Castaway Who Survived 14 Months at Sea Sued for Eating Shipmate

A Salvadoran fisherman who survived 438 days adrift at sea is being sued by his fellow fisherman’s family due to allegations of cannibalism.

Jose Salvador Alvarenga is being sued for $1 million by the family of his dead colleague under accusations that he ate their relative in order to survive at sea.

Alvarenga has repeatedly denied the accusation, claiming that he survived solely by eating raw fish and drinking turtle blood and his own urine.

438 Days at Sea

In November 2012, Alvarenga planned a two-day fishing trip with 22-year-old Ezequiel Cordoba to be paid $50 to accompany him on the trip. They departed from Tapachula, Mexico.

Without warning, a ferocious storm with 10-foot waves knocked out the 25-foot boat’s communication system, damaged the engine, and swept their supplies off the deck of the ship, leaving the men adrift at sea.

14 months after the men disappeared, Alvarenga washed ashore on an atoll in the Marshall Islands. After initial doubts about his story, officials declared his narrative to be true.

The men stayed alive by catching birds and fish with their bare hands. Alvarenga told The Guardian, “I was so hungry that I was eating my own fingernails, swallowing all the little pieces.” He also claims that the men drank their own urine and turtle blood.

Alvarenga claims that Cordoba convulsed and died on the boat’s deck with his eyes wide open a few months into the ordeal after eating a bird. After keeping the man’s body on the boat for a week, Alvarenga claims he threw Cordoba’s body overboard.

“As I slid him into the water, I fainted,” he said.

Alvarenga said he promised to deliver Cordoba’s mother a message if he were to survive, which he did. Initially Cordoba’s mother, Rosalia Diaz Cueto, said she didn’t blame Alvaregna for her son’s death. “I want it understood that I am not blaming this person, Alvarenga, nor am I declaring him guilty of anything,” she said at the time.

Despite her statement, Cordoba’s family now asserts that Alvarenga ate their son to survive, an accusation Alvarenga strongly denies.

Alvarenga’s lawyer has suggested that Cordoba’s family is suing because they believe Alvarenga profited from a book about his ordeal.

“Many believe the book is making my client a rich man, but what he will earn is much less than people think,” he said.

Alvarenga’s 438 is not recognized as the longest survived at sea. Guinness cites the longest time survived adrift at sea at 484 days back in the 1800s by a Japanese ship captain and one of his sailors.