438 Days: An Extraordinary True Story of Survival at Sea

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In time, various fishing patrones competed to lure Alvarenga away from his current boss. They were constantly tempting him with offers of a new boat, new lines and gear in exchange for switching teams and home port. Alvarenga, however, was content in his position—he earned enough to live out his modest fantasies and, unlike in his native El Salvador, the violence in Mexico tended to focus around the drug trade and its easily identifiable tentacles. If he avoided that world, he could revel in the simple anonymity of life in Costa Azul. Well, how interesting can a book about a bloke in a boat be? The answer is – very interesting, riveting even. 438 Days: An Extraordinary True Story of Survival at Sea is exactly that, riveting. For this particular kind of story, the author does pretty much everything he ought to and puts it all down in a compelling way. But I can’t say I garnered much more than I would have from a lengthy news article of the journey, or this book extract that author Jonathan Franklin published in The Guardian. I really enjoyed this book. Alvarenga comes across as a very humble hero. His story is so incredible. I spent lots of time trying to imagine what I would do to survive. The most compelling evidence of Alvarenga’s resolve is that his crew mate died after the first 4 weeks. Surviving 4 weeks at sea is no small feat, but Salvador Alvarenga lost the only human company he had and then went on to live another 13 months alone. It is hard to really comprehend what he went through.

438 Days: An Extraordinary True Story of Survival at Sea 438 Days: An Extraordinary True Story of Survival at Sea

As the waves thumped the boat, Alvarenga and Córdoba began working as a team. With the morning sun, they could see the waves approaching, rising high above them and then splitting open. Each man would brace and lean against a side of the open-hulled boat to counteract the roll. I wanted Alvarenga to survive, while at the same time I didn’t feel any particular connection to him. No real insight is provided into who Alvarenga is or what motivates him. Franklin himself doesn’t seem too clear on those details. We have no anchor,” Alvarenga said. He had noticed it was missing before setting off, but didn’t think he needed it on a deep-sea mission. Alvarenga was free to work as hard, as long and as sporadically as his party lifestyle permitted. During his four years in Costa Azul, he was rarely involved in fights or ugly incidents. His longtime fishing partner Ray explains, “I never saw him get into a fight except when some guys were breaking up the furniture at Doña Mina’s [a local restaurant]. There was an ugly fight with chains and you could tell this guy knew how to rumble. But he was always looking for a laugh, he was the life of the party.”Written by Giff Johnson, the first story went out under the Agence France-Presse (AFP) banner on 31 January and outlined the remarkable contours of Alvarenga’s story. Reporters in Hawaii, Los Angeles and Australia scrambled to reach the island to interview this alleged castaway. The single phone line on Ebon became a battleground, as reporters tried to discover tantalising details. Alvarenga’s story had enough hard facts to make it plausible: the initial missing person report, the search-and-rescue operation, the correlation of his drift with known ocean currents, and the fact that he was extremely weak. Be strong. Think positive. If you start to think to the contrary, you are headed to failure. Your mind has to be relaxed “as you think about survival. Don’t think about death. If you think you are going to die, you will die. You have to survive and think about the future of your life, that life is beautiful! How can you imagine taking your own life? There are challenges and punishment in life but you have to fight!”

castaway survived 438 days lost at sea | CNN Real-life castaway survived 438 days lost at sea | CNN

Tune in to the Radio 2 Arts Show on Friday 27 November to hear an interview with Jonathan Franklin talking about his book. Surviving 14 months at sea in a fishing boat with another man (Ezequiel Córdoba) who died during the voyage This is a stunning story. How does a hard-partying, spendthrift illegal immigrant (into Mexico!) who sells his catch for subsistence level pay and has no ambitions actually have the wherewithal to survive so long drifting at sea both physically and mentally? The famished fisherman crawled naked through a carpet of sodden palm fronds, sharp coconut shells and tasty flowers. He was unable to stand for more than a few seconds. “I was totally destroyed and as skinny as a board,” he said. “The only thing left was my intestines and gut, plus skin and bones. My arms had no meat. My thighs were skinny and ugly.”

