The guy was sued for $1 million (£775,000) barely three years after being rescued from the ocean, after being abandoned for 438 days.
After setting out on a two-day fishing expedition in 2012, José Salvador Alvarenga spent more than a year below in the Pacific Ocean in a little boat.
Ezequiel Córdoba, a 22-year-old fisherman, and Alvarenga, a Mexican fisherman, arranged the voyage.
Even though the men’s vacation was going swimmingly at first, they opted to stay fishing even while a storm was brewing. It was a choice they later came to deeply regret.
The storm engulfed the soldiers and persisted for a whole week without abating. The fisherman lost even more momentum when their engine died mid-ocean,
despite the fact that they had already abandoned much of their gear to make the boat more maneuverable.
The high winds continued to force them further into the Pacific, even though they were just fifteen miles from the shore.
Unfortunately, their radio went dead just as their boss was about to come to their aid, so they were unable to relay the situation to him.
The guys were completely stuck as the boat drifted further and farther from the beach.
After ten weeks of subsisting on turtles, bird blood, and fish, Córdoba became ill and passed away aboard the boat, leaving Alvarenga to fend for herself.
Upon experiencing hallucinations in which he conversed with his deceased companion laying in the boat, Alvarenga made the difficult decision to release him.
For a whole year, the fisherman persisted on his own, trying in vain to signal passing ships. But then he stumbled into Ebon Atoll, a little island around 6,000 miles from Mexico.
A local couple lived in a beach home, and Alvarenga swam up to them to ask for assistance. Alvarenga wrote a book about his experiences after the heroic rescue effort.
In order to stay alive, Alvarenga (in the center) had to eat blood from turtles, fish, and birds. Alvarenga (center), whose name is José Salvador,
had to subsist on the blood of turtles, fish, and birds while he was a captive. Alvarenga, José Salvador
According to 438 Days: An Extraordinary True Story of Survival at Sea, written by writer Jonathan Franklin, the survivor recounted his ordeal in interviews.
Claiming that Alvarenga had devoured their loved one to live, Córdoba’s family sued him for one million dollars shortly after the book came out.
Alvarenga said that the two had agreed not to do so and refuted the accusations. “I believe that this demand is part of the pressure from this family to divide the proceeds of royalties,
” said Ricardo Cucalon, counsel for Alvarenga, in an interview with Elsalvador.com. “Many believe the book is making my client a rich man, but what he will earn is much less than people think.”
To further establish his veracity, Alvarenga passed a lie detector exam.
