SURV1VAL CHALLENGE: Australia’s Most Defining Sh1pwreck (No Food, No Water, No Shelter)
Welcome back to a brand new survival challenge series. He’s got a No. Stingray already to go. Here we go. I’m getting some smoke. Bush tucker that the Aboriginal people would have eaten back in the day. Oh, yeah. Yes. So, over the next 4 months, my girlfriend Fran and I are traveling up the Great Barrier Reef.
We’re doing our best to live from the land and the sea, and you can watch that entire series play out on the Stricken Fran YouTube channel. Along the way, I’ll be revisiting some of the craziest stories along this coastline. So, there’s tales of heroic survival. There’s tales of quite tragic demise. And I’ll be placing myself in the exact location of these cr4zy yarns to see what they would have been faced with and to share their stories.
I’ve got a feeling this is going to be a pretty wild ride, guys. So, subscribe to come along for it. Starting off with a situation that would have changed history as we know it. So, the year is 1770. Off the coast of an unknown land, a bloke by the name of Captain Cook is doing his best to dodge a labyrinth of shallow reefs. But, he runs aground on a submerged reef, and the razor sharp corals smash through the wooden hull of his ship.
All appears doomed until he spots two little islands on the horizon, and he orders his crew, “If or when our boat is smashed apart by the pounding seas, these two islands are our only hope of survival.” Now, if the Endeavour had been fully wrecked, Cook and his crew would have grabbed wh@tever floated and been washed straight towards these islands.
It would have likely looked absolutely nothing like me in my bright yellow inflatable kayak, but it’s all I’ve got. So, let’s use our imaginations here, and it’s not this part of the story that we’re interested. It’s what happens next. Couple of turtles cruising around here. Hey, mate. All right. We made it ashore. So, with the Endeavour wrecked on a reef out behind me here, Captain Cook and his surviving crew members would have grabbed wh@tever they could that floated, jumped on their lifeboat, and just drifted off with the prevailing
wind and currents. The same wind and currents that are hammering today out behind us there. It would have washed in on this beach. The lifeboat would have likely been broken up. This island has not been changed since when he came past. So, let’s see what his options would have been. So, first and foremost, he would have been looking along the high tide line to see if anything washed in, of course, from his wreck.
And I’m going to be using a similar tactic today to see if anything useful has washed in on the high tide line that I could use. Basically, his chance of survival would have come down to two things, really. Whether he could find food and whether he could find water. Hence the the name of these islands, the Hope Islands. These were his only hope.
Oh, here we go. Coconuts. This one no good to us. Oh, yeah. Couple of dry coconuts have washed in here. There’s definitely going to be food in here for us. Hopefully, some water in some of these as well. Oh, yeah. This is a good one. This one’s not too old. This will definitely have a little bit of drinking milk in it. See what else we can find.
But, I’ll show you the pack I’ve put together of items that I think would have been similar to what Captain Cook had access to in the shipwreck. He would have had access to a couple of little h00ks, little h00ks, a little bit of fishing line, and a knife. Cuz all good captains would have traveled with a knife.
The other thing with the I’ve got on the base of this knife is a flint. So, the guys did have flints back then to start a fire. And then, of course, to share the adventure with you guys, we’ve got some GoPro batteries and some GoPros. So, with this survival challenge, there are a few very useful tools that I’ll be able to use. Let’s see how we go with them.
There’s a heap of mangroves in here, and sometimes mangroves means fresh water. So, we’re going to go have a look see if we can access any fresh water. But, while the tide’s nice and high, it’s actually nice and clear. So, I’ll be able to sort of spy down and see if there’s anything we can find in there for food.
No way. I think there’s a giant mud crab down there. It’s just heard me and he’s buried himself. Oh, yeah. Oh, you beauty. Oh, I’m going to get out of here. Yes. I did not think I would get so lucky.
The first little section we looked in, guys. Big, beautiful blue mud crab. I must admit I was a bit nervous there. That’s sort of not what you meant to do in croc country, but uh I’ll tell you a bit more about the interesting thing about that later. Mate, I want to keep him fresh um until I get a fire going and stuff.
We’ll have to put him to sleep. Sorry, mate. Uh that crab is put out of his misery as humanely as possible. Also, I’ve probably spooked this hole now, but there was a couple of really big mangrove jack. I will might let it settle and then come back and try my luck fishing in here. See if there’s any fish or anything in amongst the mangrove roots here.
