Having seen his fishing boat engulfed in flames and holding on to dear life on a small makeshift raft for days, the first thing Simon Bugeja, the sole survivor of the Simshar tragedy, told his rescuers was that everyone on board had died, including his father and his son.

Mark Bugeja, 28, the master of the 20-metre long fishing boat Grecale, which rescued Simon and participated in the search for the other four people, was speaking to reporters when he arrived in Marsaxlokk at 7 a.m. yesterday.

The Simshar tragedy stole the lives of Simon Bugeja's father Karmenu, 61, Noel Carabott, 33, and Somali Abdulrahman Abdala Gedi, 21.

Simon Bugeja's 11-year-old son Teo is still missing although his father told his rescuers he had died.

Despite earlier reports that the fishing vessel was destroyed by an explosion, his rescuers yesterday recounted how Simon told them that a fire in the engine room had destroyed the boat.

Mr Bugeja explained the heart-breaking rescue mission which started last Monday when he left his expectant wife at home and joined fellow fisherman Malcolm Degabriele, 30, in a bid to find the missing vessel and the five people on board. Simon's uncle, Joe (Karmenu's brother), and his son Joseph joined them.

Pointing at the raft which Simon put together hastily, Mr Bugeja said he felt "uncontainable happiness" when he saw Simon waving as they were approaching him, having been spotted by Mr Degabriele.

He said Simon built the raft, made out of four blocks of polystyrene fishermen used to keep long lines afloat, and a net full of empty plastic bottles of water and empty detergent containers. He also held up the grey and green T-shirt Simon was wearing when they rescued him.

"Simon's first words were: 'The others are all dead'. He was frail and had barely enough energy to speak.

"We gave him some water and soon after he started relating what had happened. The patrol boat and the helicopter came to collect him in no time and rushed him to hospital," Mr Bugeja, who also looked extremely tired after a week out at sea, said. He recalled drinking coffee continuously in order to keep awake so the search could continue at night.

He said Simon related how in the afternoon of July 10, when they were just five hours away from Malta, Simon smelt something burning. He went to the engine room and found one of the engines on fire. He did not have time to get hold of the CO2 fire extinguisher and went back up and tried to open the life raft but this did not work. Simon told his rescuers the satellite phone did not work either and that the vessel started taking in water. His son, Mr Carabott and Mr Abdala Gedi were asleep at the time.

Simon got the floats and threw them overboard. All five of them then abandoned the vessel and for more than six hours watched the fibreglass Simshar sink slowly, engulfed in flames.

Mr Bugeja said Simon tied with rope the floats together and took it in turns to rest on the raft. Simon said he told the others not to drink seawater but they were dehydrated and drank it anyway.

Mr Bugeja said the vessel sank in the early hours the following day.

Mr Abdala Gedi died on Saturday. Last night the police said that an autopsy on the corpse recovered from the sea and identified as that of Mr Abdala Gedi, showed that he had died of asphyxia due to drowning and burns.

Simon related to his rescuers how Mr Carabott removed his clothes to cover little Teo who was freezing in the water. Mr Carabott succumbed on Sunday.

Karmenu was the next one to die, leaving father and son alone holding on to dear life.

Last Thursday, a day before he was rescued, Simon said his son started to get weaker and died before sunset that day. The father held on to his son all through the night but Teo started to slip off the raft until, at one point, Simon was holding on to him with one hand. Eventually, Teo slipped from his tired hand on Friday morning, a few hours before the rescue.

The search for Teo continues. Mr Bugeja said that during the rescue operation they were stopping every vessel they saw, informing them about the search so that they would keep a lookout for the vessel.

At the time they did not know that the Simshar had caught fire and sank. He said an Italian patrol boat they came across close to Lampedusa told them they had not received any calls for assistance to join the search.

Mr Bugeja said they too had their fair share of problems. The day after they left, one engine failed and they had to continue the rescue operation on one engine. He estimated they used about 8,000 litres of fuel during the rescue operation.

He said he was extremely happy that it was them who rescued the only survivor of this tragedy.