Listen free for 30 days
-
438 Days
- An Extraordinary True Story of Survival at Sea
- Narrated by: George Newbern
- Length: 7 hrs and 7 mins
Add to basket failed.
Add to wishlist failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Buy Now for £12.99
No valid payment method on file.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
Summary
The incredible true survival story of one man's record-breaking fourteen months lost at sea.
On 17th November, 2012, Salvador Alvarenga left the coast of Mexico for a two-day fishing trip. A vicious storm killed his engine and the current dragged his boat out to sea. The storm picked up and carried him West, deeper into the heart of the Pacific Ocean. Alvarenga would not touch solid ground again for fourteen months. When he was washed ashore on January 30th, 2014, he had drifted over 9,000 miles.
Three dozen cruise ships and container vessels passed nearby. Not one stopped for the stranded fisherman. He considered suicide on multiple occasions – including offering himself up to a pack of circling sharks. But Alvarenga developed a method of survival that kept his body and mind intact long enough for the Pacific Ocean to spit him up onto a remote palm-studded island. Crawling ashore, he was saved by a local couple living in their own private castaway paradise.
Based on dozens of hours of interviews with Alvarenga and his colleagues, search and rescue officials, the medical team that saved his life and the remote islanders who nursed him back to normality, 438 Days by Jonathan Franklin is an epic tale of survival and one man's incredible story of beating the ultimate odds.
More from the same
Author
What listeners say about 438 Days
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- A. J. Lenehan
- 31-01-23
A great story spoiled a bit by lacklustre reading
The underlying story is extraordinary, but the writing of it is just ok, and the reading of it I thought was poor. Mispronounced words, emotionless, you had no sense of investment by the reader in the drama of the tale. Still worth a listen for the story itself though.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- lwin87
- 23-01-23
Interesting insight into the human ability to survive
A really interesting book, well told and frankly shocking at times. It’s a really in-depth tale of human survival.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- C. P. Chan
- 25-01-23
Inspiring
The fact that he survived against all odds when he shouldn’t have, in a boat with no shelter, sail or cabin. Not much tools or fishing line and still managed to hit the Ebon atoll in the middle of the sea, makes your life problems seems so small in comparison. He never gave up the will to live and he survived