I think we got amazingly lucky with that one mud crab, but we’re going to need to find more food to feed a hungry crew and also water. I’m just ducking my way into these mangroves to see if I can get lucky again. I don’t think he would have found any of these in the back in the day, but I’ll take it. Those mud skippers would be perfect bait.
The ones that skip across the surface like that. There’s a huge mud skipper, but they’re too quick to catch. We want to find something something else. Hm, sort of stuck now. I’m going to try to get back out to the coast here. Nobody’s home there, but there’s a few holes out the back here. Which you’d have to a.ssume these are mud crab holes.
Although, a lot remains the same as when Captain Cook and his crew came through here couple hundred years ago, there’s one one main difference which I find truly fascinating. And it’s actually the reason why I’m up a tree at the moment and not down there in the water. Because upon their voyage up the East Coast, they did some amazing work documenting the animals in the area, but there’s one main omission that they didn’t see.
They never saw a saltwater crocodile. I believe that is because back in the day back then, the Aboriginal people lived in all these creeks and river mouths and and would come out and h.unt around these islands. They fitted into the food chain. They would eat saltwater crocodiles. They would eat their eggs. Now that they’re protected, the the numbers have really skyrocketed and um yeah, traveling in these areas, I am on hyper alert for saltwater crocodiles, which Captain Cook wouldn’t have had to worry about.
Oh, as for the sandflies, they were just as s4vage back in the day as well, and they are like almost unbearable in here. They’re cr4zy. But, we need to find some food and water. These mud snails are plentiful. I’ll fill my pockets with them. What a beautiful little bay. Little white sandy bay here, protected from the wind.
Now, I’m looking for any fish that might be trapped in these rock pools either to one use as bait to catch one of those bigger fish or if it’s big enough, knock it on the head with this and just eat it. There’s a couple of oysters, individual oysters, in these rock pools here. So, the knife’s going to come in handy.
I’ll open these up. Bit of a snack on the go. That’s beautiful, big oyster. There’s a few more scattered around here, so I’m going to make light work of these. Only downside, they’re very salty, so good for energy, but they’re going to make me thirsty. All right, guys, there’s stingrays everywhere here. You can see their white tails.
Doesn’t get much more of an easy catch than that, guys. I’m going to prioritize trying to find some fresh drinking water cuz without that, yeah, pretty limited. Doesn’t matter how many stingrays you’ve got. Probably the middle of the day now, and the the heat and the sandflies are really getting to me. I might have just heard a crocodile.
I just heard a really, really loud noise, big splash. And I’m kind of imagining it might have been a crocodile that’s come off that bank. And here, there’s turtle sh3lls everywhere, which is what crocodiles eat. Look at this. This would be actually the perfect sandbank for a crocodile to Actually, there’s a a whole heap of baitfish in the shallows here, and there’s sharks going through and feeding through them.
Actually, I think that’s a little croc as well. Maybe not. Maybe just sharks, but check this out. I just want to watch this for a minute cuz this is so cool to see these little sharks feeding, but these baitfish would be the perfect bait for me. So, in a minute, I’m going to throw this stick at them and hopefully like injure or stun a few, but it’ll probably ruin the feeding frenzy.
Man, this is awesome. Those blacktip reef sharks are just going through them. I I need to get myself some bait now. Surely. Oh, yes. No way. Look at that. No fr3aking way. Check that out.
What a cr4zy result. I know that looks a little bit s4vage, but I was just trying to stun one of these fish, but that is going to be perfect bait to try and catch something bigger. Got to get them right in the shallows and wait till they’re right on top. Oh, what’s this? That was a GT, guys.
That’d be That’s That’d be a perfect one to catch. Oh, there’s a GT here. There’s a GT there. Oh, big GTs, big GTs. So, I had planned to keep this for that mangrove jack I saw back at camp, but there’s some big GTs going through that bait now, and I’m going to try my chance at these guys. One of these would Oh, would feed me for days. All right, here we go.
Here we go. That’s the pack of huge GTs there. Those ones are about that big, but I I want a medium sized one. I just sort of cast with the wind. Those GTs never came back, unfortunately, so I’m going to have the line on standby in case I see him and go back to plan A and see if I can get some more bait. Ooh, stingray.
Did I stun any? That stingray scared me, but none. Need a spear. I’ve got a better chance with this. Oh, big GT. That’s the fish I was trying to catch on the line. I need some baitfish. Yes. The spear works. Holy, I got that one. Bloody h3ll. Now I’ve got pockets full of sardines, full of baitfish to use when the time is right, but let’s keep moving and see what else we can find.
