Sea of sharks

the long version

"On 16 September 1945, Elmer Renner and thirty-one shipmates aboard a U.S. Navy minesweeper off the coast of Okinawa endured one of the worst typhoons in recorded history. Named Makurazaki by the Japanese, the storm capsized Renner's ship and sent many of the crew to the bottom of the Pacific. Built for coastal waters, YMS-472 simply could not withstand the huge seas. Renner and eight others, however, managed to ride out the final fury of the typhoon in a raft. In this book, he recounts the terror of that struggle against the storm, an ordeal forever seared in his memory. The second part of the book is devoted to the time spent adrift on the raft without provisions." "In a day-by-day account of the physical and psychological torture they endured, Renner chronicles what happened in detail as they battled thirst, hunger, shark attacks, and eventual madness. He tells of the men's panic when one of them is eaten by sharks and of others who, after chasing their hallucinations, just slip silently beneath the waves. He tells of their despair in watching ships pass them by without notice and admits to eventually making a pact that the next to succumb would contribute his body to the remaining survivors to satisfy their pangs of hunger and thirst. They are saved from this final act when, by chance, they are spotted by a Navy Corsair that sends a seaplane to their rescue." "While recovering in hospitals, Renner made detailed notes of daily events on the raft, but spoke about those details to no one, not even his wife. It wasn't until many years later, when his grandson John expressed interest in the story, that Renner recounted what had happened. He found that interest, and the later urging of other family members to tell his story, to be useful therapy, and with the help of his friend Ken Birks, he was able to begin writing about the experience. For the first time Renner expressed his feelings of being betrayed by a shipmate who managed to swim ashore but did nothing to aid in their rescue and posed questions about a Navy that prematurely gave the men up for dead, creating extraordinary hardships on the survivors' families. This survival story is the result of long afternoons at the Birkses' home reliving the drama and putting it to paper."--Jacket.