Getting lost at sea is a nightmare no one wants to face. Tales of people surviving after months only serve to remind us how unforgiving the open waters can be.
Then there are those who were never found.
Food, maps, water, and other supplies can only last a drifter for so long. Then there’s the mental, emotional, and physical toll on the body. The odds of being rescued are slim, while the chances of death are high.
Read on for some of the more harrowing stories of people lost at sea.
1. Jose Salvator Alvarenga
Cordova asked Alvarenga to take his body back to his mother in the event that he passed, but Alvarenga tossed his friend’s rotting corpse overboard after a few days.
Salvador was found nearly a year later and Cordoba’s family went on to sue him, accusing him of cannibalism in order to survive.
Alvarenga and his lawyer denied the claim but he was still sued for $1 million.
2. Abby Sunderland
At just 16 years old, Abby Sunderland set out to sea back in early 2010. She wanted to be the youngest sailor to circumnavigate the globe alone.
But four months into her solo attempt, Sunderland faced high winds that tore her boat’s mast in the Indian Ocean.
It’s a good thing her Personal Locator Beacon activated after she was stranded on open water.
Abby was rescued within two days.
3. Louis Jordan
It took 66 days before a German container ship spotted his capsized ship. Jordan was then airlifted to safety.
He toughed it out for more than 2 months on rainwater, rations, and fish.
4. Toakai Teitoi
He says a shark saved his life.
The animal bumped the hull of his ship, waking him from his sleep. That’s when he saw the stern of a ship which led to his rescue.
5. Poon Lim
Chinese sailor Poon Lim was able to survive for 133 days alone in the South Atlantic in 1942.
He survived on fish and rainwater to stay alive until he was found by fishermen off the coast of Brazil.
Apparently, he set the record for the amount of time stranded out at sea. Lim said, “I hope no one will ever have to break that record.”
6. Ko Ko Oo And Haung Htaik
Burmese fishermen Ko Ko Oo and Haung Htaik were spotted by the Australian Coast Guard after having gone missing in 2009.
The two men were bobbing in a bathtub-sized icebox in shark-infested waters.
The pair survived on rainwater and fish that were regurgitated by sea birds, but experts were skeptical after the rescue made headlines and the pair was found in relatively good condition.
7. Lucio Rendon, Salvador Ordonez, and Jesus Eduardo Vivand
But they got stranded at sea for 9 months.
Lucio Rendon, Salvador Ordonez, and Jose Vidana survived on fish, turtles, and rainwater, but their other 2 companions were not so lucky. They died of starvation and were tossed overboard.
The trio drifted 5,500 miles across the Pacific before a Taiwanese fishing vessel found them.
8. Rebecca Coriam
She was last seen on CCTV footage on March 22, 2011 at 5:45 AM in the crew lounge wearing men’s clothing and she looked visibly distressed as she spoke on the phone with someone.
Rebecca was neither seen nor heard from ever again.
9. Richard Van Pham
His mast was destroyed by a storm leaving him stranded and helpless.
It was a US drug-hunting plane that later found Pham 2,500 miles from where he set off.
10. Andrew McAuley
The memory stick from his camera recorded some of his final thoughts as his situation became worse. He was never found.
11. Dennis White, Amanda Thorns, and Willie Thorns
Willie was swept out to sea and died.
Dennis and Amanda were able to fashion a new mast and sail from the yacht’s dinghy and survive for 15 days before a Greek oil tanker spotted the flares White shot up.
12. Filo Filo, Samuel Pelesa, and Edward Nassau
Filo Filo, Samuel Pelesa, and Edward Nassau got stranded in the Pacific for 50 days when they set out in a dinghy headed to a neighboring island near the Tokelau Island chain in 2010.
The 3 cousins finished their supply of coconuts quickly, forcing them to survive on fish, rainwater, and even a single sea bird.
The teens were eventually rescued by a fishing trawler.
13. Bill Tilman
The 80-year-old sailor never made it to his South Pacific destination, however.
His converted tug boat En Avant disappeared, never to be found.
14. Jim Gray
Gray and his yacht, a red 40-foot fiberglass cruiser called Tenacious, were never found.
The Coast Guard received no Mayday call or any message from Gray, and he was declared dead on May 16, 2012.
15. Steven Callahan
He managed to survive for 76 days until fishermen came to his rescue near the island of Marie Galante in the Caribbean.
16. Austin Stephanos and Perry Cohen
Austin Stephanos and Perry Cohen were last seen buying fuel before they went missing off the Florida coast back in 2015. Their 19-foot boat soon encountered high winds and waves due to a thunderstorm.
Two days later, an empty boat was found with no sign of the teenage boys.
Authorities searched the East Coast from Florida to South Carolina, hopeful that the kids would survive using their skills.
Unfortunately, they never found Stephanos and Cohen and had to call off the search.
17. Three men stranded on a remote island
In April 2016, 3 men found themselves stranded on the deserted island of Fanadik. Their boat capsized a few hours after they set out from Pulap in the Federated States of Micronesia.
The men spent a night swimming to the island, then waited 3 days before being discovered.
Lucky for them a US Navy surveillance aircraft saw the large “HELP” sign they made from palm leaves.
18. The crew of ARA San Juan
On November 15, 2017, 44 crew members on board the submarine ARA San Juan disappeared off the Argentinian coast after an explosion was heard shortly after it went under.
The Navy stopped its rescue mission after 2 weeks, believing there was little hope of finding the men alive.
A year later, the ARA San Juan was found 800m (2,620ft) below the surface of the Atlantic Ocean.
19. Jennifer Appel And Tasha Fuiaba
The spring of 2017 saw Honolulu residents Jennifer Appel and Tasha Fuiava sail off for Tahiti. But the boat’s engine died on the way and the women found themselves lost and stranded at sea in May.
They had plenty of provisions but none of the flares brought help as they bobbed along in shark-infested waters.
Finally, a Taiwanese fishing boat spotted the stranded boat in October with the women alive and healthy after almost five months at sea.
What’s odd is that Appel never turned on their emergency beacon, saying it was only to be used in life-or-death situations. They also claimed that the instruments on board failed because of a storm even though there was no storm recorded.
20. Aldi Novel Adilang
Aldi Novel Adilang found himself drifting far from the Indonesian coast when the rompong he worked on was sent adrift after the ropes tethering the fishing hut snapped in 2018. The teenager from Sulawesi ended up near Guam, thousands of miles from home, spending 49 days adrift.
He survived by cooking fish he’d catch using wood from his vessel. None of the passing ships saw him.
Adilang sent out an emergency radio signal when he saw the Panamanian boat MV Arpeggio, which finally rescued him.
They took him to Japan first since that was their direction, but Adilang did fly back home on September 8.
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