Long term wilderness survival stories

The average time for someone to be stranded in the wild before they are rescued is less than seven days. Depending on the country, rescue efforts often come swiftly and on occasion have consisted of hundreds of volunteers, making the time before someone is found as small as possible. There’s also the factor of people not being able to survive in certain environments for more than 2 weeks, with major rescue efforts rarely lasting more than one month. These long-term wilderness survival stories happened to people who didn’t have anyone looking for them and were left alone to survive under their own knowledge and willpower.

José Salvador Alvarenga – 438 days at sea

Holding the record for the longest time survived stranded alone at sea is a man named José Salvador Alvarenga. A Mexican fisherman went out on a simple fishing trip with his partner that was supposed to last no longer than a couple of days at the most. The trip went well and the pair managed to catch around half a ton of fish, but their luck quickly changed when their boat was hit by a huge storm that blew them off course and destroyed most of their gear.

After being stranded for a few weeks and having no idea where they were, José’s partner died and left him alone to float around in a 24-foot roofless boat. He managed to survive by collecting rainwater and eating fish and turtles when he could catch them but came close to starvation many times. He was eventually washed into the mouth of an estuary where he swam to shore and was met by local villagers.

Ada Blackjack – 2 Years

In 1921 no one had laid claim to a small series of islands north of Russia called the Wrangle Islands, and Canada wanted to claim them before Russia did. An expedition was launched and the crew needed someone who could cook and fix clothes, so Alaskan native Ada Blackjack was hired. The team managed to make it to the islands and left five people there to hold Canada’s claim, and Ada was one of them. Their ship left and the five people on the island waited patiently for it to come back with more people and take them back home, but it never did.

Due to extreme weather, the seas became too frozen to pass and no one was able to reach the islands. After their food ran out three of them decided to walk across the frozen ocean to find someone who could help, leaving Ada alone with the other crew member who was suffering from an illness. It didn’t take long for him to die in the cold and leave Ada alone to wait for the other three to come back. No one knows what happened to the other members, but they were never seen again and Ada was now all alone with no food and no rescue. Being an Alaskan native she knew what she was doing when it came to surviving in cold weather and managed to stay alive for 2 years. Since everyone thought she was dead they didn’t bother coming back for her, and she was finally picked up by another passing ship.

The Lykov Family – 42 Years

Most people can’t help getting stranded in the wilderness, but for the Lykov family, it was unavoidable. During the early 1900s, Russia was somewhat of an unstable country and was plagued by wars and political corruption. Lykov and his family were in their village one day when government troops came in, and after a confrontation ended up shooting his brother. Fearing the same would happen to him and his family, he quickly gathered some tools and supplies and took his wife and children into the wilderness.

The Lykov family managed to survive alone in the wild without seeing a single other person for 42 years until they were discovered by a journalist. They survived by growing their own crops and making tools out of wood and bark after the ones they brought with them rusted. They made their own clothes out of hemp and lived in a small wooden shack, even having more children on their own.

Bruce Gordon – 7 Years

In 1757, Bruce Gordon set off with his crew on a whaling mission in the waters between Iceland and Greenland. The captain was a well-known drunk and managed to get the ship stuck in an ice flow which dragged it for miles. Eventually, the weight of the ice crushed the ship’s hull and burst it open so violently it threw Bruce off the edge onto the ice sheet, leaving him unable to catch up with it again. He walked all night in the direction the ship went and caught sight of it in the morning, sitting upside down in the water and being inspected by several polar bears. He waited for them to leave before making his way over to look for supplies.

It didn’t take long for another bear to show up and Gordon was forced to kill it with his knife, but then a baby bear walked in looking for its mother. Gordon felt sorry for the cub and looked after it, even teaching it how to fish for them both. He named the bear Nancy and the pair lived on the ship for around 7 years, with Nancy eating mostly fish and Gordon living off the ship’s supplies that were supposed to be for an entire crew. Eventually, the ice sheet the ship was stuck in dragged them close to Greenland where a very excited Gordon followed by his fully grown trained polar bear ran ashore to say hello to the surprised and probably quite scared locals.

Jack Renton – 8 Years

In 1868, a man named Jack Renton was kidnapped from San Francisco and forced to work as a slave on a ship. Renton and three other captives came up with an escape plan and managed to get into a small rowboat during the night and escape the main vessel, but then found themselves in the middle of the ocean with no supplies and no idea where to go. They were at sea for 40 days before they washed up on the Solomon Islands, but two of them died during the trip from dehydration. After landing on the shore they were met by the local tribe who didn’t waste any time killing one of them, leaving Renton to be taken as a prisoner back to their village.

He was going to be executed but gained the trust of the tribe’s leader by showing them methods of farming and making nets. They let him go and he even joined the tribe for a while, taking part in raids against other tribes which gained him the nickname “the white headhunter”. After spending 8 years with the tribe he eventually got bored and joined a passing ship which took him to Australia where his story became an instant hit.