It’s a good hiding spot for something. Oh, there’s a little crab. Any bigger crabs? Oh. Check this out. I reckon a seagull has plucked one of these pigeons out, r.i.pped him apart and eaten him here. It’s pretty cr4zy. These uh these big seagulls will actually eat these other birds. If I didn’t have bait, I’d try and fashion a fishing lure out of these, like a little fly, but um thankfully, I’ve just spent the last 2 hours chasing sardines around the shallows, so I’ve got bait.
Still no sign of water, unfortunately, so that’s um getting to the the top of the priority list pretty quick, water. Oh, man, that’s thick thick mangroves and mud. I was hoping for some fresh water in here, but no chance of fresh water in there. Sleep of sandflies. There’s so many different landscapes on this one island.
You’ve got the coastal area there, and then you come into these kind of big vertical mangrove trees, and right back there, you got kind of the real muddy area where we found the mud crabs. So, there’s a lot of different area to explore here. So, the low tide can expose a heap of food. This is a spider conch, which once again, we could eat, but this is just the sh3ll, the remains of it.
These giant clam sh3lls is a good source of food in there. There’s an oyster of meat, but uh they’re protected here in Queensland, so we can’t eat that one. Oh, man. I have been eaten alive by these d@mn sandflies. Ah. Oh, that feels good. All right, we’re back to where we started, and the reason I was so keen to get this bait is I did spot a big mangrove jack in there when I was getting that mud crab.
Ah, bummer. I’ve left it too long, and all this tide has dropped out now, and it’s too shallow. So, just wondering whether that fish whether he’s stayed in the deeper pool there or whether he’s dropped out with it. Let’s go have a bit of a look and see if there’s any chance to catch him. A couple of smaller fish, but no signs of our big mangrove jack.
Oi. Oh, good eating fish. But this isn’t the big mangrove jack I’d hoped for. Blackspot estuary cod, but that big jack, he’s underneath here somewhere. See you, mate. All right, it seems he’s too smart with my presence here to take a bait, but I I cannot believe we’ve found him. Changing tactics.
I’m going to try to get under there and spear him. This would be Oh, man, this would be an amazing meal if we can get this. All right, let’s do it. He definitely went up that log, so he must be sitting like here. I want to spook him up into that shallow bit.
He’s just done one of the best Houdini acts I’ve ever witnessed. I have no idea where he’s gone. Tell you what I have spotted in the meantime, it’s not so well hidden. Epaulette shark. See him there? That’s pretty cool, but that is not what we’re after. I’m going to have to come back. This tide, I believe, is going to get even lower.
Well, let’s go see if we can find anything else and get away from these sandflies. Yes. We’ve got one. He’d be a beautiful eating size one, but once again, might be just under the size limit. Let him go. He’s a lucky fish, that one. Oh, man, I’m getting eaten alive. Oh. Let’s keep going. Anything bigger here? Ooh.
Stingray. Uh I need to get a fire going to cook up this crab, and I need to s Get out of the mangroves for a bit. I hope Mr. Cook had his flint on him when he went overboard and abandoned ship, cuz we’re about to start a flint fire. In a bit of wind, this could be a little bit tricky, to be honest. Come on. Come on. Come on. Come on. Come on.
Come on. Come on. Come on. Get going, sticks. Get going. Yes. I think we’re away. Take that, sandflies, you little Sandflies h@te the smoke, so there’s a bit of payback for what those guys gave me. All right, we’re away now. Just while that fire’s burning up, I wanted to get down to a coal base.
I’m going to check one more time to see if that mangrove jack has come out of his hiding hole. Let’s have a look. Where is he, man? He’s outsmarted me. He’s outsmarted me, and I’ll tell you what, I’m not even angry. I’m impressed. Anyway, I’ve got mud crab to eat, so back to back to base camp. Make a bit of room for Mr. mud crab.
All right, let’s get this big boy straight on the coals there. Got a little almost an oven there for him now, so all that smoke and heat can stay in, cooking from all angles. Tell you what’s also cooked from all angles, me, today. I need a little bit of hydration. This is the best the best I’ve done today. Oh, it’s got a little bit Got a little bit.
