I often cite Callahan when I teach the importance of leadership in a survival situation. Callahan’s autobiographical account of the story, Adrift, is a gut-wrenching book that clearly details the extreme mental toughness required to survive at sea. Naked except for a t-shirt, with only three pounds of food, a few pieces of gear and eight pints of water, Callahan drifted for 76 days, and over 1,800 miles of ocean, before he reached land and rescue in the Bahamas. On February 5, the ship sank in a storm, leaving Callahan adrift in the Atlantic in a five-and-a-half-foot inflatable rubber raft. Toughest Battle with Dehydration On the night of January 29, 1982, Steven Callahan set sail alone in his small sailboat from the Canary Islands bound for the Caribbean. On July 2, 1945, after having spent forty-two days in the jungle and being nursed back to health by friendly natives, the three survivors and their rescue team escaped the island. The natives were known cannibals, but luckily for the crash survivors, they mainly ate their enemy tribe. They soon found themselves in the middle of a modern Stone Age culture still untouched by the outside world. John McCollom was relatively unharmed, but WAC Cpl. The plane carried 24 officers and enlisted women. Army Air Force C-47 nicknamed the “Gremlin Special” crashed into a mountainside in what was then Dutch New Guinea. Unlikely Rescuers On May 13, 1945, a U.S. Photo: USCGLantareapa The Gremlin Special Passengers Make sure to add any I missed in the comments section.

Here’s my rundown of the 25 most amazing. But some of these stories, and the people who lived to tell them, stand out among the crowd. Throughout history there have been plenty of beat-the-odds survival stories that demonstrate the tenacity it takes to stay alive under the absolute worst circumstances.

Steve callahan survival story