My raft expert

My friend and fellow writer Matt Lawrence says that tiny foam raft was made by pouring gasoline to shape the foam into or onto a wood frame and the notches indicate they left with food and water because after 4 days with nothing on the open water you're done. And the bundles of twine on board were for fishing while they were out there. Talk about sushi, ick.

"Not many make it on those types of rafts," he says. "Back in the 90s, three out of four that tried, died."

He says the empty ones floating out there are called "tombstones at sea."

He's an expert on the situation because he used to fly over the Atlantic looking for rafters and helped in rescues. Wrote a gripping novel about it called "Dying To Get Here: A Story of Coming to America." Got to www.mattlawrencebooks.com and check it out. Then buy it and read it because he's when he gets rich from the book sales he's going to hook me up.