by Joseph Broadworth

Created on: April 01, 2009

Since I was a small chap I have always had a keen interest in stories of human survival in challenging environments and with major privation. I'm not talking about survival as a species, or survival of humanity. Assorted doomsday quacks and militant environmental scare-mongers have been doing that for quite some time. Let me just say on the record that the world is not going to end anytime soon - not by global warming, not by catastrophe in 2012, and not by nuclear war. I'm speaking more of survival on an individual basis. As I read into various tales, I found that there was simply no one deciding factor in the personality or physiology of a survivor. The strongest do not always live, the weakest do not always die. However, in certain stories there seems to be an inner strength of spirit, will, and determination that could have made a difference.

In the early 19th century a large whaleship named the 'Essex' sailed out of Nantucket to hunt for whales in the south Pacific. In the middle of the ocean the ship was repeatedly rammed by a large bull sperm whale. As the crew stared in disbelief the vessel started to founder. The crew scrambled into three small whaleboats (these are smaller craft designed to chase down whales), recovering some food and water and navigation equipment. There they were in three small boats floating in the middle of the south Pacific. They decided to go southward hoping to come across other whalers or, failing that, to reach one of the myriad of islands to the south. The boats try to keep together but eventually separated. As the crew died one by one the remaining survivors made the decision to eat them to live. Months later two of the three boats and five survivors were found off the coast of Chile. The remaining boat was found a few years later, washed up on a small island with three skeletons on board. Back in the U.S. a young shipmate named Herman Melville was captivated by this story of survival. He would go on to write one of the greatest American novels, Moby Dick, about a large sperm whale who sinks a ship. The men battled starvation, dehydration, exposure, and a whole host of mental trials. It would have been impossible to say who was going to live and who was not.

In the early 20th century an Australian explorer named Douglas Mawson and two companions set out to cross Antarctica on foot. Along their journey one of the men fell into a crevasse (ice canyon) along with most of the dogs and supplies and was lost. Mawson and his remaining

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