Survival

[Stiletto]

Television the other night had a report on some Kiribati fishermen who were adrift in their open boat for 75 days after their outboard was knocked off by a submerged object.

They drifted for 480km and eventually made it ashore on an island in the Marshall group after paddling with the ply floorboards of their wooden boat.

The three men, all cousins, existed on fish and fish blood. They are fairly religious and prayed a lot.

Memorial services had been held for the men , so their return has added another chapter to the folklore of these islands, as the islanders viewed their return as being akin to returning from the dead.

[Victor]

You might be interested in the story of some Tongan fishermen who were marooned for several weeks on the hulk of a fishing boat strandedon a reef.

[Joe ( Cold Spring on Hudson )]

In the latest issue of Soundings they have the top survival stories. Scary stuff :eek:

[Phil Young]

Last week up the top end of Oz a family were out in their boat. It tipped over and sank. Mum and Dad and a toddler died. 3 kids aged between about 7 and 13 I think swam several Kilometres to a rock, lived on that for a few days eating shelfish, then swam another 7 K's to a small island where they were able to get some coconuts as well as shellfish to live on. Got found and resued after another few days. Pretty awesome story.

[John B]

I saw that. amazing eh. lucky they had those regular downpours.

Victor.. Minerva reef? Olaf someone wrote it.
the boat that they lost was one of Aucklands really fine yachts called Ilex. It was sold to the islands as a mission boat.
Reading the book, there's a photo of the yacht sailing in Auckland harbour. I thought funny, I know that photo and went to an album of old photos I own. There it was... obviously the next pic in a sequence, the background's slightly different, the crew have moved around a bit....

Phil, I saw the news on that one too. A sad story. The parents were lost but they instructed their children to survival.

[ 08-06-2004, 12:19 AM: Message edited by: John B ]

[Gary Piantedosi]

A good read on survival is a book by Nat Philbrick 'In the Heart of the Sea'. The story of the whale ship Essex that was struck and sunk by a great white whale in the mid Pacific. The genesis for 'Moby Dick'. The crew scavanged tools and material from the sinking boat to rework the lightweight wherries for sail. They chose to sail thousands of miles east, against the wind, to avoid the Pacific island chains to the west rumored to be inhabited by cannibals.

[John Bell]

...and wound up resorting to cannibalism themselves.

It's a gripping tale, to be sure.