But after the coconut sits for a while, it turns all of that coconut milk into the root, and then you lose all your liquid, and then starts the next stage of a coconut’s life, but we’ve got a little bit in here. That’s good, but we’re going to need a h3ll of a lot more water, guys. And it’s really, really nice.
On that day, Captain Cook spotted two islands, and he named them the group of them Hope Isles. So, with no water here for me to find, I’m going to have to set out for the next island and see if there is any water there after I finish eating. We’ll let that crab cool down, and then we’re getting into it. It’s a hard earned meal, that.
Lunch is served, guys, and we’ve we’ve done all right, actually. Coconut and beautiful big mud crab. Oh, yeah. Look at that. Nice meat. That’s what we’re dealing with. Yum. Yum. All right, I think our time on this island is done. Let’s jump in our lifeboat and head across uh to the next island to see if we’ve got any hope over there, if there’s any water, any hydration at all.
That wind’s howling and the swell, so it’ll just push me straight in that direction, hopefully. We’ll see how it goes. So long, Mud Crab Island. I’m off to find some water. Ooh. I really hope that was a turtle and not a crocodile. There’s huge explosion in front of me. I’m not hanging around to find out, though.
Look at that. We’ve made it. What a time to arrive, right on sunset. I didn’t want to leave it much later. Uh building a shelter would just be uh a waste of energy that needs to be spent on looking for water. I mean, that’s what it really comes down to now. We need to find hydration. For a sleep, this would be the best bet here.
Underneath this cabbage bush is a good bit of canopy to find your way under. It is actually quite cozy once you’re under here. It’s just this kind of natural shelter over the top. Uh this is by far the best shelter we could get ready to go, and we’ll save the rest of our energy for looking for far more important things in the morning, guys.
Good morning. So, it’s first light now. That moon is going to transition into a sun pretty soon, and behind me is haunting noises. Ooh. Can you hear that? Like, ooh. Ooh. Ooh. There’s a heap of nesting pigeons in the trees behind. We’ve had no rain overnight, and now being the dry season, we probably won’t get rain for a few months now.
Uh by that time, any of the water supplies that the crew would have salvaged from the shipwreck would be exhausted, so we’ve got to be proactive here. Let’s try circumnavigate this island. This really is our last hope, this one. So, this side of the island is all very dry and sort of wind swept, but I do know some of these islands do actually have fresh water wells up behind the foliage, so I’ll have a bit of a look around and see what we can find.
There’s a huge dark shadow here, and it’s actually moving. I think we’ve found another giant school of baitfish, and there’s some birds flying over the top of it as well. I do have that little line in my pocket here. If there’s anything bigger, I’ll I’ll cast that out and hopefully try to catch it. Yeah.
So, these are all baitfish, just like what we saw yesterday, but I wasted enough time and energy chasing them yesterday, and I’ve got enough bait, so just waiting to see if there’s anything bigger chasing these that we could catch. No bigger fish and no signs of water. We’ll keep pressing on around this island. Heaps of cuttlefish cartilage. There’s a bit of greenery up here.
Maybe this is a sign of water. We’ve got some pandanus, and this is the first coconut palm we’ve found. These are probably 6 months off having uh any drinkable liquid in there. That’s good enough for me. Promising sign. That’s not a sustainable amount, unfortunately. There’s the occasional washed up coco out here that’s getting my hopes up.
Uh but this one here is completely rotten out. There’s nothing in there for us. It’s all pretty dry around here. I haven’t found anything to drink. This guy’s been drifting around the ocean for a while. He’s all dried out, unfortunately. There’s some sh3llfish here that I’ve just found above the tideline.
Poor. Now, that is terribly rotten. That is de@d, and that stinks. All right, if I don’t find any water, I won’t be too far behind him. I’m now back to where we started, and with no water, it seems Cook and his crew would have had no hope, and then history, as we know it, would be very different.
So, maybe this unknown great southern land and its indigenous occupants would remain undiscovered and undisturbed for years to come. But Cook and his crew never did have to come ashore on these islands. Cook’s diary recounts somewhat of a maritime miracle. So, the Endeavour was stuck on the shallow reef overnight, but quite miraculously, the wind d1ed down and the swell d1ed down, sparing the ship from being totally broken up.
The next morning, on the high tide, the boat was able to be floated off and continue on. Although it was taking on too much water through the hole and all looked doomed until one final attempt was made to patch the hole with animal manure and rope fibers. Quite miraculously, it worked and well, the rest is history.
This great unknown land became Australia thanks to some animal poo. It’s true, Google it.
