Surviving three months in remote, challenging locations while being filmed by a television crew is nothing to shake a stick at. But before we get too impressed by the survival skills of the latest Survivor crew, imagine being lost at sea or stuck on an island--with no end in sight and no prospect of winning $1 million for your troubles (not to mention the rise to fame and fortune--even if it is only for about 15 minutes). A little more impressive, don't you think? To celebrate the television show Survivor, we salute five stories of true survival.
1. In 1789 the crew of the Bountymutinied and set its British captain, William Bligh, and 19 other men adrift in the South Pacific in a small boat. Undaunted, Bligh led his men to safety across 3,618 miles of ocean.
2. While on a mission to inspect air force bases in the Pacific during World War II, American fighter ace Eddie Rickenbacker's plane was shot down. He and the seven other crash survivors spent about three weeks in lifeboats before they were rescued.
3. At his own request, Alexander Selkirk, a Scottish sailor, was left on one of the Juan Fernández Islands after a dispute with his ship's captain. Selkirk lived there by himself from October 1704 until February 1709.
4. British explorer Ernest Shackleton led an expedition to Antarctica on a boat called the Endurance. After the ship sank, Shackleton and 5 of his 27 men sailed 800 miles in an open boat to summon rescuers.
5. The three astronauts aboard Apollo 13 were nearing the Moon when an explosion disabled their spacecraft. Overcoming crippling cold and low oxygen supplies, the crew successfully guided their damaged vessel home to Earth.
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