I saw three guys picked up off Charleston just three days after their vessel went down off the Florida east coast in a gale.
They looked like they had been adrift for a month or longer.
Floating around in the ocean is no picnic.
Captain William Bligh was set adrift after the Mutiny on the Bounty.
The mutineers provided Bligh and eighteen loyal crewmen a 23-foot (7.0 m) launch (so heavily loaded that the gunwales were only a few inches above the water). They were allowed four cutlasses, food and water for perhaps a week, a quadrant and a compass, but no charts, or marine chronometer.
He undertook the seemingly impossible 3,618-nautical-mile (6,701 km; 4,164 mi) voyage to Timor, the nearest European settlement. Bligh succeeded in reaching Timor after a 47-day voyage,
The article says they landed on Nukunau island (which now seems to be named Rungata Island). Tarawa, which was just about 200 miles North, was occupied by the Japanese. I wonder if any other Gilbert Islands were occupied by Japanese?
The story of war - they were unlucky to have been torpedoed, lucky to have survived the attack, unlucky to have spent 31 days in an open boat, lucky to have landed on a friendly island!
My great uncle Baynard Willingham was MM.He had two ships shot out from under him during the war.It bothered him greatly and he died in 1970.I still remember him vividly.Rip Uncle Baynard.
My uncle was a merchant marine radio operator on the North Atlantic run during WW II. He saw ships in his convoy torpedoed and men left adrift in lifeboats. He did not like talking about it.
The good news is that we’re making excellent time....