Steven Callahan
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Steven Callahan (born in 1952) is an American author, naval architect, inventor, and sailor most notable for having survived for 76 days adrift on the Atlantic Ocean in a survival raft. Callahan recounted his ordeal in the best-selling book "Adrift: 76 days lost at sea", which was on the New York Times best-seller list for more than thirty-six weeks [1]
Callahan departed from El Hierro in the Canary Islands on January 29, 1982, in Napoleon Solo, a sloop he designed and built himself. He was bound for Antigua as part of the Mini Transat 6.50 single-handed sailing race from Penzance, England. Six days out, his vessel was damaged during a night storm and sank. In his book, Callahan writes that he suspects the damage occurred from a collision with a whale. He escaped in a small inflatable life raft.
The raft drifted westward with the South Equatorial Current and the trade winds. After exhausting the meager food supplies he was able to salvage from the sinking sloop, Callahan survived by eating mahi-mahi and triggerfish that he speared, along with flying fish, barnacles, and birds. He collected drinking water from two solar stills and various jury-rigged devices for collecting rainwater.
While adrift, he spotted at least nine ships in the two sea lanes he crossed, but he soon concluded that he could not expect to be rescued.
On the eve of his seventy-sixth day adrift, he spotted the island of Marie Galante, Guadeloupe, and fishermen picked him up just offshore the following morning. During the ordeal, he faced sharks, raft punctures, equipment deterioration, and physical and mental deterioration. He survived the ordeal and continues to enjoy sailing.
A naval architect by training, Callahan holds U.S. patent 6739278 as the inventor of "the Clam", a folding rigid-bottom boat developed on the basis of his survival experience.
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[edit] Notes
- ^ amazon.com "Adrift: Seventy-six Days Lost at Sea"
[edit] References
Callahan, Steven (1986), Adrift: 76 days lost at sea, Houghton Mifflin Company, ISBN 978-1885283160
Ritter, Doug (2001-10-30), “Equipped to Survive Foundation - Board of Directors”, equipped.com, <http://www.equipped.org/etsfi_bod.htm#callahan>. Retrieved on 15 August 2007
Ritter, Doug (2001-11-02), “Equipped to survive - Steven Callahan Bio”, equipped.com, <http://www.equipped.com/callahan_bio.htm>. Retrieved on 15 August 2007
Klein, Allison, “Harrowing Survival Stories”, howstuffworks.com, <http://travel.howstuffworks.com/survival1.htm>. Retrieved on 15 August 2007
Dortier, Jean-Francois, “Survivre seul en mer”, scienceshumaines.com, <http://www.scienceshumaines.com/articleprint2.php?lg=fr&id_article=5599>. Retrieved on 16 August 2007
Guillerm, Luc-Christophe (2005), “Survivre en radeau: le defi psychologique de Steven Callahan”, Bulletin de psychologie 58 (479): 589-598, <http://cat.inist.fr/?aModele=afficheN&cpsidt=17232418>
Oaks, Tammy (2002-04-22), “Sinking survivor designs life raft”, cnn.com, <http://edition.cnn.com/2002/WORLD/sailing/04/22/clam.ppl/index.html>
Harkavy, Jerry, “'Adrift' author: Dinghy would have eased ordeal”, Burlington Free Press, <http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/specialnews/outdoor/0502092045.shtml>
“Folding hard-bottom inflatable dinghy/lifeboat”, Wooden Boat Forum, <http://www.woodenboatvb.com/vbulletin/upload/showthread.php?t=14210>
Worst nightmare travels, 2007-02-26, <http://crazylinkz.blogspot.com/2007/02/worst-nightmare-travels.html>. Retrieved on 15 August 2007
US Patent 6739278 - Folding rigid-bottom boat, 2004-05-25, <http://www.patentstorm.us/patents/6739278.html>. Retrieved on 15 August 2007
US Patent 6684808 - Boat stability and directional-control device, 2004-02-03, <http://www.patentstorm.us/patents/6684808.html>. Retrieved on 16 August 2007
“Listing of available speakers”, Cruising World, 2003-12-22, <http://cruisingworld.com/article.jsp?ID=9459&typeID=398&catID=577>. Retrieved on 15 August 2007
“Steven Callahan”, houghtonmifflinbooks.com, <http://www.houghtonmifflinbooks.com/catalog/authordetail.cfm?authorID=2552>. Retrieved on 15 August 2007
[edit] Books by Steven Callahan
Callahan, Steven (1986), Adrift: 76 days lost at sea, Houghton Mifflin Company, ISBN 978-1885283160
Callahan, Steven (1987), Im Atlantik verschollen. Der 76tägige Überlebenskampf eines schiffbrüchigen Segler, Schweizer Vlgshs., Zürich, ISBN 978-3726364809
Nalepka, James & Callahan, Steven (1992), Capsized: The true story of four men adrift for 119 days, Harpercollins, ISBN 978-0060179618
Nalepka, James & Callahan, Steven (1993), Gekentert. 119 Tage im Pazifik verschollen., Schweizer Vlgshs., Zürich, ISBN 978-3726366698
Howorth, Francis & Howort, Michael (Foreword by Steven Callahan), The Sea Survival Manual, Sheridan House
[edit] Articles by Steven Callahan
Callahan, Steven, “The Life Raft: Don't Leave Your Ship Without It”, equipped.com (originally published in Ocean Navigator magazine), <http://www.equipped.com/callahan_life_raft1.htm>. Retrieved on 15 August 2007
Callahan, Steven (December 1995), “The Proactive Emergency Craft”, Cruising World
Callahan, Steven (1987-02-01), “A Sea So Great, A Raft So Small”, The New York Times, <http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B0DE5DF1631F932A35751C0A961948260>. Retrieved on 16 August 2007
Callahan, Steven (2002-07-01), “Reflections at the Water's Edge”, Cruising World, <http://cruisingworld.com/article.jsp?ID=200950&typeID=419&catID=0>. Retrieved on 16 August 2007
Callahan, Steven (1997-04-01), “Catamaran Overview: Catapulting to the Future”, Cruising World, <http://cruisingworld.com/article.jsp?ID=201081&typeID=397&catID=571>. Retrieved on 16 August 2007
[edit] See also
- Dougal Robertson, survived 38 days adrift in the Pacific.
- Maurice and Maralyn Bailey, survived 117 days adrift in the Pacific.
- Rose Noelle, trimaran on which 4 people survived 119 days adrift in the South Pacific.
