Gilligan would have died...

June 4, 2006 5:05 PM

Do people really get stranded on deserted islands and survive?

Sure, there are lots of fictional stories (Castaway, Lost, Gilligan, etc.) but are there any documented real-life stories of people being stranded on deserted islands and survivng/being rescued? (And I'm not talking about getting lost in the mountains or while hiking - I'm talking uninhabited island.)

Better yet - have you heard any about people being stranded for years? Have those people been able to re-enter normal society and not be, well, completely insane?

It seems like there are simply too many aspects of the whole thing that involve pure luck - surviving the initial plane crash/boat sinking, figuring out how to live off the land, actually being rescued. I don't see how it's possible in reality...do you?

posted by ebeeb to Grab Bag (15 answers total)

Robinson Crusoe was based on a true story.
posted by wilful at 5:09 PM on June 4, 2006

A similar question.
posted by Zosia Blue at 5:12 PM on June 4, 2006

The Straight Dope reports on desert island survivors. No mention of Wilson the volleyball.
posted by acoutu at 5:18 PM on June 4, 2006

One episode of I Shouldn't Be Alive told the story of two men who were literally stranded on a desert island in the Sea of Cortez. The only vegetation was a single cactus, which was their sole source of nourishment. They were rescued by a passing boat after less than a week, and they probably wouldn't have been able to make it much longer either physically or mentally.
posted by zsazsa at 5:37 PM on June 4, 2006

The Lone Woman of San Nicolas Island. (She was the basis for the popular children's book "Island of the Blue Dolphins.") She wasn't shipwrecked there though; she got left behind. She survived out there for eighteen years but died seven weeks after she finally got back to the mainland.
posted by web-goddess at 6:37 PM on June 4, 2006

Not only do people suvive accidental marooning (such as Alexander Selkirk, the basis for Crusoe), some people strand themselves intentionally. Based on an earlier AskMe thread, I picked up An Island to Oneself: Six Years on a Desert Island. And, of course, many people strand themselves in places other than islands. Check out One Man's Wilderness: An Alaskan Odyssey or Into the Wild.
posted by jdroth at 6:39 PM on June 4, 2006 [1 favorite]

In the 16th Century, four Russian hunters survived for six years on an arctic island in the Svalbard Archipelago after being stranded. Three of them were later rescued.
posted by ursus_comiter at 8:55 PM on June 4, 2006

Check out the story of Ernest Shackleton and his crew.
posted by borkingchikapa at 11:22 PM on June 4, 2006

She survived out there for eighteen years but died seven weeks after she finally got back to the mainland.

And, I shit you not, if you visit her grave at Mission Santa Barbara, it says she died because she ate too much fruit.

Which is Catholic missionary-speak for "She died of the flu, but we don't want to make it look like *we* did anything wrong, so we'll make up this line about a greedy-ass savage that couldn't control herself."
posted by frogan at 11:30 PM on June 4, 2006

see also the Raft of the Medusa (in life, if you can, it's at the Louvre)
posted by cloudscratcher at 11:30 PM on June 4, 2006

The article says that the Lone Woman of San Nicolas Island died of dysentry, which isn't actually surprising considering she was probably facing more and different bacteria than she ever had before.

Her story saddens me, not least because I have read the novel several times and always hoped for her to have a happy life after she left. I know now why he stopped the story where he did. I didn't know how many real details he slipped in, though he chose to make her younger and to have a young brother instead of her own child.
posted by jb at 4:15 AM on June 5, 2006

see also the Raft of the Medusa (in life, if you can, it's at the Louvre)

Alternatively, get a copy of The Pogues' Rum, Sodomy, and the Lash.
posted by kirkaracha at 7:16 AM on June 5, 2006

How about all those Japanese soldiers who hid in the jungle for years after the war ended?
posted by Rash at 9:44 AM on June 5, 2006

The mutineers from The Bounty and a few Tahitian people landed at Pitcairn Island in 1790. By the time they were rediscovered in 1808 there was only one mutineer left alive along with a few women and several children.
posted by deborah at 10:15 AM on June 5, 2006

There was a pretty incredible story (documented at a Museum in New Zealand) of a shipwreck on a group of tiny islands near the antartic circle. There was a supply depot that could save them on an island only a few miles away, but they had no way to get there - the freezing waters would kill them, and the island was a barren windswept nothingness, where only grass and hardy shrubs could survive, and there was nothing to sustain them. A nightmare of an island to be stranded on.

After a few tries, they managed to build a boat frame out of shrubbery (canvas or clothing for the hull?), and managed to get a couple of guys to the other island, who directed the next ship to rescue the rest. I think most survived. The boat is a pretty interesting structure. Sailors with their life in their hands can be pretty ingenious :)
posted by -harlequin- at 11:16 PM on June 5, 2006