Imagine being stuck out in the ocean, with no shade, for days. Any exposed skin will be black. Surrounded by water - none of which you can drink. You can’t catch fish. Being covered in salt and oil, perhaps burned from swimming. Plus, look at a map of the Pacific: Between the continents of the Americas and Asia is 99.999% water. Planes flying overhead every now and then, giving you hope of a rescue, but they quite likely didn’t see the speck bobbing up and down on the ocean that was you and your buddies. Surely someone was instantly conspiring to get more than their share of what little supplies you had. Sick from the waves, sick from swallowing seawater and oil, people dying, people going crazy, sick from the sun... It’s a miracle anyone ever survived.
And don’t forget the sharks.
Those three were adrift in the Gulfstream for “only” three days. The vessel, a 44’ commercial swordfish longliner was headed home after a week at sea. They were caught in an un-forcast gale 40 miles off Daytona at night. The vessel broached in a following sea and overturned. The three crew were in the engine room disoriented in 20 - 30’ seas. The Capt. Louis Bennet a friend of mine got his crew out and in a big fiberglass fish box that broke loose from the upside down boat. Louis then swam back to retrieve the EPIRB which was fixed to the submerged top of the wheelhouse. He was never seen again.
The three guys were a couple hundred miles off Charleston three days later. By a miracle a Coast Guard C-130 was on a routine patrol just happened to spot them and directed in a vessel that picked them up.
Capt. Louis was posthumously awarded the highest civilian medal for his heroism in saving the lives of his crew.
Today, a brass plaque lies on the bottom 40 miles off Daytona with Captain Louis Bennet’s name and date on it.