Courtesy Tony de Brum

A man, center, washed up on the shore of the Marshall Islands claiming that he spent 16 months lost at sea.

By Tracy Connor, Staff Writer, NBC News

The man who washed up on the Marshall Islands in the Pacific with a tale of being lost at sea for more than a year told authorities that he left Mexico on a fishing trip, was blown off course after his engine died and watched his traveling companion starve to death.

The castaway, who identified himself as Jose Salvador Alvarenga, was questioned Monday by police and told them an incredible story : He drifted 6,000 miles in a 24-foot boat, surviving on fish, birds, turtles, rainwater, urine -- and prayers.

Officials said they have not yet confirmed his account. The man could not recall his own birth date, provided some conflicting information about when he left Mexico, and could not explain why there was no fishing gear on the battered vessel.

"He is not fully coherent," Tony de Brum, minister-in-assistance to the president of the republic, a cluster of atolls and islands northeast of Australia.

"He is hungry, swollen, in pain, extremely loopy and wants a haircut," an interpreter who helped interview Alvarenga on Monday wrote in a report.

Despite his fragile state, the man was able to give officials new details of his life, including his birthplace in El Salvador, the name of his mother, the Mexican fishing company where he worked, and the city where he lived.

He told them he took to the sea on Sept. 21, 2012 -- although he said described that as a Saturday when it would have been a Friday -- with a teenager named Ezekiel.

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Marshall Islands castaway details fishing trip gone awry