Odyssey of Redemption and Transformation

According to surveys, being stranded at sea is a top fear for many people along with public speaking, venomous snakes, and gas station bathrooms. 

If you're looking for a gripping read that concerns the first scenario, I highly recommend 438 Days: An Extraordinary True Story of Survival at Sea by Jonathan Franklin.

Called the “best survival book in a decade” by Outside magazine, 438 Days was researched and written by a journalist who wanted to confirm if the incredible story being circulated in various media was in fact true.

For fisherman José Salvador Alvarenga, land was full of trouble, especially in his hometown in El Salvador, where he was almost killed in a vicious bar fight. He left El Salvador to escape the men who wanted to finish the job and what he called "pueblo chico, inferno grande" (small town, big hell.) He eventually ended up in the remote Mexican village of Costa Azul on the Pacific coast where he soon got work, endeared himself to the local fishing community, and fell into a familiar pattern of work hard, play hard.

Alvarenga was an experienced deep sea fishermen who regularly traveled far offshore where there was more fish. He frequently returned with a large catch, which he would cash in and use most of the money to party and entertain friends. When the money ran out, he went back out to sea for another big haul, repeating the cycle. The years passed in this fashion. In all this time, he did not talk to or see his daughter, who was just one year old when he left El Salvador.

Massive storms often hit the area where he fished. Deep sea fishermen prided themselves in their bravery and thought nothing of heading out to sea in rough conditions. Unfortunately, on November 17, 2012, when Alvarenga went out to sea with crewmate Ezequiel Córdoba, a compounding series of mishaps put them into deep trouble. 

Alvarenga and Córdoba experienced engine trouble, eventually losing the engine altogether. They managed to get a distress message out before the radio ran out of battery power, but the storm only worsened, hampering search and rescue efforts. By the time the storm cleared, the boat had drifted so far out to sea, search and rescue crews presumed them to be sunk in the storm. Days turned to weeks. The dismal reality set in. They were now aimlessly moving with the prevailing currents away from Mexico and towards the Doldrums dreaded by old-time sailors. 

As a seasoned sailor, Alvarenga came up with ingenuous solutions to deal with the dire circumstances. They were in a small open craft measuring 25 feet in length with no cabin or hardtop to shield themselves from the elements. On deck was a refrigerator-sized ice chest, which he flipped over and turned into a shelter to protect against the harsh midday sun and for warmth on cold nights. It was cramped, but at least afforded some relief. 

Alvarenga had no problems catching sea turtles, fish, and sea birds which out in the open ocean were attracted to anything that was floating. There were also the occasional flying fish that accidentally landed in their boat. Alvarenga also devised a system of collecting barnacles and algae, whatever happened to grow and collect on the bottom of the boat, when it was slim pickings for fish and birds. 

A long fishing line with empty plastic bleach bottles attached at intervals as buoys was secured to the stern and let out like a long tail, providing drag and stability in less than calm seas. The occasional storms at sea were frightening, but they were assured fresh water, which was collected in whatever containers they had handy. There was also plenty of random refuse in the ocean, which they were sometimes able to salvage. 

Alvarenga's crewmate, Ezequiel Córdoba, was in this early twenties, an inexperienced sailor who had never been in open water beyond fishing in a sheltered lagoon. Out at sea, far from any shore, Córdoba was completely disoriented, often panicked. Given his poor mental state, which is a strong determining factor on whether someone survives challenging situations, his prognosis was not good. As the days and weeks dragged on and turned into months, he grew more despondent.

To make matters worse, Córdoba became very ill after eating the flesh of a bird caught by Alvarenga. They dissected it and found in its intestines a poisonous sea snake. After this, Córdoba lost all appetite and the will to live and refused to eat anything, even though Alvarenga pleaded with him to do so for fear of losing his only companion. Four months into their journey, Córdoba starved to death.

Shaken, grief-stricken, Alvarenga talked to his dead friend as if still alive, much like the lead character in the movie Castaway talked to his volleyball "friend" Wilson, before finally having to put the corpse overboard.

The drifting continued. Alvarenga told time by looking at the sky, and could count the days and months that passed by keeping track of the moon phases. The moon became his calendar, harking back to a time when ancients did this.

In his lonely days floating adrift in the vast ocean, he thought of his deceased friend often, along with his daughter that he hadn’t seen in years. More and more, he thought of the lost years and longed to be reunited with his daughter. Little did he realize that his daughter had been praying for years to be reunited with her father. 

