Collins Maps - Extreme Survivors - 60 of the World’s Most Extreme Survival Stories

SURVIVAL

Into the Frozen North, 1895 Into the Frozen North WHEN FRIDTJOF NANSEN STEERED HIS SHIP INTO THE PACK ICE NORTH OF SIBERIA ON 20 SEPTEMBER 1893, HE INTENDED TO CATCH AN UNDISCOVERED CURRENT IN THE SEA ICE THAT WOULD TRANSPORT THEM TO THE NORTH POLE. THIS PLAN WOULD FAIL, LEAVING NANSEN AND A COLLEAGUE STRANDED IN THE ARCTIC WASTES FOR FIFTEEN MONTHS. DATE: 1895–6 SITUATION: ARCTIC EXPLORATION CONDITION OF CONFINEMENT: STRANDED NEAR THE NORTH POLE DURATION OF CONFINEMENT: 15 MONTHS MEANS OF ESCAPE: DOG-SLEDGING, TREKKING, KAYAKING NO. OF ESCAPEES: 2 DANGERS: FREEZING TO DEATH, STARVATION, WILD ANIMAL ATTACK EQUIPMENT: HUSKIES, SLEDGE, SKIS, RIFLES

Another Antarctic Winter, 1912 Another Antarctic Winter EXPLORER DOUGLAS MAWSON WAS STRANDED ON THE ANTARCTIC ICE WHEN HIS COLLEAGUE FELL INTO A CREVASSE. WITH FEW PROVISIONS HE WAS FORCED TO EAT HIS HUSKIES TO SURVIVE. HE TREKKED 480 KM (300 MILES) BACK TO BASE ONLY TO MISS HIS SUPPLY SHIP BY HOURS, FORCING HIM TO ENDURE ANOTHER WINTER OF BRUTAL CONDITIONS. DATE: 1912–13 SITUATION: ANTARCTIC EXPLORATION CONDITION OF CONFINEMENT: STRANDED ON THE ICE DURATION OF CONFINEMENT: SEVERAL WEEKS MEANS OF ESCAPE: TREKKING, EATING HUSKIES NO. OF ESCAPEES: 1 DANGERS: FREEZING TO DEATH, STARVATION, FALLING INTO A CREVASSE, VITAMIN A POISONING EQUIPMENT: HUSKIES, SLEDGE, SOME PROVISIONS

The Day the World Shook, 1923 The Day the World Shook THE OCEAN LINER EMPRESS OF AUSTRALIA WAS LEAVING YOKOHAMA HARBOUR WHEN ONE OF THE MOST DEVASTATING EARTHQUAKES IN HISTORY LEVELLED TŌKYŌ AND THE SURROUNDING AREA. MORE THAN 100,000 PEOPLE DIED IN THE SHOCKS AND THE FIRESTORMS THAT FOLLOWED, BUT THE SHIP’S CREW STAYED TO HELP THOUSANDS MORE SURVIVE THE DISASTER. DATE: 1923 SITUATION: EARTHQUAKE CONDITION OF CONFINEMENT: ON BOARD AN OCEAN LINER IN A BURNING PORT DURATION OF CONFINEMENT: 12 DAYS MEANS OF ESCAPE: CAPTAIN’S PROFESSIONALISM, INDIVIDUAL COURAGE NO. OF ESCAPEES: 2,000 PLUS MANY OTHER REFUGEES DANGERS: TREMORS, FIRE, DROWNING EQUIPMENT: SHIP’S EQUIPMENT

The Long Walk Home, 1931 The Long Walk Home IN 1931, THREE YOUNG GIRLS WERE AMONG THOUSANDS OF CHILDREN FORCIBLY TAKEN FROM THEIR FAMILIES BY THE AUSTRALIAN GOVERNMENT AND SENT TO A HARSH NATIVE SETTLEMENT. MOLLY, DAISY AND GRACIE IMMEDIATELY ESCAPED AND FOLLOWED A RABBIT-PROOF FENCE FOR 1,600 KM (1,000 MILES) THROUGH THE BURNING WESTERN DESERTS TO GET HOME. DATE: 1931 SITUATION: THREE CHILDREN RUN FROM A STATE HOME CONDITION OF CONFINEMENT: FLEEING THE AUTHORITIES THROUGH THE AUSTRALIAN BUSH DURATION OF CONFINEMENT: 2 MONTHS MEANS OF ESCAPE: HIDING IN THE BUSH, BEGGING FOR HELP NO. OF ESCAPEES: 3 DANGERS: EXHAUSTION, STARVATION, HEAT STROKE EQUIPMENT: NONE

