In the beginning of WWII, Japan found itself capturing many more prisoners of war than they anticipated.
They built a number of ships to transport these POWs, known as Hell ships. One of them, the Arisan Maru, was hit and sunk by a US submarine.
After the Arisan Maru sank, five of its passengers made it into a lifeboat. They had survived the sinking but they had no food, water or way to move the boat.
A number of amazing occurrences fixed all of this.
First, a keg of water floated by. Then the mast to the lifeboat came along in the water.
Finally, they plucked a box from the ocean that contained the sail and rope.
While they were making a rudder for the boat, they found a stash of food hidden in an inner compartment in the boat. With these new supplies, they were able to sail 300 miles through a typhoon to China. The one civilian passenger happened to know celestial navigation, which allowed them to orient themselves.
When they made it to China, they were fed, clothed and guided by friendly natives, who took them to a US airbase in the heartland. They eventually made it back home 8 months before the war ended.
