Welcome to 5 incredible stories of human survival, these individuals have pushed the bounderys
far beyond human expectations and lived to tell the tale.
Let’s begin with the aweseome steve callaham, in 1982 steve took part in a transatlantic
race which started in England and ended in Antigua, unfortunately steves boat became
mercy to the giant waves and he was out of the race.
He fixed up his 20ft homemade boat and decided to complete the race off his own back.
On the 29th of januray 1982 Steve set out from the canary island . destination the Caribbean.
For the first week the sea was calm with steady wind, food supplies where good and he was
enjoying his solitude surrounded by ocean.
after a week of ideal conditions the weather took a turn, the wind picked up and a storm
was brewing.
Steve decided to sit it out till morning when suddenly a massive ear shattering noise ripped
trough the boat, Steve to this day does not know what it was but believes it must have
been a whale.
The boat began to fill with water and was going down Steve had to evacuate or he would
be pulled into the depths of the ocean. he managed to inflate and board the emergency
raft but all his food supplies where still on the sinking boat, his survival instinct
kicked in and he re boarded the sinking boat to retrieve his supplies, all he managed to
collect was a cabbage, a box of eggs and a tin of peanuts.
Barely a days supply.
As morning grew steve was lost, alone and had no way of getting help he wrapped him
self in his drenched sleeping bag causing his sore salty skin to erupt with boils his
back, knees and bum where also covered with cuts and bruises.
He had 8 pints of water that was in the emergency raft and rationed himself to a mouthful every
six hours.
Days pasts and water supplies where low, steve manages to make shift a solar still that produced
a small amout of fresh water but food was non existant apart from a few fish he managed
to catch, after 2 weeks adrift he spotted a boat.
After firing several flares he watched the boat disappear into the distance.
Forty days in the raft became a battle in istslef , constant punchers kept Steve exhausted,
he has no meat on his body and his cuts where infected and reaching his nerve endings, sending
horrific pains all over his body, seventy six days in his body and mind was shutting
down, but he had been trowing inedible fish guts overboard and a crowd of birds where
following him, miracualously a group of fisherman saw the birds from a distance and thinking
there must be fish nearby sety out to see what was going on, they found steve.
After seventy six days at sea he had lost over a third of his bodyweight and it would
take him six weeks before he could walk again but steve callum was finally safe.
Joe simpson - in 1985 joe simpson and simon yates successfully climbed the siula grande
a 20,000 foot mountain in the andes of peru.
There acsent was a great success, completed the mountain on time the weather conditions
where looking good but this story of survival is during their decent, they were both exhausted
and decided to rest up for the night and continue the following morning.
As morning rose things where already looking bad, simons fingers had turned black from
frostbite and there supplies had been used up.
They where both roped toeach other and began climbing down a sheer section of ice, suddenly
joe slipped and was freefalling, he smashed into the base of a cliff and his tibia has
drove itself into his right knee joint.
somehow simon manageddrive his ice axe into the mountain and prevent them both falling.
They where now 19,000 feet up, and could not see eachother at eather ends of the rope.
Simon and joe both new they would not get down together.
Joe new simon needed to cut the rope and save himself, but he didn’t he began lowering
joe down the mountain. he would decent a small distance and then lower joe down refusing
to leave him behind.
sudden joe began sliding down the mountain fast, he shouted up to simon but he his words
went unheared. he was now free falling in the air and came to halt, joe was now dangling
15ft below the lip of a cliff with over a 100 foot of darkes below him.
Simon was hanging on with the full weight of joe below him.
Simon used his pen knife to cut the rope, he new they would both die if they stayed
there.
Joe was now falling into the dark hole, he hit the ground and realised he wasn’t dead,
but was slidding into an ice glacier he came to a stop.
He had no food, no way of letting simon know he was alive and had a completel shatterd
right leg.
He new the only way out was if he slid further into the glacier hoping to find an exit at
the bottom of the mountain, joe promised himself there and then he was going to get out alive
and kept crawling toward some light he could see in the distance.
Finnaly he reached it and was amazingly at the bottom of the mountain.
He could see foot prints in the snow which he new where simons.
He crawled and crawled for hours flowing simons foot steps.
Back at base camp simon was in his tent when he heared howling outside, he went out to
have a look and could see joe crawling toward him.
that feeling must have been absolutely incredible!
They both retuned home and recovered knowing that if simon haddent of cut the rope they
both would have died there.
In the early morning of May 26, 2013, Okene had just gotten up and was in the bathroom.
Suddenly, his ship was hit by what a spokesman later called a "sudden ocean swell
Okene could only watch helplessly as his daily life turned upside down.
The tugboat capsized and plummeted 100 feet below the surface, with him still inside.
Trapped in the dark abyss with no one else in sight and wearing nothing but his boxers,
Okene waded through the ship's corridors (which were slowly filling with icy water).
He managed to locate a source of light, some Coca-Cola, and a few tools, and he made it
to a relatively safe corner of the ship.
Okene ended up bunking in a 4-foot air pocket under the surface, holding back the water
as best he could and stacking mattresses as the cold water rose to keep dry.
To make things worse, sharks and barracudas soon started roaming the ship's interiors.
He could hear them fighting for the remains of his shipmates in other rooms and swimming
in the water just below him.
He had no food.
