From the Jaws of Death: Extreme True Adventures of Man vs. Nature - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0312555660 ISBN 13: 9780312555665

Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin, 2010

Synopsis

A harrowing collection of true tales of death and survival under the most extreme conditions imaginable

There comes a time in some men's lives when their physical and emotional states are pushed to the limit. Maybe their boat has capsized and they are adrift in the ocean, or maybe they've fallen into an ice crevasse, with no apparent way out. It is in these moments men discover what they are truly made of and whether they have the courage and physical strength to come back From the Jaws of Death.

This explosive collection showcases twenty-three stories of adventure gone horribly wrong, including:

--"The Devil's Thumb" by Jon Krakauer: the bestselling author recounts his perilous solo climb of Alaska's infamous Devil's Thumb
--"Surviving the St. Patrick" by Spike Walker: the crew of a fishing boat face crushing waves in the middle of a winter storm in the Gulf of Alaska
--"Look for a Corpse" by Larry Kaniut: a man buried by an avalanche fights to make it out alive
--"The Boat Journey" by Sir Ernest Shackleton: when his expedition's ship is destroyed, Shackleton and five of his crewmembers resolve to cross 800 ocean miles in a lifeboat to look for help
--And many more!

This is one of the finest and most extreme collections of true adventure ever assembled.

About this title

About the Author:

Ever since his very first steps, BROGAN STEELE has chased adventure. After a long, exhilarating day of facing Death and coming out on top, he relishes seeing the smoke curling up from the chimney of his log cabin, knowing he'll soon be lounging fireside with a cold beer.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.:

THE VAST OCEANS
There are few things as beautiful as the ocean. The golden rays of the rising sun breaking over an endless expanse of bright blue water, or watching that same red-orange orb sink into the western horizon over a glass-smooth tropical sea can stir emotions like nothing else.
Of course, nature is nothing if not capricious, and that same stretch of calm blue ocean can turn deadly in a matter of hours—sometimes in a matter of minutes, if the conditions are right—going from peaceful and torpid to a raging tempest that obliterates anything caught in it. And that’s just the water itself—there are plenty of other dangers out there, from aggressive whales that attack boats, hungry sharks just waiting to make a meal out of an unwary swimmer or diver, hidden, jagged reefs that tear open the keel of a sailboat, even certain areas where the age-old profession of piracy has been resurrected, making unmolested passage less and less likely each year.
Despite its dangers, thousands of people take to the oceans around the world every year, whether simply as their job, or looking for adventure. Some find much more than they bargained for, and end up watching those beautiful sunrises and sunsets in a leaky whaleboat or life raft, trapped on the endless expanse of water, sometimes for weeks or even months, subsisting on what they managed to bring aboard and what they can catch from the water until sighting land or being rescued.
The following selections of shipwrecked and castaway men and women spans more than 175 years, and shows that, whether adrift in the eighteenth century or the twentieth, survival at sea has always been a matter of proper mindset, courage, and more than a bit of luck.
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ADRIFT ON THE PACIFIC
Owen Chase (1798–1869)
From the Narrative of the Most Extraordinary and
Distressing Shipwreck of the Whaleship Essex

