Shipwrecked
There are few stories I find more compelling, more horrifying than those of being lost at sea. A recent episode of The Moth in which Deborah Scaling, an accomplished sailor, tells her story of being lost at sea for five days, reminded me of just that. Her story is particularly compelling because it is one of the few first-hand accounts I have heard. Here are two more of my favorite lost at sea stories:
The story of the USS Indianapolis in which which 880 crewmen were left stranded in lifeboats after a Japanese submarine sunk their ship. Only 316 survived the four and half days at sea. Book: In Harm's Way.
The story of two scuba divers, Tom and Eileen Lonergan, who were inadvertently left behind by their boat in the open ocean. They were never found. A film entitled "Open Water" is an amazing retelling of what we can only imagine to be their experience.
Filed in Ain't it Cool and tagged book, books, dvd, film, moth, open water, podcast, shark, sharks, stories, uss indianapolis
2 Comments
I agree! The idea of being lost at sea is terrifying. In 1970, Julian Ritter and two crew mates were adrift in the Pacific for 87 days – 40 of them without food. When rescued, they were just days from death.
You can read the story of their ordeal in the Julian Ritter Wikipedia article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julian_Ritter
As mentioned above, Julian Ritter was lost at sea for 89 days. He and his crewmates, Laurie Kokx and Winn Heiringhoff were without food for 40 days subsisting on an algae soup scaled from the sides of the hull.
You an read some of Julian's journal entries as he pondered his fate at www.julianrittercentral.com/galilee_journal.htm