30+ Stories About Modern People Who Were Lost at Sea

A US Navy surveillance craft was flying around a deserted island named Fanadik when it spotted the word “help” written out in palm leaves on the beach. Three men had set sail four miles away from Pulap in the Federated States of Micronesia, but their ship capsized.

They spent an entire night swimming towards Fanadik, then spent three days stranded there until their help sign managed to get them noticed and rescued.

On July 14, 2018, the fishing hut belonging to Aldi Novel Adilang was sent adrift off the Indonesian coast after strong winds snapped the rope that tethered the hut to the seabed. Adilang was from the island Sulawesi, and after 49 days adrift, he ended up all the way near Guam, thousands of miles away.

He survived by catching fish with pieces of wood he broke off his hut. He tried to flag down many ships while adrift, but was only rescued when he sent an emergency radio signal to the MV Arpeggio, a Panamanian vessel. They took him to their destination, Japan, at which point Adliang was able to fly home.

This story is truly tragic: Terry Jo was only eleven years old when she and her family were on a vacation in 1961. They were off the coast of Florida in a chartered boat when she woke up to find out that the captain of the vessel had murdered her whole family.

Naturally, Terry Jo was in the crosshairs as well, but she was able to escape from the vessel in a dinghy. She survived hypothermia out at sea and was rescued three days afterward.

These two Honolulu residents were heading for Tahiti when their boat’s engine died. Despite attempts to sail the rest of the distance, they were soon completely lost at sea. Thankfully, their preparations for a long trip left them with plenty of provisions for survival.

After five months at sea, they were found by a Taiwanese fishing vessel. Some parts of the story are a little odd, however: the women never activated their emergency beacon, and they claimed to have been caught in a storm at one point, though no such storm was ever recorded.

The late sailor/businessman Tony Bullimore got into some serious trouble when he was lost at sea for a terrifying four days. His boat ended up capsizing while he was doing a solo trip around the world for 1997’s Vendee Globe race.

The former Royal Marine was believed to have drowned but was miraculously rescued by the Australian navy in the freezing Southern Ocean waters. All he had was one bar of chocolate at his disposal.

This submarine, with a crew of 44 people, was lost at sea on November 15, 2017 off the coast of Argentina. Reports say the sound of an explosion was heard from the water near where the submarine submerged, and it has not been heard from since that day.

Argentine officials searched for the submarine for two weeks. But when they were unable to locate it in that timeframe, the scope of the mission was changed to search only, as opposed to search and rescue. All in all, there’s almost no chance that the crew is still alive today, and the submarine has yet to be found.

These two 14-year old kids went missing near Florida in 2015. They were last seen buying fuel for their boat, but a storm wracked the area around July 24th, causing large waves. The boat was found capsized two days later, with no sign of the two boys anywhere.

Authorities hoped that the boys were still alive, thanks to their experience and skill on the water, but after a thorough search that went from Florida to the coast of South Carolina, no sign of them ever turned up. Eventually, the search was canceled.

Back in 1981, Steve Callahan tried to make a trip across the Atlantic all by his lonesome. However, a large storm ended up filling his vessel with water, and he was forced to escape on an inflatable raft.

Ultimately, Callahan was forced to survive out at sea in that inflatable raft for a total of 76 days, before he was finally rescued by fishermen near the island of Marie Galante in the Caribbean.

This occurred in October 2010: three teenagers from the very remote Tokelau island chain used a dinghy to go on a brief journey to a nearby island. Unfortunately, their short trip ended up turning into fifty days lost in the Pacific Ocean.

They ran out of their coconut supply pretty quickly, but managed to survive by catching fish, drinking rainwater and miraculously catching a single seabird. Eventually, a fishing trawler found and rescued the three cousins.

This Australian adventurer made an attempt to cross the Tasman Sea via kayak in 2007. Unfortunately, his kayak capsized at some point and the man was lost at sea, never to be seen again. However, the memory stick from the camera he carried was recovered.

The most profound (or ironic) moment in the recording was probably when he said, “I hope I haven’t bitten off more than I can chew.”

Richard Van Pham set sail from Long Beach in 2002 in order to make it to Catalina Island, which isn’t far from the coast of California. Unfortunately, an unexpected freak storm destroyed the mast of his ship, and Pham was lost at sea for a total of three months.

After all that time at sea, a United States drug hunting plane spotted his vessel out in the open ocean, a staggering 2,500 miles from where he had set sail in the first place.

