 In the dark of night on the 11th of March, 1984, a small fishing
boat capsized 3.2 nautical miles southeast of the Westman Islands.
Three of the five fishermen aboard were able to save themselves
temporarily by hanging onto the upended keel until the boat sank
about three quarters of an hour later. The air temperature was below
freezing, -2o C, and the sea a frigid 5-6° C (41o-43o F).
When the boat went down, the lone
survivor, Gudlaugur Fridthórsson, kicked off his seaman's
clothes so as not to be hampered by them and, dressed only in jeans,
a shirt and sweater and with nothing on his feet, set out to swim
to land. On the way he actually passed within three hundred feet
of a boat, but no-one aboard heard his shout or saw him wave. Though
he expected to die, he remained calm and concentrated on where he
should try to come ashore.
After nearly 6 hours in the sea he reached land, but as the cliffs
were too sheer to scale, he swam back out to sea and came ashore
at another place.
Once on land, he still had to negotiate
rocks, a low cliff, sharp lava from the 1973 eruption, and a dirt
road before he could reach the town close to another mile and a
half away. He passed a tub of water used for the sheep in summer,
broke the inch-thick ice in the tub with his fist, and drank water
from his cupped hand. He said that the most beautiful sight of his
life was seeing the lights of the town.
No ordinary person could have survived
this ordeal. The body loses heat in cold water and wet clothes draw
heat from the body 20 times faster than dry ones. Physical effort
and constant moving also reduce the body's defenses. Low body heat
leads to mental confusion, an irregular heartbeat and death. Even
a heavy man exposed to water as cold as that which Gudlaugur swam
through is normally mentally confused after being immersed for only
80 minutes. A rectal temperature of 36o C (96.8o F) is considered
the lowest possible for survival if the person must exert himself.
Gudlaugur was in wet clothes for
8 - 9 hrs, in near-freezing water and sub-freezing air. His rectal
temperature, when he arrived at the hospital, was at least as low
as the minimum 34o C (93o F) that the thermometer could register,
yet he showed no sign of mental confusion. He should not have been
able to remain alive in the sea for more than 20 or 30 minutes.
Instead, he survived the ordeal in good health.
How did Gudlaugur survive? True,
he stayed calm and did not expend extra energy through emotional
stress, but the key factor surprised researchers. Work at the University
of Iceland and in other countries has shown that Gudlaugur's fat
bears some resemblance to seal fat: it is more solid, like that
of a seal, and is two to three times thicker than the human average
of 7-9 mm.(1)
Gudlaugur's astonishing achievement
is celebrated every March when students at the Navigation College
on the Westman Islands take turns swimming for 6 hours, usually
in the town's warm pool, though sometimes at sea. After the marathon
swim they compete in a race and Gudlaugur himself awards the beaker
to the winner.
© University of Michigan Press/Terry G. Lacy. All rights
reserved.
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