Synopsis
Boat 1513 tells the true story of 10-year-old Tuong Le’s perilous escape with his family from Vietnam to Hong Kong in August 1981. Their means of survival is a rickety fishing boat that is ill-equipped to survive on the treacherous South China Sea. Dangers threaten them almost from the first moment as a devastating storm takes the boat off course, turning the family’s expected five-day journey into a grueling four-week nightmare. Their worst fears come true when the paranoid captain of the boat threatens to shoot Tuong’s father for supposedly concealing water. Starving and dehydrated, the passengers spend many hours in the cramped storage compartment below the boat’s deck, nauseous from the putrid odors of fish and diesel fuel as they cling to the slimmest threads of hope.
Eventually, after many disasters, the boat is the 1,513th Vietnamese fishing boat to arrive in Hong Kong harbor, which gives the story its title. Life in the refugee camp in Hong Kong, however, brings its own set of challenges as the family must contend with crowded, unsanitary housing and gang violence. After seven months in this hell, the family is finally sponsored by a friend in America to settle in Dallas, Texas.
Yet, the struggle is far from over as the family members try to adapt to their new life in a foreign land, with only Tuong’s father able to speak English. After overcoming the language barrier in high school, Tuong pursues a career in electrical engineering at the University of Texas at Austin.
Tragedy strikes during Tuong’s junior year in college when his father falls ill with pancreatic cancer. As he witnesses his father’s decline and its toll on his mother’s health, Tuong decides to become a physician while continuing his interest in engineering by obtaining a Ph.D. in biomedical engineering.
Today, Tuong is a radiologist in Dallas, and his five siblings have become accomplished professionals, including three physicians, one engineer, and one pharmacist.