jbdba01 Thans for the reminder of the saga of Bill Buttler, and his wife, chronicled in "Last Chance" 1991, and the latest version "66 days adrift". It is truly a story which every offshore sailor should read. The book is a great read, and for those
They survived because of the water maker--luck and skills. At the time they lost their 38 foot LOA, 26 foot LWL, and 9" beam wooden boat after being hit by whales, they did not have an EPIRB. Today most all of us who go even relatively short distances have either a PLB or EPRIB, which would have saved them within days. It may well have been that last flare which finally sent the Coasta Rica CG there way, when a ship came within yards of their raft.
We started carrying the ETL (aircraft distress freq 121.5 MHz--now phased out) in the early 1970's. By 1980 we had a Marine EPRIB, but I suspect it was also 121.5.MHz. By our trip in 1982, we had two early 406 MHz satellite active EPRIB's aboard--one in the companionway of the boat, and the second in the ditch bag, in the raft.
The Personal Locator Beacon became fully operational for World Wide use only in the 2005 era..