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But the few fish he caught weren’t enough. Their bodies were starved for water and protein; Alvarenga could feel his throat closing in on itself. Extreme sun blasted the men, and their only refuge was huddling together in their icebox. Jonathan Franklin: 438 Days: An Extraordinary True Story of Survival at Sea, New York, 2016. (The story of José Salvador Alvarenga, written down by an investigative journalist) The search party organized by Alvarenga's employer failed to find any trace of the missing men and gave up after two days because visibility was poor. [15] As days turned to weeks, they learned to scavenge their food from whatever sources presented themselves. Alvarenga managed to catch fish, turtles, jellyfish, and seabirds with his bare hands, and the pair occasionally salvaged bits of food and plastic refuse floating in the water. They collected drinking water from rainfall when possible, but more frequently were forced to drink turtle blood or their own urine. Alvarenga frequently dreamed about his favorite foods, as well as his parents. [5] Who am I going to talk to? Why is he dead and not me?” Alvarenga was now suffering an unimaginable, hellish journey on the ocean, alone. When he awoke just minutes later, Alvarenga was terrified. “What could I do alone? Without anyone to speak with?” he told me. “Why had he died and not me? I had invited him to fish. I blamed myself for his death.”

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Jonathan Franklin does a great job here fleshing out Alvarenga's story with as much specific detail as possible pertaining to the 438 days, but also balances this side of the story with accounts from other people who have survived long periods at sea highlighting similarities and differences. He also quotes from scientists and psychologists who have studied survival and the mental, emotional and physical changes humans undergo in extreme survival situations. This helps put Alvarenga's experience into a larger, more meaningful context. The length of his voyage has been variously calculated as 5,500 to 6,700 miles (8,900 to 10,800km). [4] [10] Some newspapers originally reported Alvarenga's tally of 15-plus lunar cycles as 16 months, [18] but eventually corrected this to 13 months. [3] According to Gee Bing, Marshall Islands' acting secretary of foreign affairs, Alvarenga's vital signs were all "good", with the exception of blood pressure, which was unusually low. Bing also said that Alvarenga had swollen ankles and struggled with walking. [19] On February 6 the doctor treating him reported that his health had "gone downhill" since the day before and that he was on an IV drip to treat his dehydration. I’d heard about Mexicans who’d done this before,” Alvarenga said. “How did they do it? How come they were spared? ‘I shouldn’t be a coward,’ I told myself. I prayed a lot. And I asked God for patience.” This does what it says on the tin. You want a survival story, the typical “guy succeeds against death-defying odds” account? Here it is. The book was selected with the help of a panel made up of Reading Agency and library staff from across the UK. Find out more about the non-fiction strand of the Radio 2 Book Club.

438 Days

We cut their throats and drank their blood. It made us feel better.” Desperately hungry, they tried to eat every part of the thin birds, right down to their feathers. The only part they discarded were the contents of the birds’ stomachs, which were often filled with plastic and garbage. Everything in the ocean became a possible food source – sea turtles, small sharks, and seaweed. But the ocean and the skies rarely provided for them consistently. The men counted the days in between food. Three days, catch one fish. Another three days, catch two birds. Even now when Alvarenga speaks aloud the number of days he spent on the Pacific Ocean floating in a 25-foot fishing boat without a sail or motor, the number seems too large to comprehend. But he lived through every day of it.

José Salvador Alvarenga - Wikipedia

a b c d Haddou, Leila (February 3, 2014). "Pacific castaway recounts his 13-month odyssey". The Guardian . Retrieved February 4, 2014. Aleman, Marcos (February 4, 2014). "Jose Salvador Alvarenga's family say his survival 'is a miracle' as incredulity remains at epic 10,000-km ocean voyage". National Post . Retrieved February 6, 2014. Our reading panel from libraries and The Reading Agency really enjoyed 438 Days – here are some of their comments: a b Walker, Brian (February 3, 2014). "Castaway claims he drifted 14 months in Pacific". CNN . Retrieved February 4, 2014. Days is an inspirational tale that is incomparable to any other non-fiction story I have ever read. Not only is the story itself noteworthy but Jonathan Franklin’s deft handling of the tale is nothing short of exceptional.Why wasn’t it both of us? Why am I the one who continues to suffer?” Alvarenga asked the corpse. He remembered Córdoba, hysterical in the early days, crying about his mother and starving for tortillas. But in his final hours, the suffering lifted. Alvarenga craved the peace Córdoba had unfairly found by dying.