The Raft: Three Men, 34 Days, and a Thousand Miles Adrift

The Raft, the subject of the 2014 movie Against the Sun (also known as Ghosts of the Pacific), recounts the harrowing adventures of three downed U.S. Navy airmen -- Harold Dixon, Tony Pastula, and Gene Aldrich -- in the Pacific Ocean during World War Two. The men, forced to ditch their TBD Devastator plane after running out of fuel, were then confined to a 4 foot by 8 foot rubber raft for 34 days at sea, with no food or water (apart from what they could catch or trap), and no protection from the relentless tropical sun and the long nights. The men finally reached a small inhabited island (Pukapuka in the Cook Islands) where they stayed for 7 days before a U.S. warship arrived. Their story is a powerful testament of courage and leadership under extreme conditions, and has been an inspiration for generations of readers. Included are 4 pages of photographs.