Lost in the Pacific 1942

After the lurching waves cause the crew to get seasick in their rafts, they realize that they are surrounded by sharks, which keep their distance but never disappear. The men also realize that their rafts are quite small. Even the “larger” rafts only measure 4x7 feet, which is not nearly enough space for three grown men. A photo on Page 48 illustrates how small the rafts are.

Regardless of these difficulties, the men feel optimistic simply because they survive the crash landing. They also spot shorebirds, which means that they cannot be too far from land. Bartek surmises that many important people will be looking for them because they have a “VIP” on board—Rickenbacker: “Before long, they would all be sitting under palm trees somewhere, sipping pineapple juice and trading stories about the ordeal” (46). While they wait to be rescued, the men take stock of their meager supplies, which include knives, pistol flares, bailing buckets, and a compass (47). 

Rickenbacker is kept awake by two things: his fears and sharks bumping against his raft. Olson reveals that, as the son of poor, Swiss immigrants, Rickenbacker learned to be self-reliant at a young age: “There was only one person he could rely on, and that was Eddie Rickenbacker” (54). Accustomed to taking control, he takes command of the other stranded crewmembers and starts to organize a survival plan. Rickenbacker rations the few oranges that are the only food on the rafts, instructs the other crewmembers on survival techniques, and unsuccessfully attempts to use orange peel as fish bait.  

Some of the crew blame Rickenbacker for getting them into such a terrible situation. They claim that if he had not been “in a hurry” to get to Guadalcanal, they might have been able to properly check the plane and avoid a crash landing at sea (59). Eventually, they check their maps to try to figure out where they are in the ocean. Rickenbacker believes that they have drifted north and west, towards the direction of the Gilbert Islands, which are under Japanese control. However, DeAngelis believes that they have drifted south, which would mean that they are nowhere near land. Rickenbacker tells the men that they will try to steer towards Fiji.  

The B-17 plane crash is reported in United States newspapers, but only Rickenbacker’s absence is noted. The papers also note that the crash may have taken place close to where Amelia Earhart’s plane disappeared many years ago: “This pilot had been attempting the last leg of a round-the-world flight when she lost contact with Howland Island, about 400 miles northwest of Canton” (67).

Back in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, where the crewmembers are stranded, the waves have calmed. While the crew welcomes this respite from stomach-churning storms, they start to feel the effects of their motionless rafts, like the sun relentlessly beating down on them. Under the hot sun, Adamson finds a shred of an old Reader’s Digest in his pocket. After reading an article about an aviator who is preparing an elegant meal for a balloon flight, he unsuccessfully attempts to use the shredded paper as fish bait. 

The men begin to feel the effects of starvation, and staying afloat in their weakened state becomes increasingly difficult. They try to use keychains and rings as fish bait, but they fail to catch anything. Desperate for food, they consider shooting a shark but decide doing so would be too dangerous. They also unsuccessfully try to catch birds. The engineer, Bartek, is struck by the paradox of their helplessness and military competence: “Between them they had decades of experience and specialized training […] But out here it was all meaningless” (74).

They have now been in their rafts for five days. Adamson scratches the date into the side of his raft each day. An illustration shows the wartime rations given to fellow Americans back home, and Olsen points out that these rations would be “a king’s feast” to the men on the raft (76). At one point, the men consider using their own nonessential body parts as fish bait. Though they eventually reject this idea, it evokes for them “the Custom of the Sea”—cannibalism as a last resort (82).

Rickenbacker continues his efforts to keep order on the rafts and to keep the other men from giving up. He is especially frustrated with Kaczmarczyk. Rickenbacker learns that Kaczmarczyk was sick with jaundice before the flight and is still suffering from it. Kaczmarczyk has also succumbed to drinking the salty ocean water.  

In the United States, Rickenbacker is now largely assumed to be dead. The newspapers are full of memorials to him, attesting to his heroism and principles: “He stood for values that seemed especially important to a nation at war” (84).

On the rafts, the men have a brush with luck when a seabird lands on Rickenbacker’s head. Rickenbacker quickly kills the bird, shares it with the other men, then uses the bird’s innards for fish bait. The men catch two fish with Rickenbacker’s bait. However, this meager food proves inadequate; it only reminds the men of their hunger. They are also starting to become dehydrated. 

The men try to cope with their increasingly dehydrated state. At one point, they decide to drink their own urine, which they have saved in metal cartridges. However, they are unable to go through with this decision. Instead, they swim in the ocean for relief. During their swim, DeAngelis is unable to stop himself from swallowing a few mouthfuls of ocean water.

One night, Rickenbacker notices a storm in the distance. The men are so thirsty that they start paddling towards the squall, hoping to catch a few mouthfuls of water from the sky. When they reach the storm, they collect rainwater in their cast-off clothing and then wring out the water over buckets. Cherry, Whitaker, and Reynolds are thrown overboard in the storm. Though they eventually climb back aboard their raft, they lose their pistol, signal flares, and bailing bucket. 

During the crew’s second week at sea, discipline begins to crumble on the rafts. Rickenbacker continues to give the men periodic “tongue lashings” to boost their morale: “In the moment, [the tongue lashings] made each crew member in his turn hate the old man with a passion. And hatred, at least, was more likely to keep a man alive than despair” (104).

Sunburnt and chafing from their stiff, filthy clothes cause many of the men to develop sores on their skin. Kaczmarczyk becomes increasingly sick and is transferred from his small raft to Rickenbacker’s raft. Bartek takes Kaczmarczyk’s place and joins DeAngelis on the small “doughnut” raft (106). The men catch a shark with a fish hook, but the meat is inedible. Now they have no more fish bait, guns, or flares. 

Though most Americans assume that Rickenbacker is dead, the United States Marines have not stopped searching for him. Marines have been sent from Guadalcanal to Hawaii to transport planes back to Guadalcanal because so many of them have been destroyed by the ongoing battle with the Japanese. During these transport voyages, the Marines are instructed to look for Rickenbacker in the ocean.

Kaczmarczyk becomes sicker and sicker. He chooses to be transferred back to the small raft. DeAngelis takes his place on Rickenbacker’s raft. Kaczmarczyk attempts to throw himself into the ocean, but he is restrained by Bartek. In the middle of the night, Bartek overhears Kaczmarczyk praying. These are the last words he hears Kaczmarczyk speak. In the morning, Bartek takes Kaczmarczyk’s pulse and then listens to his heart. He discovers that Kaczmarczyk has died during the night.

Before Kaczmarczyk boarded the B-17 transport plane, he wrote letters to his girlfriend, Snooks. She continues to receive these letters, unaware that he has died. 

The crew gives Kaczmarczyk a burial at sea. They perform the last rites and then throw his body overboard. His death is hard for them to bear, and it reminds them that they are also close to death. They have all lost weight, and they are ravaged by skin sores and dehydration. In their weakened and isolated condition, the men start to have hallucinations and fits of delirium. They see islands in the distance and strange shapes in the clouds, and they also hear the voices of family members talking to them.

Against Rickenbacker’s wishes, Cherry, Reynolds, and Whittaker decide to separate their raft from the other rafts to try to reach Fiji on their own. There is a power struggle between Cherry and Rickenbacker. Cherry believes he has seniority as the plane’s pilot while Rickenbacker believes he has seniority because of who he is. Cherry, Reynolds, and Whittaker eventually take off in their raft, but they don’t get very far because they are so weak. They end up returning to their fellow crewmembers.