I find it hard to resist stories of survival at sea: Endurance, In the Land of White Death, Adrift, Fastnet Force 10, Knockdown, and more recently A Marriage at Sea—not to slight the survival stories in mountains or canyons like Alive, Into Thin Air, and 127 Hours because I love those, too!

So I’m always up for one more. 438 Days (published in 2015) is the 2012 story of Salvador Alvarenga who left Costa Azul, a small fishing community in Southern Mexico, and washed up 438 days later, 6700 miles west on a tiny atoll in the Marshall Islands. An experienced deep sea fisherman on a 25 foot open boat with few amenities, he usually fished for mahimahi, shark, and tuna a bit beyond 100 miles offshore and usually for a few days. But on this trip, he left with impending storms and without his usual crewman. Instead, he took a relative newcomer to the deep sea, too impatient to wait for his regular assistant. 

The storm hit early on, and while they did turn around and battle waves nearly all the way to shore, their motor conked out a mere 25 miles away, and they started drifting west. Rescue boats could not find them and the conditions worsened.

The author does a good job describing Alvarenga’s physical challenges (dehydration, starvation, sun, details of drinking blood, eating crushed fish bones, eating a beloved bird pet), the psychological challenges (suicidal ideations, mirages, close encounters with potential rescue), the timing (moon cycles), the drift, etc. Survival was an incredible feat. 

Picturing two grown men spending countless hours each day inside an ice chest turned on its side to avoid the sun made me feel terribly guilty being fully stretched out on the couch with my cat.

With vast research, numerous resources, countless interviews, Franklin has built credibility, though one always wonders how any survivor could recount to a journalist the exact details of individual days after 438 of them have passed and they are still inside that trauma.

I do think the book’s extract, written as a long-form article, “Lost at Sea: The Man Who Vanished for 14 Months” from The Guardian, (Nov 2015), is every bit as thorough as the story needs to be, so reading the author’s article rather than the book offers a close enough experience. 

Then again, proceeds from the book were probably central to Alvarenga’s physical and mental recovery and transition to a new and different life on land in his home country, El Salvador. His unlikely survival is worth monetary compensation. As well, he hoped his story would inspire others to fight for life in the most dire of circumstances.

4⭐️