Thursday, January 6, 2011

Survival Memoirs


On the Edge of Survival: A Shipwreck, a Raging Storm, and the Harrowing Alaskan Rescue that became a Legend / by Spike Walker
In the rough Alaskan seas off the coast of the Aleutian Islands, a Malaysian cargo ship ran aground during a particularly brutal storm. Upon lifting the last 7 crewmen from the sinking ship, the rescue helicopter was hit by a massive wave, plunging the crewmen, the USCG rescue team and the remains of the vessel into the below freezing waters. All would undergo one of the most death defying feats of survival before all was said and done. (910.916434 WALKER)
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Island of the Lost: Shipwrecked at the Edge of the World / by Joan Druett
In 1864, Captain Thomas Musgrave and his crew of four were aboard the HMS Grafton when it shipwrecked on Auckland Island, a barren, desolate slit of uninhabitable land just south of New Zealand. With little means to relay an SOS and limited provisions, Capt. Musgrave and the crew built a cabin, forged for food and sustenance and survived the overbearing tropical elements as best they could until hope arrived in a most remarkable way. (919.399 DRUETT)
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Lost in the Amazon / by Stephen Kirkpatrick as told by Marlo Carter Kirkpatrick
In 1995, scientist Stephen Kirkpatrick and a five-man expedition set off into the remote jungles of the Peruvian Amazon to document an area of  uninhabited rainforest. Within hours of their departure, the team became hopelessly lost amid the dense jungle. For a period of several weeks, they endured everything the harsh environment threw at them in an attempt to find their way back to civilization, learning as they went that survival is not just physical, but a mental and spiritual challenge as well. (918.5 KIRKPATR)
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Miracle in the Andes: 72 Days On The Mountain and My Long Trek Home / by Nando Parrado
This personalized memoir over 30 years after the fact chronicles the legendary 1972 plane crash of a Uruguayan Rugby team in the Peruvian Andes. Their's was a truely harrowing and (literally) gut-wrenching tale of survival. Stranded for nearly two and a half months on the western slope of a snowcapped mountain peak, those that survived the crash were forced to turn to the most savage means in order to last out the terrifying ordeal before a rescue effort finally found them. (982.6 PARRADO)

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