Survival Stories/events/lessons from history

Cork boy 55

A thread to discuss major or interesting Survival Stories/events/lessons from history that we have heard or read.
Perhaps people can add the most interesting stories that they have heard about to the thread






I will start with the Batavia ship wreak of 1629
Amazing and horrific story

Batavia was a ship of the Dutch East India Company (VOC). It was built in Amsterdam in 1628, and armed with 24 cast-iron cannons and a number of bronze guns. Batavia was shipwrecked on her maiden voyage, and was made famous by the subsequent mutiny and massacre that took place among the survivors. In 1629 the ship Batavia, then on her maiden voyage, sank after running aground on the Houtman Abrolhos Islands some 40 miles off the coast of Western Australia. The events that followed involved the extremes of human behaviour both evil and heroic.

Of the original 341 people on board the Batavia, only 68 made it to the port of Batavia.

http://members.iinet.com.au/~bill/batavia.html


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Batavia_(ship)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6PhCETFVgxs

Stovepipe

The German Pow who trekked 1500 km to friendly lines? the Polish soldiers, freed from Stalin's Gulag, who walked to Iran and ended up at Monte cassino?

regards
Stovepipe

Deerhound

Man walks into Maines forests and is finally found 27 years later.
http://bangordailynews.com/2013/04/10/news/state/its-surreal-hes-surreal-officers-amazed-at-hermit-burglars-ability-to-survive-in-maine-woods-for-27-years/
http://www.kjonline.com/news/North-Pond-Hermit-suspect-in-more-than-1000-burglaries-captured.html
http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/headlines/2013/04/legendary-hermit-burglar-arrested-in-maine-woods/

Tabnabs

Stovepipe wrote: »

The German Pow who trekked 1500 km to friendly lines? the Polish soldiers, freed from Stalin's Gulag, who walked to Iran and ended up at Monte cassino?

regards
Stovepipe

OP has asked for discussion on events, please just don't make out a list.

misses with rifles

In the heart of the sea the true story that moby dick was based on

wolfeye

Came Across this story today.
Not sure if it was mentioned here already ,but it's a good read.

"I am from Bosnia. You know, between 1992 and 1995 it was hell. For one year I lived, and survived, in a city with 6000 people, without water, electricity, gasoline, medical help, civil defense, distribution service, any kind of traditional service or centralized rule."

http://sovietoutpost.revdisk.org/?p=72

silentrust

wolfeye wrote: »

Came Across this story today.
Not sure if it was mentioned here already ,but it's a good read.

"I am from Bosnia. You know, between 1992 and 1995 it was hell. For one year I lived, and survived, in a city with 6000 people, without water, electricity, gasoline, medical help, civil defense, distribution service, any kind of traditional service or centralized rule."

http://sovietoutpost.revdisk.org/?p=72

Just wanted to thank you for this Wolfeye, I read it yesterday and it's an absolutely fascinating story.

Despite my distaste for survivalists banging on about firearms he seems to deal with the issue pragmatically as he was living in a warzone at the time and robbery and murder was common.

What surprised me was the fact that gold (and to a lesser extent money) was still used as a medium of exchange, although at nothing approaching market rates. He mentions his family burned through their gold jewellery in the first month or so trading for food, fuel and ammo.

I imagine this had something to do with the fact that although the city was in lockdown, the residents believed the situation wasn't permanent and money/gold retained its value on the outside.

Also very much enjoyed his quick thinking in trading minute amounts from a cannister of propane he owned to fuel lighters for people rather than use it himself.

Perhaps the most important advice he gives is that if something happens again, although he'll be better prepared, he's going to try to act & look just as pathetically as everyone else so he won't be targeted by thieves.

Amen.

Khannie

That is a cool story alright. I have a refillable gas lighter at home and a tin of gas to refill it and one of those piezo lighting parts. Always knew that would be super handy. Tin of food for a refill though. That's good work.

This is the stand out quote for me:

Surviving on your own is practically impossible (that’s what I think). Even you’re armed and ready – if you’re alone, you’ll die. I have seen that happen many times.

Families and groups, well-prepared, with skills and knowledge in various fields – that’s much better.

Other cheap, useful, non-perishable stuff from that:
Salt. Bin bags. Lighters. Soap (you can get bars of "normal" soap in tescos for around 40c a pop iirc).

Salt in particular though. If it's such a tradeable commodity and so very, very cheap these days.

silentrust

Khannie wrote: »

That is a cool story alright. I have a refillable gas lighter at home and a tin of gas to refill it and one of those piezo lighting parts. Always knew that would be super handy. Tin of food for a refill though. That's good work.

This is the stand out quote for me:



Other cheap, useful, non-perishable stuff from that:
Salt. Bin bags. Lighters. Soap (you can get bars of "normal" soap in tescos for around 40c a pop iirc).

Salt in particular though. If it's such a tradeable commodity and so very, very cheap these days.

Words to live by Khannie!