We begin our journey out into the wild ocean with an excerpt from one of the most famous survival stories ever told. The whaleship Essex, while on a two-year voyage in the Pacific Ocean, was attacked and sunk by a large sperm whale on November 20, 1820. The twenty-one sailors were left in three whaleboats in the middle of the ocean, with little food or water. So began one of the most incredible journeys of perseverance in the history of mankind. Before it was over, the survivors would resort to such measures as drinking their own urine and cannibalism to survive. First Mate Owen Chase’s account of the sailors’ plight, published in 1821, is still just as gripping to read today as it must have been at the time. It seems that I’m not the only person to think so, either, as the narrative was a source of inspiration for Herman Melville to write his epic novel Moby-Dick.
In this excerpt, we pick up the narrative a few days after the sinking of the Essex, and find the men struggling to survive in their leaking boats, with little food and even less potable water. Although this excerpt seems to have a happy ending, with the survivors reaching an island, if one reads the last few pages carefully, it becomes fairly obvious that there is more hardship in store for these poor men.
NOVEMBER 23RD. IN MY CHEST, which I was fortunate enough to preserve, I had several small articles, which we found of great service to us; among the rest, some eight or ten sheets of writing paper, a lead pencil, a suit of clothes, three small fishhooks, a jackknife, a whetstone, and a cake of soap. I commenced to keep a sort of journal with the little paper and pencil, which I had; and the knife, besides other useful purposes, served us as a razor. It was with much difficulty, however, that I could keep any sort of record, owing to the incessant rocking and unsteadiness of the boat, and the continual dashing of the spray of the sea over us. The boat contained, in addition to the articles enumerated, a lantern, tinderbox, and two or three candles, which belonged to her, and with which they are kept always supplied while engaged in taking whale. In addition to all which, the captain had saved a musket, two pistols, and a canister, containing about two pounds of gunpowder; the latter he distributed in equal proportions between the three boats, and gave the second mate and myself each a pistol. When morning came we found ourselves quite near together, and the wind had considerably increased since the day before; we were consequently obliged to reef our sails; and although we did not apprehend any very great danger from the then violence of the wind, yet it grew to be very uncomfortable in the boats from the repeated dashing of the waves that kept our bodies constantly wet with the salt spray. We, however, stood along our course until twelve o’clock, when we got an observation, as well as we were able to obtain one, while the water flew all over us, and the sea kept the boat extremely unsteady. We found ourselves this day in latitude 0°58¢ S having repassed the equator. We abandoned the idea altogether of keeping any correct longitudinal reckoning, having no glass, nor log line. The wind moderated in the course of the afternoon a little, but at night came on to blow again almost a gale. We began now to tremble for our little barque; she was so ill calculated, in point of strength, to withstand the racking of the sea, while it required the constant labors of one man to keep her free of water. We were surrounded in the afternoon with porpoises that kept playing about us in great numbers, and continued to follow us during the night.
November 24th. The wind had not abated any since the preceding day, and the sea had risen to be very large, and increased, if possible, the extreme uncomfortableness of our situation. What added more than anything else to our misfortunes was that all our efforts for the preservation of our provisions proved, in a great measure, ineffectual; a heavy sea broke suddenly into the boat, and, before we could snatch it up, damaged some part of it; by timely attention, however, and great caution, we managed to make it eatable and to preserve the rest from a similar casualty. This was a subject of extreme anxiety to us; the expectation, poor enough of itself indeed, upon which our final rescue was founded, must change at once to hopelessness, deprived of our provisions, the only means of continuing us in the exercise, not only of our manual powers, but in those of reason itself; hence, above all other things, this was the object of our utmost solicitude and pains.
We ascertained, the next day, that some of the provisions in the captain’s boat had shared a similar fate during the night; both which accidents served to arouse us to a still stronger sense of our slender reliance upon the human means at our command, and to show us our utter dependence on that divine aid, which we so much the more stood in need of.
November 25th. No change of wind had yet taken place, and we experienced the last night the same wet and disagreeable weather of the preceding one. About eight o’clock in the morning we discovered that the water began to come fast in our boat, and in a few minutes the quantity increased to such a degree as to alarm us considerably for our safety; we commenced immediately a strict search in every part of her to discover the leak, and, after tearing up the ceiling or floor of the boat near the bows, we found it proceeded from one of the streaks or outside boards having bursted off there; no time was to be lost in devising some means to repair it. The great difficulity consisted in its being in the bottom of the boat, about six inches from the surface of the water; it was necessary, therefore, to have access to the outside, to enable us to fasten it on again: the leak being to leeward, we hove about, and lay to on the other tack, which brought it then nearly out of water; the captain, who was at the time ahead of us, seeing us maneuvering to get the boat about, shortened sail, and presently tacked, and ran down to us. I informed him of our situation, and he came immediately alongside to our assistance. After directing all the men in the boat to get on one side, the other, by that means, heeled out of the water a considerable distance, and, with a little difficulty, we then managed to drive in a few nails, and secured it, much beyond our expectations. Fears of no ordinary kind were excited by this seemingly small accident. When it is recollected to what a slight vessel we had committed ourselves; our means of safety alone consisting in her capacity and endurance for many weeks, in all probability, yet to come, it will not be considered strange that this little accident should not only have damped our spirits considerably, but have thrown a great gloominess over the natural prospects of our deliverance. On this occasion, too, were we enabled to rescue ourselves from inevitable destruction by the possession of a few nails, without which (had it not been our fortune to save some from the wreck) we would, in all human calculations, have been lost: we were still liable to a recurrence of the same accident, perhaps to a still worse one, as, in the heavy and repeated racking of the swell, the progress of our voyage would serve but to increase the incapacity and weakness of our boat, and the starting of a single nail in her bottom would most assuredly prove our certain destruction. We wanted not this additional reflection, to add to the miseries of our situation.
November 26th. Our sufferings, heaven knows, were now sufficiently increased, and we looked forward, not without an extreme dread, and anxiety, to the gloomy and disheartening prospect before us. We experienced a little abatement of wind and rough weather today, and took the opportunity of drying the bread that had been wet the day previously; to our great joy and satisfaction also, the wind hauled out to ENE and enabled us to hold a much more favorable course; with these exceptions, no circumstance of any considerable interest occurred in the course of this day.
The twenty-seventh of November was alike undistinguished fo...

About this edition

• Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
• Publication date: 2010
• ISBN 10: 0312555660
• ISBN 13: 9780312555665
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 400
• Editor: Steele Brogan