People Who Survived What Should Have Been Instant Death

13 Months In The Pacific Ocean

GIFF JOHNSON / AFP / Getty Images

13 months adrift in the Pacific Ocean was something Jose Alvarenga somehow managed to survive. The Salvadoran fisherman said he had been drifting in the Pacific Ocean for just over a year in a seven-meter boat when it blew off course during a fishing trip to Mexico.

During his castaway, he was able to survive by eating fish, birds, turtles, and drinking urine, rainwater, and bird blood. Some people might doubt his story, but Alvarenga wasn’t the first one lost at sea. In 1982, Steve Callahan was stranded for 76 days on a life raft in the Atlantic Ocean.