The couple drifted in the ocean for 117 days. This is what they had to do to survive (13 photos)

Tired of their boring life in the suburbs, the couple Maurice and Marilyn Bailey decided to travel around the world on a yacht. But in the end they had to talk about cannibalism, thinking about their survival.





The couple began their journey by leaving England in early 1973. They set sail on the yacht "Aurelin" on the long journey to New Zealand. However, on March 4, an unexpected event occurred: a wounded whale, which was being hunted by a whaling ship, crashed into their yacht. The animal severely injured Aureline, after which she had to be evacuated to an inflatable life raft and boat.

The survivors transferred some of the food supplies to it and watched as the damaged yacht plunged under water. From this moment their survival in the Pacific Ocean begins, which will last almost four months.

117 days in the ocean



In the early days, Maurice and Marilyn even enjoyed watching the turtles swim up to their raft. They scurried around as if playing a game. But then the turtles began to dive under the raft, struggling and rubbing against its bottom. Maurice thought they were trying to get rid of parasites or molluscs on the shell. He began to worry that the shells would damage the thin rubber bottom of the vessel.

– What if we kill one and eat it? – Marilyn suggested.

Maurice wasn't sure. Neither of them wanted to kill a living creature, but the situation already looked absolutely hopeless. Almost two weeks of wandering and they ran out of gas for the stove. They had to eat the remaining canned food cold. And other supplies were also running out.

When the next turtle hit the raft, they grabbed it by the paws and pulled it on board. Maurice stunned it so that the turtle would not resist or suffer too much. Under the shell they found a lot of white meat.





Marilyn cut four steaks of clean meat. The taste wasn't too bad and the meat was tender. While she was washing her bloody hands in the water, fish swam in schools towards her. At this point it became obvious that it was worth going fishing.

Marilyn found pins and pliers in the repair kit. She bent the sharp end of the pin, creating a hook, and then tied the rope to it. Maurice looked at her doubtfully, not believing that this would work.

She put a piece of turtle meat on a hook and lowered it over the side of the raft. The fish took the meat off the hook. Maurice noticed the mistake and attached the new bait a little differently.



This time, almost instantly, Marilyn pulled the silver fish out of the water. Maurice hit her on the head with his knife. Murders became a routine matter. They fished every morning and evening. They ate everything: liver, fillet and eyes. All the moisture was sucked out even from the intestines, because they had no other source of water.

No matter how well they ate fish, after three weeks of wandering their bodies began to look more like skeletons. Marilyn asked Maurice what she looked like, but her husband didn't really want to answer.

He always thought she was beautiful, confident and dexterous. Now he saw her aging at an alarming rate. Maurice realized that he had no desire for her. And there was no time for that - all the body’s resources were aimed at survival.

In the darkness before dawn on March 29, a red light appeared in the distance. Later, the outline of the ship became visible. The Baileys had tried using flares before, but they didn't work that time. This time it worked, but, alas, the ship did not notice them.

“Second ship in 25 days,” the woman wrote in her diary. "Maybe third time lucky."



Marilyn's Diary

The third ship appeared almost two weeks later, on April 10. Then the fourth, fifth and sixth. Neither of them stopped.

The failures did not surprise Maurice - he already did not believe in any salvation. But Marilyn remained optimistic. In her opinion, they were destined to survive. She tried to cheer up her husband. They took turns reading the book aloud, discussing each line. The spouses retold to each other the plots of books they had read or stories they remembered.

The Baileys also played games. For example, "Domino" was made from strips of paper torn from a magazine. Making the playing cards took half a day: they drew them with a pencil. The paper was very thin, which made it possible to see the opponent's cards, but they strictly agreed not to peek.

Out of boredom, the couple planned their next adventure: they would return to England, build a new boat and live on it. Marilyn scribbled a rough plan for the new boat in her journal. Maurice calculated its exact characteristics. They made changes to the plans until they were satisfied, and then Maurice began creating the drawings. Marilyn planned the menu in detail. The first meal on the new boat will be: chilled cantaloupe, roast pork and potatoes, apple sauce, cheese, chocolate pudding, cookies.



They talked so much about food that they began to quarrel over it. Maurice believed that you should drink wine with curry, but Marilyn disagreed. She argued that you should only drink water with curry, as the wine loses its taste after the spices.

When you're starving, all you can think about is food. Of course, they argued about other things, said hurtful things, and then apologized.

On May 18, Maurice saw a huge cargo ship approaching them. Lucky seventh. The couple waved and shouted until their arms ached and their voices became hoarse. The ship didn't notice them.

This was a turning point. Even Marilyn was close to giving up. Now there are other thoughts and topics for discussion. What if one of them dies, leaving the other alone? They even went so far as to discuss the possibility that the living would eat the dead in order to stay alive.

Maurice thought about how he could speed up the end by imagining that he was swimming away from the raft until he drowned...



May turned into June. On the first day, clouds filled the sky. They are already accustomed to thunderstorms and high waves. But this storm was much stronger and seemed endless. With each wave, the raft rose high and then fell back down again. The storm lasted so long that Maurice decided it was time to try to catch fish by moving to the boat.

However, he was unable to survive due to the strong waves. Fishing during such a storm was extremely dangerous and absolutely pointless. The man saw darkness rise behind the raft. It looked more like a bottomless abyss than water. Maurice managed to grab the ropes and fall to the bottom of the boat before he was under water. He literally miraculously swam out, and his wife hardly dragged him onto the raft.



The storm ended and the couple survived. One day a school of small sharks passed by them. One came close enough for Marilyn to reach. The woman grabbed her by the tail without thinking. Maurice was sleeping, so she screamed to wake her husband.

He wrapped a towel around the shark's face and waited for it to die. This greatly cheered them up and in this spirit the couple caught two more sharks. Suddenly they realized that they were laughing hysterically. They haven't felt any joy for so long...

The rescue



On June 30, 1973, the Baileys were fishing as usual. They have already become accustomed to this strange new life. True, Maurice now often “floated” on the verge of unconsciousness. Death from exhaustion was already close.

After lunch they rested under the tent. Half asleep, Maurice felt that they were not alone. Before him was a hallucination - an American sailor named Wayne, whom they met in Panama. In his sleep, he heard his wife calling him, but he was too far away. He was too tired to try to reach her.

One of the crew members of the South Korean fishing vessel Wolmi 306 knocked on the captain's door. He reported a strange object two miles off the starboard side. Captain Suh Chong-il ordered his men to check the facility.



Coming closer, the sailors saw a boat and a raft tied together. Swimming even closer, they saw one body, and then a second. These pieces of flesh barely resembled people.

The captain could hardly distinguish between a man and a woman, except that the man's face was half hidden by a thick beard. The woman had long, disheveled hair, and her legs were fragile and thin, like willow branches. Their clothes were falling apart. They were so emaciated that the captain could see the shape of their bones under their skin.



Maurice did not believe his wife when she told him that a ship was approaching them. He muttered under his breath irritably that this couldn't be happening. The crew of the Korean ship rescued the couple.

“We did it,” Maurice said simply.

“Now it’s time to build Aurelyn II and sail to Patagonia,” Marilyn answered.



And they really set off on a new journey, being already famous. For 14 months they again sailed on a yacht, and then settled in a quiet place near the port city of Lymington in England.

Marilyn died of cancer at the age of 61 in 2002, and Maurice lived another 15 years, dying in 2018. But the story of their extraordinary struggle for survival for 117 days continues to live and inspire many people!