A Little Spoiler Warning But no More than you have seen on the trailers.
Say you were working for FedEx and you got castaway on the same island as him. What 10 things would you want to make your survival easier than ol Tom’s was?
It has to be in a box no bigger than a standard fed ex delivery box and you get one box that is 2X3 ft in size. And if you like, you can put your reasons for picking them on the side. No communication is equipment allowed.
My list is as follows:
the Bible and as many other books that would fit
A killer first aid kit(obvious)
Ginsing Knives(mine as well get tough ones)
A box full of vegetable and fruit seeds
A box of Flares(obvious)
A box full of pain pills and antibiotics.
Blow up floating mat(might as well be confortable)
A box full of Lighters(I did terrible at the starting fire part in cub scouts
A box of freeze dried food(until I got my fishing down coconuts) 2X3 box
GPS with spare batteries. (That doesn’t count as communication, does it?)
Detailed oceanographic map book (With info on shipping lanes, trade winds, currents, populated islands…) along with shipbuilding, navigation, and survival books. (Whatever fit.)
A compact flare gun and as many flares as possible.
First aid kit.
Vinyl tarps (Hopefully plural, might be able to jam two or three into a package. Use as sails, shelter, and possibly for rain catching.)
1/16" rope, and lots of it. A thousand yards or more would be nice.
A set of assorted blades–knives and an ax head.
Small .22 pistol and 1,000 rounds. (Or more if it would fit.)
The 2X3 box loaded with cans of assorted food.
Water purification tablets.
The plan would be to pinpoint your location, plot a course to the nearest harbor. Build a Polynesian-type long canoe with an outrigger while feeding off the wildlife (using the pistol) and accumulating drinking water. Save the canned food for the ocean trip when you run out of fruit and salted meat. Flare gun can be used for starting fires in a real pinch if you have enough flares.
Of course, all one would really need is one of those satellite phones and a GPS…
Set of nesting billies (or one if the SD gods won’t allow the nested set)
Magnesium bar with attached striking flint
Dive mask, fins & snorkel set
Wire saw
2000ft spool of 3mm nylon cord
Shortwave radio receiver with rechargeable batteries and rollup solar cell panel
As many vinyl tarps as will fit the remaining box
Left flares off because I can leave big messages, signal fires or smudgepots on the beach.
Left food off because I’m ::ahem:: carrying my own reserves that’ll last me until I can get the hang of catching fish, finding abalone, and just learning to stomach kelp.
Left fish hooks off because I can make a few with the wire handle of the cooking pot.
The solar still is a large flat paneled device that’ll just fit the 2’x3’ box but isn’t very thick. Won’t take up much space. Passive solar with no moving parts.
The Bic-sized magnesium bar is a firestarter that beats matches all to hell and lasts longer than a Bic; it works even when soaking wet and lasts for years. Scrape fine shavings of Mg with the knife and strike a spark. The shavings burn white-hot.
Wire saws are great! Just for jollies once, I sawed through a foot-thick log with one (took a while). Wonderful little tool. Weighs an ounce or two.
The radio’s just for morale. Gotta hear another voice from time to time.
Wildest Bill: Ginseng knives? They don’t hold an edge. Try a Ginsu blade instead.
Ok, let’s see: [list]
[li]A set of ginsu knives that comes with a small hatchet as a free gift for purchasing the knives.[/li][li]a full fishing kit, with rod and hooks and lures, etc.[/li][li]an industrial sized first aid kit, including supplies to sew up wounds.[/li][li]A tent with repair kit and full weatherproofing on it.[/li][li]A man who can shrink and expand from 2" tall to 7’ tall at his leisure.[/li][li]A box full of good books that I can read over and over again.[/li][li]The largest box full of votive candles(you can probably fit about a gross of them or more in that size box) with ten little glass votives for them.[/li][li]Dried fruits and vegetables.[/li][li]A mile’s length of rope.[/li][li]bottles to fill with water.[/li]
Hopefully this was well planned, otherwise I’d be dead.
I’d say I’d want an all-purpose survival kit, but I’m going to take a bold move and only list things that people would be sort of likely to send via FedEx. (Or maybe I should start airmailing survival kits to myself, Just In Case somebody gets deserted on a desert island. ;))
Let’s see…
Pots, pans, cooking utensils - for obvious reasons
Lots of sheet metal - I don’t suppose it’s likely I’d get some of this unless I was on some big freight transporter, and then it probably wouldn’t be FedEx, but if I had it, I could probably build a boat.
Vinyl tarp - I could build lots of things with vinyl tarp
(speak of the devil, I just saw a preview for Castaway as I was writing this.)
Knives - I don’t see why someone would send knives by FedEx, but it would definately be useful.
Explosives - You can never run out of uses for explosives! Not sure why anyone would send them via FedEx either, though…maybe if it was the 4th of July and someone wanted to smuggle in illegal fireworks.
Water purifier - “Makes A Great Gift!”
Magnet - A compass sounds too unlikely for a FedEx shipment, but maybe some kid could get a science kit for Christmas.
Pornography - umm, no reason. ::whistles innocently::
Inflatable chairs - nobody sends a liferaft via FedEx, but inflatable chairs sounds practical. Then again, they probably wouldn’t be that strong. =(
Lighter(s) - for obvious reasons.
I’m pretty sure that with those things, I could survive on an island like the one in the movie long enough to get the hell off of it. I’d also definately want some rope, but when was the last time you had to mail somebody some rope?
1.Compass
2.Detailed Oceanographic map
3.Hand powered radio
4.Seed packet of…a certain plant…
5.Vinyl tarps
6.large spool of nylon cord
7.First aid kit.
8.Butane lighter
9.Butane fuel
10.Magnesium bar and flint
11.One of those water purifier things.
12.Knives
13.Wire saw (really cool)
14.small caliber collapsible rifle
15.Ammunition and cleaning supplies for rifle.
High powered magnifying glass (for fires and the like)
A personal tent
First aid kit. Hell, make it five first aid kits.
A cyanide pill (just in case)
A big spool of rope.
A handful of Visine bottles filled with liquid LSD (If you can’t lose your mind on a desert island, where can you?)
Obviously, I don’t really have a clue what I’d need to survive on a desert island. I’d be starving and/or horribly wounded within a month, hence the cyanide pill to “check out” if need be.
