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    438 Days: An Extraordinary True Story of Survival at Sea
    438 Days: An Extraordinary True Story of Survival at Sea
    438 Days: An Extraordinary True Story of Survival at Sea
    Audiobook7 hours

    438 Days: An Extraordinary True Story of Survival at Sea

    Written by Jonathan Franklin

    Narrated by George Newbern

    4.5/5

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    About this audiobook

    Declared “the best survival book in a decade” by Outside Magazine, 438 Days is the true story of the man who survived fourteen months in a small boat drifting seven thousand miles across the Pacific Ocean.

    On November 17, 2012, two men left the coast of Mexico for a weekend fishing trip in the open Pacific. That night, a violent storm ambushed them as they were fishing eighty miles offshore. As gale force winds and ten-foot waves pummeled their small, open boat from all sides and nearly capsized them, captain Salvador Alvarenga and his crewmate cut away a two-mile-long fishing line and began a desperate dash through crashing waves as they sought the safety of port.

    Fourteen months later, on January 30, 2014, Alvarenga, now a hairy, wild-bearded and half-mad castaway, washed ashore on a nearly deserted island on the far side of the Pacific. He could barely speak and was unable to walk. He claimed to have drifted from Mexico, a journey of some seven thousand miles.

    A “gripping saga,” (Daily Mail), 438 Days is the first-ever account of one of the most amazing survival stories in modern times. Based on dozens of hours of exclusive interviews with Alvarenga, his colleagues, search-and-rescue officials, the remote islanders who found him, and the medical team that saved his life, 438 Days is not only “an intense, immensely absorbing read” (Booklist) but an unforgettable study of the resilience, will, ingenuity and determination required for one man to survive more than a year lost and adrift at sea.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherSimon & Schuster Audio
    Release dateNov 17, 2015
    ISBN9781442396029
    Author

    Jonathan Franklin

    Jonathan Franklin is an investigative journalist who has reported for the New York Times, Boston Globe, and The Guardian. A native of Massachusetts, he resides in Santiago, Chile, with his wife and seven daughters, but often lives off the grid when writing his books.

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    Reviews for 438 Days

    4.5/5

    176 ratings19 reviews

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    • 5/5
      This was an excellent book. Such strength of the human spirit.
    • 4/5
      Amazing story of survival! Not my typical read but really enjoyed reading about the courage that some people possess.
    • 5/5
      Excellent book. Being some who has suffered from depression all my life it has helped me to understand the need to fight the suicidal thoughts that are married with depression. I recommend anyone feeling blue from this current pandemic shutdown to read this book to put perspective back in their own situation.
    • 4/5
      Unbelievable courage, creativity and skill!This story of marine survival opens with a lengthy introduction to Salvador Alvarenga before the storm drove his disabled boat deep in the open Pacific. Franklin’s careful and detailed research is obvious from the start. His revelations at times, however, seemed tedious and overdone as he droned on and on about the fishing village and the fishing culture. His purpose, of course, was to provide Alvarenga’s personal background, show his ability to overcome adversity, highlight his love and seeming fearlessness of the sea and his strange dietary proclivities. Eating raw fish didn’t start with the need to stave off starvation. His friends describe a time when Alvarenga thought a take-out meal order was too long in arriving. He reached into the bait pail, pulled out a hand-sized half-frozen sardine, rolled it up in a tortilla and munched away on the raw fish.The fateful day began with his usual fishing partner unable to go out on the boat. An inexperienced young man, Ezequiel Cordoba was signed up for the quick trip out to the deep waters. Warned of an impending storm, Alvarenda quipped, “I am going with this new guy, but I will be back in time for the party.”He loaded his boat with ample supplies in the event a return trip was delayed. In a scene reminiscent of Sebastian Junger’s, “The Perfect Storm” all the best laid plans of man are nothing against the power of Mother Nature.You feel the sea roil and the winds howl. You feel Cordoba’s seasickness and fear. As the storm builds with rapid intensity, they cut loose the 2-mile long fishing line and head toward shore, nearly making it to safety. Incredible bad luck and perhaps the lack of advance equipment safety checks leave the two men stranded with a disabled motor, knife, machete and a small open-topped fish box drifting out to sea at the mercy of the ocean currents.There is no question by the end of the book Alvarenda has proved he was the right man with the right credentials to survive this long voyage. His life struggles in the past help him hone his survival strengths. It is unimaginable how anyone can stay psychologically and physically capable of enduring over 14 months alone at sea in a 25 foot boat.Choosing to narrate this story in the third person was somewhat distracting but overall the story is so amazing it didn’t matter in the end. You feel so sad for the young sailor who felt lost when they left the shore and feared for his life long before the ship faced true danger. Despite Alvarenga’s best efforts to inspire and keep the young man alive, Cordoba was unable to overcome the odds.My pre-conceived perceptions of open ocean marine life were toppled. It was shocking to learn that despite its size, the Pacific has become a garbage dump.It was hard to rate this book. The story, overwhelming in its reality, seemed to drag in places. I finally decided on 3.5 stars. A worthy read.Share this:
    • 4/5
      It would a miracle to not go crazy if one ever finds oneself in the middle of the ocean alone and without supplies!
    • 5/5
      Details of how to eat raw everything & survive at sea
    • 4/5
      What an amazing crazy and sad adventure! Great lesson on being grateful!
    • 5/5
      Wow what an amazing and inspiring tale of survival. Epic!
    • 5/5
      This is an extraordinary lesson of perseverance, optimism, and love for life. The desire to live no matter what.
    • 5/5
      Amazing story. I got captivated by it totally! Highly Recommended
    • 5/5
      Amazing and engrossing story. Well-written and reader is great. 5 stars all the way.
    • 5/5
      This is an amazing story and an amazing book that is very well written and narrated. The story is real and puts readers on the edge of surprise and shock with what happens to this poor man and his fishing companion. His perseverance in surviving is astonishing and sometimes his naivete is funny but is his deep understanding and observation of the ocean and its creatures, what ultimately saves his life. I recommend.
    • 5/5
      A Gripping and Amazing story. So good I would read it again. The narration was very good and story well written. Definitely worth your time.
    • 4/5
      “A mutual survival instinct overcame fatigue. 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. Depending from which direction a big wave appeared, the men would jump to the opposite rail in an attempt to counteract the roll. But the waves were mad, slapping each other in midair, joining forces to create swells that raised the men to a brief peak where they could get a third-story view, then with the sensation of a falling elevator, instantly drop them.”