This story is interesting because, unfortunately, there’s very little in the way of details for anyone to know what really happened. In 2011, a crewmember of a Disney cruise ship, Rebecca Coriam, disappeared completely while it was sailing along the Mexican coast.

To this day, there is no indication of what happened to Rebecca or where she is. Her mysterious disappearance has led to many rumors speculating about what happened.

In 2005, five men went on a fishing expedition from San Blas Nayarit, Mexico. Their intention was to spend only three days at sea. Unfortunately, they ended up spending a whopping nine months adrift. Well, those who survived, anyway.

Two of the men died of starvation, but Lucio Rendon, Salvador Ordonez, and Jose Vidana managed to survive on rainwater, fish and even turtles. Ultimately, they drifted 5,500 miles across the Pacific Ocean before they were spotted and rescued by a Taiwanese fishing vessel.

Back in 2009, an Australian plane from the Coast Guard spotted Burmese fishermen Ko Ko Oo and Haung Htaik barely floating in a bathtub-sized icebox in the middle of waters known for sharks. According to the two fishermen, 18 other men died when their vessel sank off the coast of Thailand.

Allegedly, they survived on rainwater and fish regurgitated by seabirds. The story made headlines around the world, but elicited a great deal of skepticism from experts.

Poon Lim’s merchant vessel sank all the way back in 1942, and the Chinese sailor survived 133 days alone in the South Atlantic right in the middle of World War II. Eventually, some Brazilian fishermen found him off of the coast of their country.

He was told at the time that he held the record for longest time surviving at sea, but all he had to say about that was that he hoped no one would ever be forced to top him.

Louis Jordan took a fishing trip in his single-mast sailboat in open water off of the North Carolina coast in January 2015. A total of 66 days later, he was spotted by a German container ship standing on his capsized, but still floating vessel.

After his discovery, he was airlifted to safety, his two months of survival thanks to rainwater, rations, and fish.

In 2012, Salvador Alvarenga and Ezequiel Cordoba went on a fishing trip. A powerful storm pushed their boat to the sea, and they had to survive on urine, turtle blood, fish, and birds. Cordoba eventually died, but he made Alvarenga promise to take his body home first.

But after a few days at sea with a decomposing body, Alvarenga threw his deceased companion into the Ocean. Alvarenga was rescued after 348 days of survival. He is facing a lawsuit for suspicions about whether or not he cannibalized Cordoba.

This unfortunate soul was using the toilet when his ship sank off the coast of Nigeria. All of the other crew members died, but he managed to survive in an air pocket that was formed in the bathroom.

Not only was he rescued, but we even have a picture of him surviving in that air pocket. Needless to see, we can see how terrifying that must have been. He got obscenely lucky, compared to all of his crewmates.

This story is a little different because it doesn’t involve a ship. Matthew Bryce was a surfer riding waves out on the Scottish Coast in 2017 when he was swept out roughly 13 miles to sea. He was out there for 36 hours.

Thankfully, he was able to survive thanks to both his wetsuit and his surfboard. That said, we can’t imagine being lost that long out there was very relaxing, even if he had the means to float with relative ease.

Bill Tilman was called “the Greatest Adventure Sailor of the 20th century.” In 1977, he headed for the South Atlantic in order to climb Smith Island. Unfortunately, the boat disappeared without a trace.

Needless to say, the 80-year old sailor and mountaineer never reached his destination in the South Pacific. To this day, no one is sure what happened to him, as there is still no sign of him or his ship, wreckage or otherwise.

This couple’s large vessel was attacked by whales in 1989. While they were forced to abandon ship, they managed to grab a fishing rod and a water purifier before doing so. Those items managed to keep them alive as they sat in the ocean for two months.

Ultimately, the thrifty couple was located by the Costa Rican Coast Guard, ending their travails and bringing them back to society.

These four men were quite excited to sail to the island of Tonga from New Zealand in 1989. Unfortunately, a huge wave capsized their boat before they finished making the trip.

All four of them were able to survive on the wreckage for a whopping total of 118 days before the waters managed to ultimately, and quite ironically, wash them back up on the shore of New Zealand.

In September of 2016, Nathan and Linda Carman, son and mother, left Rhode Island in a boat to go on an overnight sailing trip, presumably for relaxation or pleasure. Unfortunately, the trip didn’t go very well.

Some time during the trip, the engine room of their ship flooded, causing it to sink. Linda Carman was unfortunately never found, though Nathan managed to survive the tragedy. After a week at sea, he was rescued 100 miles away from the coast.

