The Story of a Shipwrecked Sailor

Report of a Shipwrecked ( Original title: Relato de un náufrago ) is a system designed as an authentic narrative non-fiction book by Gabriel García Márquez from the year 1955.

Background

The story, whose full name rich, immediately afterwards execrated report of a castaway who, without eating and drinking, drove for ten days on a raft, which proclaimed heroes of the fatherland, kissed by beauty queens, through advertising by the government and then was forgotten for ever is, was first published in 1955, at that time in the Colombian newspaper El Espectador in the form of a narrative series. This were records of a Colombian naval personnel based on the detected aboard his ship just before reaching the port city of Cartagena by a large wave and together with several of his colleagues - was washed out to sea - who were there all drowned. In the original records is no question of an overload of the ship with smuggled goods as the main reason for its capsizing. In the story that is not explicitly mentioned, however, can be the real reason for the shipwreck clearly read. This " denigrating " the Colombian Navy Márquez brought disgrace on the part of the government of the then Colombian military dictator Gustavo Rojas Pinilla a, after which he went abroad and has been working for several years as a foreign correspondent of the newspaper. In 1970 the factory was first established and published in Barcelona as an independent narrative.

Action

Report a shipwrecked told in a realistic, exciting style of a 20 -year-old sailor named Luis Alejandro Velasco, who acts as narrator. It belongs to the crew of the destroyer Caldas, who after a long stay in Mobile, Alabama again sets course to Colombia sometime in late February. Also on board are large amounts of smuggled goods such as radios, fridges, washing machines and especially stoves. Located in the Caribbean Sea comes the overloaded boat capsizes in a storm and it almost; eight crew members, who were at that moment on the deck, including Velasco will be washed out to sea by a wave. Much of the contraband drop it overboard. While it Velasco is achieved by a lucky chance to climb on a life raft, is for his seven comrades too late to help. Initially Velasco is confident to be discovered in a few hours, however, shattered his hopes, after the Caldas removed and rescue aircraft several times to see him. The search for the missing sailors is set after four days and they are officially declared dead. However, Velasco continues to drive aimlessly for ten days in the open sea without any food and water supplies, constantly exposed to the burning sun and the danger to life from the daily coming sharks. Only twice in the ten days he manages to catch something: once a seagull by playing dead, and a curious birds take, as this sums up confidence; another time, the next day when he, despite catching a fish the sharks circling his boat. After almost ten days when he has completely exhausted given up hope and is close to starvation, he sees land on the horizon - later he finds out that he was thus actually arrived in Colombia. From his last strength he swims against the coast, where it is discovered shortly afterwards by a farmer and brought to this home, where he is scantily supplied. A few days later, Velasco will be flown back to Cartagena, where he is recovering in a hospital from the strains and at it is a favorite destination of sensation reporters. After recovery, he comes to Bogotá, where he is received by the President and was awarded a medal. He deserves briefly a fortune through a versatile marketing of its history and numerous radio and television appearances.