After many more weeks of drifting with the currents and wind, he saw that his boat was moving towards a tiny island. He feared he was hallucinating, but the island kept getting larger as his boat got closer. This was Tile Islet, a part of Ebon Atoll, in a far corner of the Marshall Islands. The boat continued to drift closer and closer. He surveyed the island for dangerous reefs and rocks and realized he could make it to the beach. With a long beard and matted hair, he managed to jump overboard ten yards from the beach in waist-high water. Safely making it ashore, he collapsed into sleep.

Upon waking, he explored his surroundings. On a nearby island separated by a shallow channel, he saw a shack. He yelled for help. A couple who lived in the shack heard him and saw him. Soon the world learned of Alvarenga and his incredible odyssey.

438 Days impressed me on more than one level. This book was an amazing survival tale and also a story of transformation and faith. 

Alvarenga departed the fishing village a hard-headed and hard-partying nonbeliever who had never set foot in a church. Mysteriously, as the secular journalist-author stated towards the close of the book, "During his ordeal, Alvarenga's religious convictions were sparked by his more religious crewmate, Ezequiel Córdoba, and then internalized. After the death of his companion, Alvarenga felt accompanied by a faith he couldn't define but rarely questioned."

Córdoba was devout in a way Alvarenga surely was not, regularly reciting hymns and prayers. Alvarenga, for much of his time with Córdoba, remained a skeptic. One would think that watching his more devout companion fall apart and die before his eyes, his body turning into a dark purple corpse which he had to toss overboard, would deepen Alvarenga's cynicism and unbelief, but no such thing occurred. Instead, he underwent a transformation.

One of Christ's primary, central teachings is the concept of dying to self and selfishness, what is termed "dying to the flesh" or the “death of the old man”, meaning the death of the old carnal, selfish way of life. Through his ordeal, Alvarenga certainly died to his old self.

When reuniting with his daughter, Alvarenga was speechless and afraid, frightened that she would not welcome him or be receptive to his desire for reconciliation. But his family was more than thrilled and relieved. His mother and daughter never gave up hope and prayed earnestly for his return. His mother was praying just as fervently as his daughter. Like the return of the prodigal son, his restoration to his family was full of tears, gratitude, and lacked any bitterness. They were more than relieved that he returned relatively unharmed. He had some health issues, but was able to slowly recover. After years spent in wild and raucous living, Alvarenga gave up his partying lifestyle, died to his old self and life, and gratefully embraced becoming a father.

Córdoba's tragic death reminded me of John 15:13, "Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends." Although in an unintentional way, Córdoba gave up his life for his friend. In his going out to sea with Alvarenga, Alvarenga absorbed his faith. Córdoba lost his life out at sea, but Alvarenga gained a new one. Córdoba, in a sense, died a sacrificial death like Christ, and his sacrificial death at sea became the seed from which sprung new life, forgiveness, redemption, and restoration. 

Alvarenga and Córdoba were simple, uneducated men with humble, salt-of-the-earth professions and backgrounds. The first disciples Jesus chose—Peter, Andrew, James, and John—were all fishermen. Fishermen have courage, patience, endurance, teamwork, and fishing in itself is an act of faith.

Jesus nicknamed the brothers James and John, "Boanergés", meaning "sons of thunder." Boanergés is an Aramaic term transliterated from two Semitic roots: bēn ("sons") and regesh ("of thunder, tumult"). Occasionally, it is also translated as "sons of anger" or "sons of loud shouts." The nickname "sons of thunder" gives a picture of wildness, noisiness, rowdiness, boisterous behavior, not unlike Alvarenga and his partying fishermen friends in Costa Azul.

The faith that Alvarenga developed through his ordeal had a simple, childlike quality—a humble, visceral, grounded state of being that non-believing intellectuals often can't grasp because it is not something confined to the mind. Because they can't grasp it, they tend to ignore it or explain it away.

In 438 Days, the faith aspects of Alvarenga's story are mentioned because they are a part of Alvarenga's retelling of events, but as can be expected of a book written by a secular author, they are mostly glossed over. 

In an attempt to be journalistically respectable and hard-headed, the author includes the opinions of secular "expert" psychologists. From the comfort and safety of an armchair, they patronizingly offer explanations as to why faith and prayer are often cited in positive survival outcomes. As a former sailor, I had a good chuckle at their babble.

Alvarenga and his daughter on a beach in El Salvador.
(Photo: Oscar Machón)

(Posted 8/21/24)