18-year-old Adrian Vasquez, along with two friends, went on a night fishing trip near Panama in 2012. Unfortunately, their boat was swept out to sea by particularly powerful currents.

22 days after their disappearance, fishermen from the Galapagos islands spotted the ship, but the only person still alive was Adrian Vasquez. Supposedly, his two friends died from starvation or dehydration.

16-year-old Abby Sunderland made an attempt to become the youngest sailor to finish a solo circumnavigation of the Earth in 2010, setting out from California, then sailing away from Mexico. Four months after she started her trip, high winds tore the mast from her ship in the midst of the Indian Ocean.

She was stranded and alone without any sort of satellite phone reception, but her Personal Locator Beacon activated and she was, fortunately, rescued within two days of being stranded.

In 2011, Japan was hit by a huge earthquake and a tsunami, and it flattened all sorts of structures, including the home of Hiromitsu Shinkawa. Unfortunately, he was still in the home when it was demolished by the waves.

But miraculously, the 60-year-old Hiromitsu managed to survive the ordeal when he clutched onto a piece of his roof that was big enough to use as a raft. Thankfully he was rescued within two days.

This tale happened in 1973, when the British Bailey couple was sailing in their yacht near Central America. Ironically, this is also another story involving whales attacking a boat. It sunk the ship and stranded the couple on the wreckage.

The couple managed to survive for a total of 117 days before they managed to get rescued by a South Korean fishing crew, far closer to South Korea than you would expect considering where they were lost.

Apparently, whales aren’t actually all that friendly. Or maybe they just don’t like boats. Back in 1972 Dougal and his family, consisting of a wife, a son, and three daughters, along with a crew of five, survived out at sea for 38 days.

What happened to them? Turns out their ship was sunk by a pack of unfriendly killer whales. Why whales might have an issue with boats is beyond us, but this is like, the third or fourth tale of whales sinking ships, so it happens a fair deal.

The sea is unforgiving, and even the most experienced can be lost to it. Case in point, we have this seasoned fisherman who had decades of experience on the open sea, and even he suffered such an accident. While he was sailing to a Hawaiian island in 2014, his boat took on water and sunk.

When Ingraham wasn’t found for quite some time, everyone assumed that he drowned at sea. However, he was located twelve days later hundreds of miles away from where his ship had sunk.

Ashcraft was a 23-year old sailor going on a long trip with her fiancé in 1983. Unfortunately, they were caught up in the middle of Hurricane Raymond. Ashcraft was knocked unconscious during the storm, and her fiancé was lost at sea when she awoke.

Nearly every critical component of her ship was damaged when she regained consciousness, but Ashcraft managed to fabricate a makeshift rail, pump out water, and sail back to safety over the span of 41 days using only a sextant and a watch.

Toakai Teitoi was lost at sea for a total 15 weeks back in 2012 when a two-hour trip from Kiribati went horribly wrong, and vessel was disabled. Oddly enough, he credits a shark with helping him get rescued. Teitoi claims that a shark was swimming beneath his ship and bumped it.

When this happened, he was jolted awake and noticed a ship nearby that could rescue him. For this reason, he credits that shark with his salvation, coincidence though it may have been.

This legendary war hero, whose story was told in the book and movie Unbroken, flew for the United States Air Force in World War II. The bomber he served on with eight other men was downed over the Pacific by Japanese fighters.

Unfortunately, while Zamperini managed to survive being stranded in the ocean, he was rescued by the Japanese and became a prisoner of war until the conflict ended in 1945.

Father and daughter sailing duo Willie and Amanda Thorns were lost at sea along with Dennis White in 2010 due to choppy Atlantic waters. Unfortunately, Willie Thorns was killed when the waves swept him off the ship.

Dennis and Amanda spent fifteen days adrift, surviving on what they had available. Fortunately for them, favorable winds propelled them to safety after that period of time.

Back in January of 2007, Jim Gray, a computer scientist, went on a solo sailing trip to the Farallon Islands in order to scatter the ashes of his deceased mother. Unfortunately, he did not return home when he was supposed to, and his wife filed a report.

A search for Jim Gray swiftly followed, but neither him nor his yacht were ever located. With no sign of him after an extensive search, he was declared dead on May 16th, 2012.

Back in 2001, two Samoans, named Lapahele Sopi and Telea Paa, survived a grueling four months at sea on nothing more than rainwater and fish. Unfortunately, they had two other companions with them on their trip gone wrong, both of which died of starvation during the ordeal.

A local doctor who treated the two survivors was amazed that they were still alive despite the condition they were in, claiming the two were literally proof that miracles did happen.