit storm after storm and with each, their boat was damaged more and more. They ended up with no sail, no engine power and no ability to steer the boat. They left with a 6 month supply of food but most of it was ruined when a storm ripped open the storage area allowing salt water to mix with the food. They had to survive by spearing tuna that came near the boat. They were able to cook the fish until their propane ran out and than ate it raw. Once when Jerry was reeling in a tuna, the spear gun went overboard. They still had the spear, so they took a broom handle and fastened it to the spear. After this they had to wait until a fish was close enough to the boat and jab at it caveman style. There were times when they went without eating for 3-4 days. They drifted for over 100 days until one morning at 5:00 A.M. they slammed against the coral reef that surrounds Fanning Island.

In the pitch black they had to grab their important papers and jump ship praying that the coral would not tear them apart. Darla, Jerry, and Snickers all swam 200 meters to shore. Gulliver hitched a ride on Jerry’s shoulder. They made it to shore just as the sun was coming up. When it was light enough to see, Jerry swam back to the boat and started throwing packets of juice overboard. Darla gathered them up as they washed ashore. When they had everything they could carry they started walking to see if this island was inhabited. They came across a man on a motor scooter who waved and continued on his way. They were hoping that he was going to get help but a few minutes later they looked back at their boat and saw that man and several other people on their boat looting it. When they came into the village and found an island official, they were promptly arrested!! Darla had her passport with her, but Jerry’s fell out of his pocket during the swim to shore. He had no way of proving who he was and what he was doing on “their” island. Besides the Coleman’s there was only one person on the island who spoke very broken English.

Can you imagine trying to explain yourself in this situation?? From what I understand, the entire time on the island was spent “under arrest”. They stayed with the local police officer until they were able to board the steamer.

Here is where the first misconception occurs. Some articles do not clarify that Darla and Jerry did not choose to leave their pets on Fanning Island. The steamer Nei Momi would not allow the pets to board the ship. Darla and Jerry had to go to Christmas Island to get a new passport for Jerry and then they had to continue home to the United States. They had no choice!!

Darla and Jerry arrived on Christmas Island on Dec 24. They met some Mormon missionaries who took them in, shared their Christmas meal with them and paid for their flight to Hawaii. They are hero’s in this story who have not gotten fair thanks for their generosity!! Once on the flight to Hawaii, the pilot heard their story and took up a collection so that they could get a hotel room and another flight home. These people are also heros.

One blog that I read mentions that “these are rich people.” Does this sound like they are rich? Remember, they put all of their money into the two boats that took them 1000 miles beyond their destination, through storms that sank 5 other boats, to crash on a coral reef and destroy the only material possessions they had left….except for the ones that were than looted by the locals.

It was the beginning of January when they arrived back home in California. The stress of this entire situation took a big toll on their relationship and they split up for a time. By the way, the term “home” is misleading. Remember, they had been living on the boat that they started their trip with, so now they actually had no “home” to return to. Darla stayed with our brother, Tom, and I believe Jerry stayed with friends.

It has been written that Darla and Jerry chose to leave their animals on Fanning Island knowing that they would be destroyed; that they made no effort to save their animals from destruction; and that they were unresponsive to emails as to whether or not they were coming back to claim their animals. These accusations are simply not true.

Darla gave me access to her emails in which there are conversations between Darla and the Coleman’s, Darla and LaDonna Buback (latitude38) and one that Jerry wrote to LaDonna. On 1/7/08, LaDonna emailed me to get in touch with Darla to share her story. On that same day, Darla replied that she would love to tell her story. La Donna’s reply on 1/15/08 was as follows:

Instead of writing a typical story about your ‘adventure’ to Fanning, we were thinking of simply runningseveral of the many and strange letters we’ve received.”

So she basically wanted to print the gossip as opposed to what really happened. In the meantime, on 1/11/08 Robby informed Darla that Benaia, the immigration/policeman and Temia, the lady they stayed with would like to know when they were coming back to get their animals. This was only a few weeks after Darla and Jerry retuned to California penniless, homeless, and jobless. On Jerry’s end of things, he sent an email to LaDonna, telling the story of the shipwreck:

We want to get Gulliver and snickers. We had to leave them on fanning island. We miss them, these guys are are kids. When Gulliver talks he calls me daddy and Darla mommy, We are heart broken; we have nothing and no money so if someone out there has a boat they don’t use or want please get hold of us at (phone # and email). We don’t have any money but i can fix just about anything and would gladly trade anything i can do to go get our kids back. Please help if you can.”

Does this sound like someone who chose to “abandon” his pets?

Jan 24 Robby emailed Darla informing her that Gulliver was going to be euthanized at the end of the month. This was the first time that Darla had any idea that her animals were in any kind of danger. Emails prior to this asked when they were coming back but did not mention the animals were in peril. Also, notice that Robby’s email does not mention Snickers, only Gulliver. So Darla still had no knowledge that Snickers life was at risk. February 1, an email came from Robby saying that Snickers got a reprieve and he asked again when they were coming back. It was awhile before Darla could get to a computer to see either of these emails. Remember, she did not have her own computer at this time. She was staying with our brother and looking for work. It was not like she could check heremail everyday. On February 8, Darla emailed “Robbie’:

I have not been able to get on line. Yes I am coming back in about 2 months I should be there. I would be so happy if you could keep Gulliver for me till I get there. You and your wife seem like such nice people.
Thank you
Darla

PS let me know

Robby’s reply came on Feb 15 and was titled, “How do I get you to respond?” She had already told him they would be back in two months, (which would have been in April). So you can see that when people write that Darla and Jerry were unresponsive, it is just not true. Maybe they did not respond as quickly as officials would have liked, but between working on their relationship, restarting a business that kept them working 12-14 hour days, and raising the $50,000 that it took to purchase another boat and working as fast as they possibly could to get ready to go back to the island to save their animals, AND doing all of this in 3 months is pretty admirable in my book!! I truly do not wish to sound ungrateful, but at the same time I can’t help but ask, “How much money did Jack Joslin spend to adopt Snickers?”

In response to Jack printing that Darla requested to not be informed if Snickers was put to death, I would like to say that the reason behind that request was not that we didn’t care to be bothered as Jack says. I will give him the benefit of the doubt for that because he did not realize that within one year Darla (and me) have lost a brother, a mother, a father, an uncle and a cousin to death. The reason Darla didn’t want to know if Snickers was going to be killed was because she didn’t want to have her heart ripped to pieces, yet again, with news of another family member’s death.

One blogger wrote that Darla went on the Montell Williams Show and did not bother to mention that their pets needed rescuing. Although it is true that the animals were not mentioned in this way on the show, it is also true that the air date for the show is July 21, so the person who wrote that comment has absolutely no idea what Darla and I talked about on Montell. When the show taped on March 12, we knew that the air date was not until the middle of summer, so when people saw the show, it would have been to late for them to reach out and help save the animals.

When I spoke to my sister on the phone and let her know of all of the negative comments people were making about them, Darla was so frustrated that she was close to tears. She said again how extremely difficult it was to leave “my children” on Fanning Island. She said that she is furious that she has to explain the actions that they were forced to take throughout this ordeal. They would love to have their pets back and are in fact at this very moment on their way to Christmas Island. She challenges anybody to go through the deadly storms that destroyed not one, but two boats and leave them shipwrecked, come home with not a penny to their name, start their own business, raise $50,000.00, and in 3 months have the fortitude to voyage out again. Any takers?

Kim Corcoran