      True story of two men who left Mexico in November 2012 during a fierce storm and how one of them survived for over a year adrift in the Pacific Ocean. The ingenuity this man showed was amazing. He found a way to capture raw fish, turtles, and birds, accumulate fresh rainwater, and endure life in a twenty-three-foot boat with no motor while shielding himself from the sun by curling up in an ice box!

      I am very impressed with the author’s ability to take José Salvador Alvarenga’s thoughts and craft them into a compelling account without repetition (the days adrift must have been incredibly similar). He weaves in expert commentary and includes maps of ocean currents to track the boat’s path to the Marshall Islands. It provides insight into how a person can improve the chances of making it through an ordeal with an unknown ending date without succumbing to despair. It is well written and will appeal to anyone who enjoys true stories of survival.

      “Despite his temporary bonding with God, Alvarenga’s true faith remained attached to one of his core beliefs: optimism. “I never thought in the negative, I remained positive,” he said. “I told myself I was going to survive, to be brave, have faith, not fall down. I knew that I was adrift, but I was thinking about surviving. I was always thinking ahead, planning. I was brainstorming inside the icebox. How did I do it? I imagined solutions.”
    • 4/5
      An amazing, and amazingly unlikely, story. I wish Franklin had gotten more into Alvarenga's head.
    • 4/5
      "What could be worse than being alone at sea?...What further suffering could there be than this?"By sally tarbox on 17 June 2017Format: Kindle EditionAn astonishing true-life adventure of a fisherman lost at sea for fourteen months.Salvador Alvarenga, an El Salvador native, worked for a small fishing concern in Mexico. When his normal partner was called away, he engaged a rookie local lad as his mate as they set off in a 'banana boat' - "no cabin or roof, just a long, narrow canoe-shaped boat." Overfishing required them to travel further out - and when a storm blew up and their engine died, they were swept out into the Pacific.The dire conditions are brought to life: storms when the deck was knee-deep in water - and stretches of dry weather when they were on minimum water rations. Grabbing passing rubbish gave them empty containers for storage; in the unrelenting heat they sheltered in the icebox. And they subsisted on fish - snatched fromn the sea, and eaten raw or dried; and turtles ands seabirds.The difference in the men's emotional strength becomes apparent, as young Ezequiel Cordoba starts to give up, unable to stomach the food and thinking of death, Alvarenga continues to fight to survive as the ship drifts in the Doldrums at a mile an hour...Washing up eventually in the Marshall Islands, 9000 miles away, this is an unputdownable narrative.
    • 2/5
      I got this book as part of a Book Club read, but read only 100 page + pictures, (267 page book) by which time I'd had enough. Very sympathetic for Alvarenga, but can only take so much of pain & suffering, when I already know the outcome and the book was often very slow.This book details the trauma that Alvarenga went through to feed himself, remain semi-healthy and maintain his sanity, during his 6,000 miles of drifting from Mexico to the Marshall Islands. His determination and will to live, his inventive ways to survive, kept him alive.
    • 5/5
      Based on hours of interviews with Alvarenga and his rescuers, this book didn’t grab me right away but I got sucked in once that storm hit. I felt like I was there, the descriptions were vivid and scary. Interspersed with the story are snippets of information from oceanographers, doctors, earth science specialists, and climate specialists and other people who have survived in crazy conditions, which really added to the story by making it educational as well as entertainingSomehow Alvarenga surived for 14 months adrift at sea.  He started out in Mexico and finally washed ashore in the Pacific Islands.  Relying on his wit and his amazing ability to figure things out he learned how to fish with no hooks, store water and even catch birds. By scavenging trash that floated by and improvising he figured out how to survive, but Alvarenga’s greatest feat was staying sane under these crazy conditions. I have read many stories on survival but this tale will stick with me.  Alvarenga's will to survive and his extraordinary ingenuity really got him through in the toughest conditions. It really gives you a new perspective on life and a new appreciation for everything you have.
    • 4/5
      438 Days retells the story of the longest duration castaway in known history. Many castaways die within a week or two, rarely some will make it few months. To go for over a year is incredible. It happened in 2013-2014 when a Mexican fisherman drifted across most of the Pacific ocean. There were some doubts raised initially but everything checked out as accurate. Franklin's retelling is quite excellent, though nothing beats a first person account, this is an official version based on exclusive interviews. I've read a few castaway stories from different periods of history, Alvarenga's is different for one big reason: trash. He continually found trash floating on the surface that helped him survive, amazing.