When the story broke about Salvador Alvarenga in early 2014 I was at first amazed, yet then skeptical. How could this fisherman survive for 438 days, floating aimlessly adrift across the Pacific Ocean? That he survived this ordeal was not a miracle, it had to be a hoax. I like survival stories such as this so when I realized a book had been published about it, 438 Days: An Extraordinary True Story of Survival at Sea by Jonathan Franklin, it was a must-read.
On November 17, 2012 Alvarenga and Ezequiel Córdoba left Costa Azul in western Mexico on a fishing expedition which took them over 100 km from the shore. A violent storm forced them to cut their lines and head back to port but when they were 30 km from shore their motor died. Waves pummelled the powerless boat and washed their precious equipment overboard. They were left to the mercy of the storm however by the time it ended, they had already drifted far beyond the range of rescue boats and aircraft.
Alvarenga, a nautical version of the “mountain man” survivor, didn’t panic and his calm demeanour helped appease Córdoba, who often grew despondent and hysterical in their confined vessel. With dwindling food and no way to communicate they were left to drift with the currents. Alvarenga used his bare hands to catch fish such as triggerfish and mahimahi that lingered about the boat, and devised hooks and spears from the metal in their useless motor. Without fresh water the men were soon dehydrated yet never in the entire story did they resort to desperation by drinking the salty seawater, which could prove to have fatal results. Instead, Alvarenga drank the blood of sea turtles. They were relieved by the first rainfall and thanks to the polluted waters they foraged dozens of floating plastic bottles which they used to catch rainwater.
Since their boat was a welcome spot for birds to rest, Alvarenga caught various seabirds which he nicknamed all “ducks”. He broke their wings and kept them at the other end of the boat so that they would have a steady food supply. In all of these cases which involved a desperate menu of raw gastronomy, Córdoba held out until he was practically force-fed by Alvarenga. However after four months adrift Córdoba succumbed and Alvarenga was alone, not knowing that he would still have over three hundred days until he approached land.
Franklin did not merely tell Alvarenga’s story but tried to understand it from a physical and psychological perspective. He consulted doctors and experts in survival science to explain what the body does in extreme situations like this and how it adapts. I found the expert analysis to be most helpful in turning my initial skepticism into stunned belief.
After over four hundred days adrift Alvarenga noticed more than the usual number of birds in the area around his boat. This told him that land must be near, and eventually he could see trees in the distance. A couple days later he finally touched terra firma at Tile Islet, part of the Ebon Atoll in the Marshall Islands. He had drifted over 10000 km across the Pacific Ocean.
Alvarenga found it difficult to walk on solid ground and he crawled or tried to swim. Tile Islet is so small that it was obvious no one else was there so he turned his attention to the island on his right. He heard a rooster crow, and saw a red shirt on a clothesline. There must be people here!
Franklin spent the final chapters tracing Alvarenga’s recovery and the sudden world interest in his story, and also the doubt he faced from a skeptical media, who didn’t know if he was a hoaxer or a man on the run. Some thought that he might be, but people don’t just show up out of nowhere on a faraway Marshall islet in a weatherworn ill-equipped boat filled with bones and turtle carcasses. Salvador Alvarenga’s story, incredulous as it is, is true. I had to wonder if I could do what Alvarenga did in order to survive, and I probably couldn’t. I fear that I might not last even half as long as Córdoba.