MIAMI, Jan 12 (Reuters) - The mother of Elian Gonzalez gave her coat and last fresh water to the boy as they clung to inner tubes in the seas between Florida and Cuba after their boat capsized, caring for him until they drifted apart, a survivor of the shipwreck said on Wednesday.
Recounting Elian's last hours with his mother to a Miami radio station, Cuban migrant Nivaldo Fernandez Ferran, who was in the Miami area, broke his silence on the disaster that led to an international custody battle over the 6-year-old boy.
Elian was rescued by fishermen after two days adrift at sea and brought to Miami, where relatives have undertaken a court battle to keep him. His father, in Cuba, wants him back.
His mother, Elisabet Broton Rodriguez, took Elian on the ill-fated trip to reach Florida along with 12 other people on a 17-foot (5.2-metre) aluminum boat, leaving Cuba on Nov. 21. The vessel capsized in rough weather on Nov. 23.
``She just wanted to save her son. 'My son, my son,' she kept saying,'' Fernandez told Radio Mambi, a Spanish-language radio station linked to the Cuban exile cause.
He said seven people who survived the sinking hung on to three inner tubes and tried to keep together.
Elisabet gave Elian her coat and last remaining water, he said.
``She asked him, 'Are you cold?' and he said, 'Yes, I'm cold, mama,' so she took off her coat. She gave him water.
``We all fought to save ourselves, but she only wanted to save the life of her son. ... At every moment she looked after the boy until she lost her life,'' he said.
INNER TUBES DRIFTED APART
Fernandez said he did not actually see her die. The tubes carrying Fernandez and Elian and his mother separated during the night and they drifted away in the dark.
``He was very quiet. He never cried,'' he said.
According to the U.S. Coast Guard, seven people died when the boat sank, and seven managed to cling to the inner tubes. But only three -- Elian, then aged 5, Fernandez, 33, and a 23-year-old woman -- eventually survived.
Fishermen found the man and woman around dawn on Nov. 25 off Key Biscayne, an island near Miami. A short time later, boaters discovered Elian clinging to an inner tube off Fort Lauderdale, about 25 miles (40 km) to the north.
Lashed to the same inner tube was the body of an elderly woman, according to the Coast Guard.
Both Fernandez and the other survivor have kept a low profile as the political and legal storm has raged around Elian. But Fernandez told Radio Mambi that he thought the boy should stay in the United States.
``He has more possibility of a future here. He has adapted, and now the family that is looking after him are the family of his father,'' he said.
Under the United States' ``wet feet, dry feet'' policy, Cubans who reach the United States are generally allowed to stay, while those intercepted at sea are usually sent home.
Hundreds of Cubans are feared to have died at sea attempting to leave the island since Fidel Castro's revolution 40 years ago.
20:54 01-12-00
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