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The Raft

The Courageous Struggle of Three Naval Airmen Against the Sea

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The Raft

Written by: Robert Trumbull
Narrated by: Tom Parker
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About this listen

 On the afternoon of January 16, 1942, three men boarded a TBD Devastator aircraft - a low-wing, single-engine torpedo-bomber - for an antisubmarine patrol flight. Although it was to be a relatively short flight, they became lost. When the fuel ran low, they decided to ditch into the Pacific. Before they could get their life raft to inflate, however, the plane sank beneath them, carrying most of the survival gear down with it. Thirty-four days later the raft landed on Puka Puka, a New Zealand-governed atoll in the Danger Islands, having meandered 1,200 miles!

The story of the voyage, with few resources except courage and indomitable human spirit, is not only an inspiring listen, but a tribute to the human species and its will to survive. The miraculous escapes, especially the passage over a killer reef and the reaching of safety only a day ahead of a typhoon, also suggest that someone was looking over them.

©1942 by Henry Holt and Company (P)1996 by Blackstone Audiobooks 20th Century Wars & Conflicts
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Profile Image for Books by BJ Thompson ~ Weaving Words on Either Side of Cocktail Hour

A Courageous Take on a Courageous Event

Written rather matter-of-fact, but I can appreciate it may have been impossible to write Raft any other way and manage to get the words down on the page. And further emotional digging would up-end PTSD flashes, I'm sure.

Ingenuity has no bounds as long as hope lives, is my take from this tale.
A message that could be better learned by all ages in contemporary times

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Profile Image for Roberta W

For anyone

Labelling says it’s for Audible Kids, but it’s for anyone. Great survival at sea story during WWII. It was a good listen.

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