05/02/19: Maurice and Maralyn Bailey – 117 Days Adrift (1974)

M and M hit a sperm whale and their boat sinks off the Galápagos Islands. They drift for nearly four months in their raft and dinghy, surviving on turtle meat and raw fish.

This book lacks the lucid poetry and existential insights of Steven Callahan’s Adrift: Seventy-Six Days Lost at Sea (1986). However, it does have a special charm of its own. Alternating between narrations of husband and wife, the presence of not just a second person but a spouse gives their account a special “domestic” dynamic. They keep each other going, whether it’s mutual support in killing sea creatures or – in the early days of the ordeal – reading out loud to each other and improvising games of dominoes and cards with paper to pass the time (“We spent many hours during the next few weeks playing whist”).

The rather matter-of-fact way its written means that the book is surprisingly low on drama. Some important details are almost glossed over: toilet arrangements are not mentioned until page 95.

“In some weird and detached way we found peace in our complete and compulsory isolation. We talked without the encumbrances of modern living; we explored the hidden depths of each other’s character, we threw away the trappings of so called civilization and reverted to a simple prehistoric way of life. We had our ‘lair’, the raft, and only emerged to hunt our food. Life was simple, but not secure.”

While they revert to a primitive state, it’s remarkable that there seems to have been very little tension between the couple: “We were now existing at a primeval level where the layers of civilization had been stripped away from us. We found our bodily functions unembarrassing and it was surprisingly easy to stay clean. We would wash in sea water, clean our teeth and comb our hair, and in my case, my beard. It was usually far too cold to sit out in the rain and we did not often take advantage of the frequent downpours for bathing.

They lose weight and suffer medical problems, but manage to fish and collect rainwater at such a rate that they mostly avoid serious physical and mental harm. They are eventually saved by a Korean fishing boat – the eighth ship they saw.

Appendices include thoughts on the design of the raft and dinghy, medical evaluation of the couple by Surgeon Captain John Duncan Walters and a list of all the boats that didn’t stop to save them.