I'd be interested to hear from you how exactly you refill a lighter from a gas can - presumably you have one of the Zippo style ones?

I seem to remember he said it's a good idea to get a large amount of lighters (around 1,000) for firelighting and trading. I assumed he meant the cheap disposable kind as you can get a pack of 20 for around a Euro as memory serves.

Bin bags of course are not only useful for trash - they can double up as sleeping bags in an emergency if one is placed inside the other and the inner layer is stuffed with newspapers (hint : have someone stand inside the inner bag as you're stuffing the outer one to hold it up, makes life a hell of a lot easier!).

My SO and I like to make our own soap bars so instead of stockpiling bars and bars of it, we have a large tub of Lye, vegetable oil and some bottles of distilled water which can be used to make the same. We're hoping post-apocalypse to capitalise on people's desire to stay clean by trading bars for stuff we can't grow/make ourselves, let's hope we don't have to find out if it'll work.

Salt is a great commodity for trading as you say (or at least will be!) but when I first read about this I wondered how to measure it out for trading purposes.

Do you think it would be a good idea to lay in some of those zip lock see through food bags? I've bought a couple of boxes as well as some old style kitchen scales (thank you eBay) in order to weigh out and trade certain amounts of salt.

Khannie

silentrust wrote: »

I'd be interested to hear from you how exactly you refill a lighter from a gas can - presumably you have one of the Zippo style ones?

No, it's like this one:



and the refilling can looks like this:



Refilling it couldn't be simpler. You just push the aerosol into the bottom of the lighter and hold it for a few seconds. If you could hook it up to one of those flo-gas cylinders (like you use for a bbq or whatever) you'd obviously be able to refill tens of thousands of lighters though. That would be super useful and it's what I thought yer man had done in that article.

The spark generating mechanism in those basically lasts indefinitely, whereas zippos need flints (pain in the arse) and they lose the fuel through evaporation (use it or lose it).

silentrust wrote: »

Bin bags of course are not only useful for trash - they can double up as sleeping bags in an emergency if one is placed inside the other and the inner layer is stuffed with newspapers (hint : have someone stand inside the inner bag as you're stuffing the outer one to hold it up, makes life a hell of a lot easier!).

Nice tip!

silentrust wrote: »

My SO and I like to make our own soap bars so instead of stockpiling bars and bars of it, we have a large tub of Lye, vegetable oil and some bottles of distilled water which can be used to make the same. We're hoping post-apocalypse to capitalise on people's desire to stay clean by trading bars for stuff we can't grow/make ourselves, let's hope we don't have to find out if it'll work.

I did think about that. We have some lye hanging around in the cupboard (and it's handy enough to make if necessary). The oil though....that's a lot of calories. Modern soap can be stockpiled and stored, where oil can't really be kept for that long or it goes rancid.

Hadn't considered a scales. You could probably fashion one handy enough because of the lovely, lovely metric system. (litre of water weighs 1 kilo).

wolfeye

A Father and son who fled their Vietnam village during the war with The U.S.A 40 years ago have been found living in a tree house deep in the jungle.

I find it amazing that people like this are still been discovered.
I wonder how many more are out there.

http://www.independent.ie/world-news/asia-pacific/jungle-men-found-hiding-from-horrors-of-the-vietnam-war-four-decades-after-their-family-were-wiped-out-by-mine-explosion-29488809.html

wolfeye

Just finished reading A Book called "An Unsung Hero:Tom Crean Antarctic Survivor" by Michael smith.




All i can say he was a amazing guy of great physical and mental Strength.
The Hardship this guy and his fellow polar explorers went through was unbelievable.
He's one of our own born in Annascaul Co.Kerry.(1877-1938)
If you get your hands on this book its worth a read.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Unsung-Hero-Crean-Antarctic-Survivor/dp/1905172869/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1378578292&sr=1-1&keywords=tom+crean

http://www.creancentre.com/tom_crean.html

Tabnabs

And if you're anywhere near Dublin check out the exhibition in Dun Laoghaire
http://www.shackletonexhibition.com/

wolfeye

Russian authorities have discovered a young man in the Siberian wilderness who said he had been living in a hut with his parents for the last 16 years, according to local officials.

http://www.independent.ie/world-news/europe/siberian-mowgli-found-after-spending-16-years-living-in-the-wilderness-29576764.html


http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2416920/Siberian-Mowgli-emerges-16-years-living-family-wilderness--parents-mysteriously-vanish.html

wolfeye

Starving children forced to survive on fruit, leaves and nuts.