The salt water and the bumps from the accident were wearing his skin raw.
There was far too little air for him to breathe, but miraculously the lethally cold water aided
Okene by absorbing the deadly carbon dioxide he was breathing out, so the CO2 levels never
built up to toxic levels.
When a recovery team was sent down they expacted no survivours and Okene gave a diver the shock
of a lifetime as The second he heard human sounds, he announced his presence by pounding
the wall with a hammer.
The divers fled and returned with backup and After almost three days of desperately hoping,
praying and reminiscing about family and friends, Okene was finally brought to the surface in
a decompression chamber by the salvage divers.
He had no idea, however, how much time had passed.
Aron Ralston – in 2003 28 year old aron Ralston was cycling trought a natitanl park
in Utah, he leaves his bike and beings to hike the rest of his journey.
Coming to to 65 foot drop he decides to rappel down as he has come prepaired with all his
climbing gear.
During rappel he he reaches a ledge that has a large boulder below it, just 9 feet from
the canion floor, aron knows he can reache the boulder then drop down onto the floor.
He lowers himself onto the boulder and carefully grabs hold of the boulder to lower himself
down, suddenly the boulder shifts he immediate falls and raises his right arm in an attempt
to protect his head, he comes to a halt.
Utter silence fills the canyon and he feels a deep burning in his right arm.
The boulder which he was standing on is now pinning his arm again the canion face.
The pain hits him like a lightning bolt but he knows he needs to act fast whilst he is
filled with adrenaline, he tried pulling his arm out with his left arm but it is stuck,
he only has one litre of water left and consumes a third of it in one go, luckily his arm is
not bleeding, he uses the file on his pen knife to try chip away at the rock but to
no success, as night falls and the temperature drops, three days in he knows he will have
to ampute his arm in order to survive, he drives his pen knife into his forearm, but
cant cut the bone, he gives up and except the facts that he is going to die.
He begins to hallucinate, he carves 30th of april into the rock as he does not expact
to last another day, on day six aronsaid he had an ephihany, he has the idea that if he
can out enough tension on the bone he could snap it in two then all he would need to do
is cut the remain flesh, he yanks his right arm and hears a crack echo trough the canyon,
for the next twenty minutes aron cuts trought his skin and tendons using a blunt pen knife,
he comes to the nerves, he knows this is going to get painfull as just touching it with his
penknife causes immense pain, he grits it and cuts trough the nerves.
Hes free.
He somehow begins staggering across the desert when he is spotted by a family, a helicopter
finally arrives and after 127 hours since the accident aron is safe.
Marcus luttrell – in the summer of 2005 navy seal Marucs luttrell and his 3 companion
axe, mike and danny where dropped into the hindu kush central afganistan, there duty
was to carry out survallance on a group of buildings used by the local Taliban commander.
During there ascent up a mountain they stumbled across a small group of afghan goat herders,
not knowing if they are local civilians or talliban they decide to let them go, this
was the mistake that changed there lives forever.
They where Taliban and quickly reported the seals to other Taliban members.
A few hours later the team entered an area that had high ground on three sides, a perfect
location for the talliban to attack, monents later some 100 Taliban fighters where aiming
down at the team armed with machine guns, assault rifles, rpgs and mortars.
All havoc began taking place, it was 100 vs 4 and there was a sheer drop behind the team,
they had no choice but to take the fall, they all hit the ground hard, one soldier danny
was shot twice, he continued to fight but was shot a third time in the troat and then
the face, 4 had become 3, thousands of bullets rained down on them, mike took a shot in the
chest and axe in the head but they continued to fight.
Mike murphy new in order to call for back up he needed to go out into the open in order
to get a signal, it was a suicide mission. he ran out into open ground and called for
backup he managed to call them but was shot dead moments later, axe was now dying fast
and after there two hour fire fight Marcus was on his own.
Axes last words to him where stay alive and that’s exactly what he would do.
An rpg came crashing down on Marcus, he was knocked unconscious and blasted over the edge
of a ravine, he awoke upside down with a broken nose, shoulder and back.
An American army chinooke helicopter flew overhead, this was Marcus ticket out of here
but the helicopter was shot down by the Taliban killing all members on board.
Marcus was completely alone with no sign of backup.
Marucs was a mess, he could barely even craw and the Taliban where hunting him, he was
so thirsty that his tounge had stuck to the roof of his mouth, a shot rang out, Marcus
was shot in the leg by a Taliban sniper, the force knocked him back down the mountain which
he had been crawling up the past few hours, three talliban solders caught up with him
and he managed to shoot the one and trow a granadeg at the other two, he continued to
crawl for hours when and could see three afghan men looking down at him, he was prepared for
his final stand, but these where not Taliban they were local civilians who helped Marcus.
Against all the odds he decided to trust them, he was carried to the local village where
the civilians had no time for the Taliban, there was an American base camp 40 miles away
but Marcus new he couldn’t make it there, amazingly one of the locals volunteered to
make the journey and alerted the American troops of Marcus whereabouts.
Marcus was rescued and returned home a hero.
If it wasn’t for the kindness of those civilians and the heroic bravery of his team Marcus
would have surely died that day.
That’s it for five incredible surviaal stories and my heart goes out to all of these heros
who have proven that anything is possible.
Thanks for watching