I'm going to tell a story that you may not know, but that will impress you very much.
The protagonist of the story is called Penlin.
Penlin
He had earlier worked as a flight attendant on a British ship, but was so discriminated against that he resigned in a fit of rage, vowing never to work on the ship again. He finished college and became an engineer.
He was then lured back to work on the ship by a relative who assured him that he would be treated better and paid more.
So he boarded the SS Benlomond and began his journey from Suriname to New York City as a flight attendant.
Unfortunately, it was 1942, during World War II, when the British merchant ship was detected, tracked by a German U-boat, and then blown up by a German torpedo and sunk to the bottom of the sea.
Everyone on board disappeared into the ocean, or drowned, or blown up, or otherwise died.
Except for 1 man, Penlin, he couldn't even swim.
As the ship sank to the bottom of the sea, Penlin managed to catch the wreckage floating on the surface. He then struggled to climb an 8-foot by 8-foot plank and collect supplies nearby, including:
A pot of 4 liters of water;
Some chocolate;
A small bag of sugar;
Some flares;
Two cigarette bottles;
a flashlight;
There are also some smaller miscellaneous supplies.
For the days that followed, he remained on the raft and soon ran out of supplies. He built a canopy out of tarpaulin, and then when it rained, he used the tarpaulin to collect water into his kettle.
After being discovered, Pan Lin took a photo with the raft
He took the flashlight apart and made a fishing line out of wires, ropes and nails. Transform an old empty metal can into a knife to cut the fish.
What's more troublesome is that because he doesn't know how to swim, he spends most of his day strapped himself to a plank.
After a long period of no rain and he was in danger of dying, he managed to kill the birds that had fallen on the planks and replenish their water with their blood.
He then used the bird's offal as bait and caught a small shark, providing him with water (shark blood) and nutrition. He dried his fins to preserve food for later generations.
Over the next few weeks, he continued to collect rainwater, using makeshift fishing tools, and collecting as much food as possible.
He survived at sea for a record 133 days before being finally found.
If you're stuck on a life raft today (January 4th), you'll have to live until May 18 to break his record, which is no small achievement.
Penlin later obtained a special immigrant pass, came to live in the United States, and spent a wonderful life in New York City.