Miscellaneous Blogs
Book Review –Adrift: Seventy-six days lost at sea (1986)
A lone sailor is battling an Atlantic storm in a twenty-one foot long sailboat. It is dark, approaching midnight, when a massive crash rips away part of the hull. Within seconds the boat is sinking and Steven Callahan is drowning. Miraculously he frees a life raft and frantically salvages what he can before the sailboat disappears beneath the waves. However, an initial ordeal becomes never ending torment inside the sanctuary of his life raft. “There are no good conditions in a life raft, and no comfortable positions in which to rest. There are only the bad and the worse.” (p. 66)
Steven Callahan is four-hundred and fifty miles north of the Cape Verde Islands and about as far from the west coast of Africa. He’s alone and lost at sea for the next seventy-six days as he drifts 1800 miles westward towards the Caribbean. Each day is a struggle to stay alive with “constant dreams of food and drink, the aching loneliness, the fear” (p. 74). He stays alive due to his seamanship, ingenuity and dogged determination.
The true story of Steven Callahan’s survival is remarkable; few have survived as long under such conditions. His graphic account describes his gradual physical and mental decline as dehydration and starvation take their toll and isolation impacts on his mental state. He describes how his life “… has become a composition of multilayered realities – day dreams, night dreams, and the seemingly endless physical struggle.” (p.95)
An account of seventy-six days, alone, inside a life raft and at the mercy of the elements is difficult to sustain without a degree of repetition. However, it is this drawn out, mind-numbing repetition – interspaced with brief, life threatening action and terror – that serves to convey the day to day struggle to survive. The story of Steven Callahan’s survival is now 35 years old but inspirational and still worth reading. If you are ever faced with a similar challenge his experience and example may help you.
Adrift: Seventy-six days lost at sea (1986)
- By Steven Callahan
- London: Guild Publishing
- 234pp
Find out more about Professor Fred Lockwood, who is also a published author, at www.fredlockwood.co.uk.
Gemma and Ian visited DEEP and were hosted by Phil Short, Research Diving, Training Lead, and were given a tour of the facility at Avonmouth and then over to the Campus at Tidenham.
DEEP is evolving how humans access, explore and inhabit underwater environments. Through flexible, modular and mobile subsea habitats that allow humans to live undersea up to 200m for up to 28 days, work-class submarines, and advanced human performance research, DEEP completely transforms what we are capable of underwater and how we conduct undersea science and research.
You can listen to Episode 173 of the BiG Scuba Podcast here.
We hope you have enjoyed this episode of The BiG Scuba Podcast. Please give us ★★★★★, leave a review, and tell your friends about us as each share and like makes a difference. Contact Gemma and Ian with your messages, ideas and feedback via The BiG Scuba Bat Phone +44 7810 005924 or use our social media platforms. To keep up to date with the latest news, follow us:
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Gemma and Ian chat to Dr. Joseph Dituri. Dr. Jospeh Dituri lived undersea for 100 Days in a mission combining education, ocean conservation research, and the study of the physiological and psychological effects of compression on the human body.
Dituri enlisted in the U.S. Navy in 1985. He served continuously on active service upon various ships and shore stations where he was involved in every aspect of diving and special operations work from saturation diving and deep submergence to submersible design and clearance diving. Now that he is retired from 28 years of active service to the United States, he is the president of the International Board of Undersea Medicine. He also volunteers his time as the CEO of the Association for Marine Exploration. He is an invited speaker on motivational, sea and space related topics.
Fuelled by his passion for exploration, discovery, adventure, and making the greatest possible positive contribution to the world, he is fighting for change in a big way and with great enthusiasm.
You can listen to Episode 172 of the BiG Scuba Podcast here.
We hope you have enjoyed this episode of The BiG Scuba Podcast. Please give us ★★★★★, leave a review, and tell your friends about us as each share and like makes a difference. Contact Gemma and Ian with your messages, ideas and feedback via The BiG Scuba Bat Phone +44 7810 005924 or use our social media platforms. To keep up to date with the latest news, follow us:
We are on Instagram @thebigscuba
We are on Facebook @thebigscuba
We are in LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/ian%F0%9F%A6%88-last-325b101b7/
The BiG Scuba Website www.thebigscuba.com
Amazon Store : https://www.amazon.co.uk/shop/thebigscuba
Visit https://www.patreon.com/thebigscubapodcast and subscribe – Super quick and easy to do and it makes a massive difference. Thank you.
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