Over 800 Haitians trying to reach the U.S. by boat landed in Cuba this week in what seemed to be the largest single group yet of people seeking to flee crisis-stricken Haiti.

Red Cross officials said on Wednesday that 842 Haitians, including 70 children and 97 women, had arrived the previous day at Villa Blanca, about 300 kilometers east of Havana.

They had received medical attention and first aid, and were now being housed at a tourist campground, the Red Cross said.

One Haitian family that was on the boat said the captain abandoned them early Tuesday on a separate small boat after taking their cellphones. With the ship listing, they managed to draw the attention of people on Cuba's coast with a flashlight.

The family had paid $4,000 per person for the journey.

Nineteen-year-old Joyce Paul, who was traveling with an uncle, his wife and a baby, told The Associated Press: "We were on Tortuga Island for two months waiting for the trip until last Saturday, when at five in the morning they took us to the boat."

In the following days, "15 people threw themselves into the sea because they couldn't stand hunger," Paul said. "There was a herring for (each) 15 people and they gave us water."

The U.S. Coast Guard and other nations have reported intercepting several boats carrying well over 100 Haitians in recent months, but the number of migrants on a single vessel in this latest case seemed unprecedented.

A crumbling economy and a spike in gang-related violence and kidnappings in Haiti has prompted thousands of Haitians to flee their country in the past year.

According to the U.S. Coast Guard, about 4,500 Haitians have been intercepted since October, and more than 3,000 have been found since mid-March, signaling the pace has been picking up in the spring.

On Tuesday, the U.S. Coast Guard said it stopped a sail freighter carrying 153 Haitian migrants near the Florida Keys.

Earlier this month, it rescued 36 Haitian migrants and found 11 others dead after a boat capsized northwest of Puerto Rico. The rescue came just days after 68 migrants were rescued in treacherous waters between Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic.

(With input from AP)