Survival by Sacrifice, 1957 Survival by Sacrifice FOUR YOUNG MOUNTAINEERS WERE TRYING TO CONQUER THE UNCLIMBED PEAK OF HARAMOSH WHEN AN AVALANCHE SWEPT TWO OF THEM OVER A SHEER ICE CLIFF. THE OTHER TWO CLIMBERS WOULD DRIVE THEMSELVES BEYOND THE POINT OF EXHAUSTION AND RISK THEIR LIVES IN A DARING RESCUE ATTEMPT THAT WOULD HAVE TRAGIC AND HEROIC RESULTS. DATE: 1957 SITUATION: CLIMBING ACCIDENT CONDITION OF CONFINEMENT: STRANDED BY AN AVALANCHE AT 6,400 M (21,000 FT) DURATION OF CONFINEMENT: 2 DAYS MEANS OF ESCAPE: CLIMBING TO SAFETY, RESCUE AND SACRIFICE BY COLLEAGUES NO. OF ESCAPEES: 2 DANGERS: DEHYDRATION, EXHAUSTION, FALLING TO DEATH, HYPOTHERMIA EQUIPMENT: CLIMBING EQUIPMENT

The Inconvenient Survivor, 1960

Disaster on the Dark Side of the Moon, 1970

Two Miles Up without a Parachute, 1971

The Cruel Cost of Survival, 1972

The Boy who Fell Out of the Storm, 1979

Under the Rumbling Mountain, 1980

The Kindest Cut, 1985

The Miracle of Stairway B, 2001

A Rock and a Hard Place, 2003

Alone in the Death Zone, 2008

The Sole Survivor of Flight 626, 2009

The Miracle on the Hudson, 2009

Journey from the Centre of the Earth, 2010

The Survivor of Circumstance, 2010

Entombed for Two Weeks, 2010

PRISON

Charmed by a Renegade Queen, 1568

Flight of the Philosopher, 1621

Escape from Devil’s Island, 1932

The Escape from Alcatraz, 1962

The Dan Cooper Hijack, 1971

The Storming of Fresnes, 2003

WAR

The Man who Might be King, 1746

The Last of the Sixteen Thousand, 1842

Back to the Fatherland, 1915

The War on the Run, 1938

A Midget Submarine and Malaria, 1942

Canoeing into History, 1942

The Incredible Journey of Jan Baalsrud, 1943

The Great Escape, 1944

Across the Roof of the World, 1944

Escape from a Siberian Gulag, 1949

The Six Escapes of ‘Farra the Para’, 1951

Across the Killing Fields, 1975

The Jungle and the Genocide, 2000

SHIPWRECKS

The Trials of the Wager, 1740

After the Mutiny, 1789

Shipwreck, Slavery and the Burning Sand, 1815

The Whale and the Pacific, 1820

The Teenage Captain, 1893

Not a Man was Lost, 1914

1,700 Miles of Ocean, 1923

The Two who were Spared, 1940

The Longest Journey, 1942

Five Days in a Deadly Sea, 1945

The Widowmaker, 1961

Together Alone, 1973

The Life Raft, 1982

The Last Friend, 1995

HOSTAGES

Six Years in Beirut, 1985

The Girl from the Secret Cellar, 1998

Ten Years as a Secret Slave, 2000

Kidnapped by the FARC, 2002

Buried Alive, 2004

Christmas Day Heroics, 2009

The Hostages who Fought Back, 2009

Index

Bibliography, Image credits

About the Publisher

Having spent my life in so many dangerous and at times unforgiving terrains, I have learnt that to come out the other side alive you have to find the spirit to keep going, whatever the cost. Each of the stories in this book tells of that same spirit in those who endured. As individuals we cannot conquer a mountain or a storm, but we can learn to harness nature’s elements, and our own limitations, to see almost any ordeal through.

Appropriate preparation and experience are essential for any expedition, but they are no guarantee of safety. Even the wariest of adventurers can fall foul to difficult conditions, faulty equipment or lapses in concentration. Only by keeping calm and finding confidence in their own abilities will they stand a chance of passing through the constant threats thrown up by nature. Within this book are stories of those who ventured out with an awareness and appreciation of the danger ahead, but who faltered, rallied and survived: Joe Simpson’s horrific fall on Siula Grande in 1985; Aron Ralston, trapped by rocks and forced to amputate his arm; Ernest Shackleton’s epic South Georgia expedition and his determination to return his stranded men alive.

Alongside these, are the stories of great difficulty and suffering, but endured by those who survived without that experience and equipment. These are the horror stories that defy the statistics. Tales of plane crashes, kidnappings and prison escapes, the stories of ‘everyday’ people unprepared for the hardest conditions: eleven-year-old Norman Ollestad, the sole survivor of a light-aircraft crash, who descended over 8,000 ft engulfed in a blizzard; Cambodian journalist Dith Pran’s four years of starvation and torture under the Khmer Rouge, and his desperate escape when the regime was overthrown; the three young Australian girls who walked for 1,600 km through the desert to find salvation.