during World War II
*Details the physical and emotional extremes of desperate men
*Revealing insight into the psychology of survival

Caught off Okinawa in the fiercest typhoon in history at the end of World War II, Elmer Renner, then a young officer aboard a US minesweeper, recounts the horror of his ship sinking and his being cast adrift in the Pacific Ocean. Renner and eight other sailors clung to a small raft for days, battling thirst, hunger, shark attacks and, eventually, madness. In a day-by-day account of their torture, this book recounts what happened in fascinating detail.

The authors describe the men's panic as distant ships seemingly ignore their desperate calls, the sea turning blood red when one of the men loses his life to a shark, and how another slips silently away into the unforgiving Pacific. Close to madness, the survivors made a pact to practise cannibalism shortly before spotting three Navy Corsairs in the sky above them, assuring their eventual rescue.

This remarkable tale of survival is also a story of betrayal, for Renner continues to be haunted by the fact that a crewman who swam ashore for help did nothing to aid in their rescue and that the Navy prematurely gave them up for dead. As the only officer among those who were eventually rescued, it was Renner's duty to officially notify each of the dead sailors' next of kin.