Container ship rescues Australian sailor Container ship at sea. Honolulu: A container ship has rescued an exhausted 58-year-old Australian sailor off Christmas Island who called for help after the autopilot system on his vessel failed. The US Coast Guard says the Kota Wangi's crew rescued the man on Monday night. He was about 425 nautical miles (785 kilometres) off Christmas Island in Kiribati. Christmas Island is more than 1300 nautical miles south of Honolulu. The man was sailing from California to Christmas Island when the autopilot failed. The Coast Guard says he became too tired to continue after manually navigating the vessel for four weeks. The Coast Guard sent a HC-130 plane from Air Station Barbers Point in Hawaii to establish communications with the mariner. The Kota Wangi is registered with a network of ships whose crews volunteer to help with ocean rescues.