With the onset of winter, freezing temperatures and storms could bring further misery to traumatised families. Many of those who have fled are living in tents in refugee camps or in abandoned, makeshift buildings, leaving them vulnerable to harsh conditions.

http://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2013/sep/24/syria-crisis-starving-children-eat-leaves

Also a good write up in today's Sunday Times newswpaper about the situation, but the web site is pay to view.
Basically talked about a family living in a town .
War spread to their town.
They had no access to water and could not leave home to buy food because of sniper fire.
Escaped to a village they thought that would be safe ,then that came under attack so they trapped for a month.
They then hid in a large sewer pipe when the shooting/shelling started and survived on cucumbers and tomatoes.
No gas so the mother burned plastic and paper to try and make bread from a little flour.
Another mother in another area ran out of food and feed mouldy bread used as animal feed to her kids.
She just brushed the mould off,put some tomato juice on the bread to try disguise the bad smell and taste.

http://www.thesundaytimes.co.uk/sto/newsreview/features/article1320094.ece


Reading stories like this would make one want to have a year's stockpile of food.
Have plenty of water,plus containers to fill at a moments notice that will last months.
Have multiple ways to purify water.
Have multiple fuel sources for cooking.
Alsp proper clothing to suit the climate in ones b.o.b.

Filibuster

wolfeye wrote: »

Reading stories like this would make one want to have a year's stockpile of food.
Have plenty of water,plus containers to fill at a moments notice that will last months.
Have multiple ways to purify water.
Have multiple fuel sources for cooking.
Alsp proper clothing to suit the climate in ones b.o.b.

Re a Syrian situation, if you had a large quantity of supplies would you not be more of a target for rebels, starving neighbours, govt forces etc. The best course of action would be to have a few €'000 in the bank and to GTFO of the country as soon as possible. Don't take sides in the conflict and watch on from the safety of another country.

ron jambo

Filibuster wrote: »

Re a Syrian situation, if you had a large quantity of supplies would you not be more of a target for rebels, starving neighbours, govt forces etc. The best course of action would be to have a few €'000 in the bank and to GTFO of the country as soon as possible. Don't take sides in the conflict and watch on from the safety of another country.

The ATM and bank not working, come back when (if) we reopen.

Filibuster

ron jambo wrote: »

The ATM and bank not working, come back when (if) we reopen.

Haha point taken

wolfeye

Former bargeman Viktor, 57, decided to lead the life of a hermit a decade ago, and settled in a secluded forest area, south of Russia's Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk. Living in a wooden hut that he built, Viktor survives mainly on fish and any other food he can find

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/photos/life-of-a-siberian-hermit-slideshow/#crsl=%252Fphotos%252Flife-of-a-siberian-hermit-slideshow%252Flife-of-a-siberian-hermit-photo-1382366402422.html



http://uk.reuters.com/news/pictures/slideshow?articleId=UKRTX14GD7#a=1

These hat's will probably be in the shops for the 2013 winter season!.
Fair play to the guy getting out of the Rat race.

I

starskey77

Stovepipe wrote: »

The German Pow who trekked 1500 km to friendly lines? the Polish soldiers, freed from Stalin's Gulag, who walked to Iran and ended up at Monte cassino?

regards
Stovepipe

i remember that one nearly went mad walking in the snow russians kept on after him did he survive the war:o

Tabnabs

Always stay with your vehicle, always...

As details emerge regarding a family’s harrowing experience in the subfreezing wilderness of Nevada’s high desert, one thing appears clear – the decision to stay with their vehicle was likely a lifesaver.



That’s one central conclusion by experts after searchers Tuesday found a couple and four children cold but safe after spending two nights stranded in mountainous terrain near Lovelock where temperatures dropped as low as minus 16.

http://www.rgj.com/article/20131210/NEWS/312100059/Survival-experts-Staying-Jeep-likely-saved-family-s-lives-Northern-Nevada-cold?nclick_check=1

wolfeye

Stranded in Australian floodwaters,diabetc Daniel Didzisz stuffed himself with flies.
Had plenty of insulin as he treked some 50 miles.





http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/lost-german-tourists-survives-outback-eating-flies-article-1.1714568


http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/mar/07/german-tourist-eats-flies-queensland-outback

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/weird-news/stranded-german-tourist-lost-australian-3217775

wolfeye

Found this to be an interesting story.
Ray Mears talks about the Bielski partisans who operated in the forests of Belarus between 1942 and 1944.

wolfeye

The true story of the William Brown, which sank in 1841.
A ship of 559 tonnes, it carried salt, coal and china, along with 65 passengers, mostly Irish and Scottish families, as well as husbands and wives joining spouses who had already made the journey from the old world to the land of opportunity.
Passengers and crew piled into a lifeboat, overloading the unsteady craft
So crew turned on the passengers - and one by one, threw them overboard




http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2595669/Would-YOU-throw-lifeboat-save-A-terrifying-shipwreck-freezing-ocean-savage-battle-survival-A-new-book-poses-ultimate-moral-dilemma.html

wolfeye

Iraqi soldier survives ISIS mass execution by playing dead.

One lucky guy.

http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/world-news/iraqi-soldier-survives-isis-mass-execution-by-playing-dead-for-hours-to-escape-militants-who-massacred-hundreds-30561008.html