2 Pulled From Ocean After 48-Hour Ordeal : Rescue: Survivors, clinging to an ice chest, were heard shouting in the waves near Malibu. They said two companions died after their boat was run down by another.

Two men were pulled from the ocean near Malibu on Monday after clinging for nearly 48 hours to a bobbing ice chest, authorities said.

The two men, who were not immediately identified, were receiving hospital care for hypothermia.

One of the men told rescuers that their motor boat had capsized nearly two days earlier. The Coast Guard was searching for two other people reported aboard when the boat was run down by another craft Saturday afternoon while they were returning to Marina del Rey.

Los Angeles County Lifeguard Chief Don Rohrer said Lifeguard Scott Gribsby spotted the two men in the ocean about three-quarters of a mile off Las Tunas State Beach about 2 p.m. after a beach-goer reported hearing shouts.

“He (Gribsby) saw them hanging onto something, which turned out to be an ice chest, and called for backup,” Rohrer said.

Gribsby and Malibu lifeguard Robby McGowan paddled out on rescue boards and brought the two men to the beach, where paramedics were waiting. The survivors, described only as Latinos, one age 23 and the other 30, were taken to the UCLA Medical Center by helicopter.

“They looked like they had been in the water for two days,” Rohrer said.

He said one of them told rescuers they were run down by another boat Saturday afternoon as they were returning to Marina del Rey.

“They also said two others had been aboard but that they had died Sunday,” Rohrer said.

The Coast Guard dispatched a 41-foot rescue boat from Long Beach, the 82-foot Point Camden from San Pedro and a helicopter Monday afternoon to the area of the capsizing.

Lt. Commander Ted Roberge, chief of Coast Guard group operations in Long Beach, told a press briefing that searchers spotted debris--gas cans, an ice chest and clothing--about a mile and half offshore, but there was no remnants of a boat.

The temperature of the water where the men were found is about 65 degrees, Roberge said. Normally, he said, people live only from 4 to 14 hours at that temperature, although it is possible to survive two days.

When the two men were pulled from the sea, Roberge said one had a body-core temperature of 85 to 87 degrees and the other had a temperature of 90 degrees. The normal body temperature is 98.6 degrees.

UCLA Medical Center spokesman Dan Byrne said the two men were in serious but stable condition after being treated for dangerously lowered body temperatures.