Steven Callahan – 76 Days at sea

Time stranded: 76 days

Distance traveled: 500+ miles

Terrain types: Sea

Deaths: 0

Situation ended: Rescue by friendly vessel

Location: Atlantic Ocean

Steve Callahan was a keen sailor and naval architect and had years of boating experience, so when he came up with the idea of building a boat himself and taking it out into the Atlantic Ocean, there was nothing stopping him.

He had designed numerous boats before while working as a naval architect, but this time he decided to design and build one alone for his adventure. He made himself a 6.5-meter-long, single-mast sailing ship and set off into the Atlantic. He sailed to Bermuda before continuing onto England with just him and one of his friends on board, staying a short time in the country before heading south around the coast of Spain.

He had heard how bad weather had damaged several boats in the area but carried on anyway. After having to make some small repairs in Spain he carried on south past Portugal and onto Madeira and the Canaries.

He left the island on 29th January 1982 and headed towards his next target of Antigua, but just 7 days after setting out he ran into a bad storm. At some point during the night, a large unknown object hit the outside of his boat and smashed a hole through the body. Water began to rush in and although the boat didn’t sink straight away due to watertight compartments he had built into it, he knew he didn’t have much time.

He deployed a 6 person inflatable raft and climbed on board. Since his boat was sinking so slowly he had a chance to dive into it and retrieve various items, including a sleeping bag and an emergency kit which included some very useful items.

The kit contained solar stills for making fresh drinking water, a spear gun, and navigation charts along with some food and a survival guide.

Just before dawn the next morning the direction of the sea changed and a wave pushed him away from his almost completely submerged boat and pushed him in a westward direction. He traveled a total of around 1800 nautical miles and managed to survive by producing about 1 pint of water a day from his solar stills and living mostly off fish.

He recalls mostly eating flying fish, triggerfish, and dolphins as well as the occasional bird when he could catch them. But the ability to catch food wasn’t going to get him rescued and the emergency radio and flares he had weren’t reaching anyone.

As he floated across the ocean he recalls seeing 9 large container ships in the distance, but by then had used up all his flares and could not reach them with his radio. He continued to drift for a total of 76 days until he was rescued by fishermen just off the shore of the island of Marie Galante, southeast of Guadeloupe in the Caribbean.

He was taken to hospital that afternoon and even though he had lost a third of his body weight and was covered in saltwater sores he was discharged that evening. He spent the next few weeks on the island recovering before hitchhiking on boats around the West Indies.