Tom Rowland Podcast Episode 723 is my conversation with Captain John Savage, author of Lost in the Stream: The Miraculous Story of Two Fishermen Lost at Sea. I read the book on a sailboat in the British Virgin Islands and could not put it down. John grew up fishing the rural waterways of Virginia Beach, talked his way onto a headboat as a kid, and went on to survive a harrowing stretch adrift at sea. We talk about that story, the life that led to it, and why the book is touching readers the way it is.
Listen now: Apple Podcasts · Spotify · YouTube · Press play in the player above to watch.
John Savage is a captain and the author of Lost in the Stream: The Miraculous Story of Two Fishermen Lost at Sea. A Virginia Beach native born in 1972, he grew up fishing the waterways of southern Virginia Beach and got his start on a local headboat as a young teenager. His survival memoir has resonated widely with readers, many of whom say it changed their lives.
Lost in the Stream: The Miraculous Story of Two Fishermen Lost at Sea is John Savage's account of surviving a harrowing ordeal adrift at sea. The book weaves the survival story together with John's life on the water, and he says the most meaningful part of writing it has been the messages from readers about how the story affected their lives.
John grew up in the rural southern end of Virginia Beach surrounded by ponds and waterways and fished every chance he got as a boy. Despite being terrified of sharks after seeing Jaws as a toddler, he fell in love with saltwater fishing, inspired partly by a picture of the charter boat Gannet in his grandfather's garage, and landed his first job on a Virginia Beach headboat as a young teenager.
John got his start as a kid on a Virginia Beach headboat under Captain Fred Feller, who told him to be at the boat at six thirty on a Saturday morning. He learned the mate's trade quickly there, from untangling crossed lines to managing a deck full of anglers, which set him on the path to becoming a captain.
Tom Rowland Podcast Episode 723 with John Savage is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, and iHeartRadio. The video version is embedded at the top of this page.
I finished John's book on a sailboat in the BVIs, and it stuck with me long after. Lost in the Stream is a survival story, but it is also about everything that leads a person to the water in the first place. John told me the most valuable thing about the whole experience is the messages he gets from readers about how it changed their lives. That is exactly the kind of guest I want on — someone whose story is bigger than fishing. I wanted him to walk me through all of it.
Press play in the YouTube player at the top of this page to hear the full story.
John was born in 1972 and taken to see Jaws as a toddler — he peeked through the seat, never saw the end, and spent a pier trip that fall convinced the shark was under the boards. Somehow that terror turned into a love of saltwater fishing. He talks about the picture of the charter boat Gannet in his grandfather's garage, the headboat trip that made him say he would work on a boat one day, and how he landed his first job at six thirty on a Saturday morning. Listen to how it started in the episode.
John started as a kid working a headboat out of Virginia Beach under Captain Fred Feller. He learned fast — untangling crossed lines, sorting out anglers hooked to each other under the boat, even the classic mate's prank of clipping a crushed can to a hook and letting someone fight it. His description of cutting his teeth on that boat is a window into how real watermen are made. Watch the YouTube player above for those stories.
The subtitle says it: the miraculous story of two fishermen lost at sea. John lived it, then wrote it, and the result is the kind of survival account that stays with you. I will not spoil how it unfolds — he tells it far better than any summary — but the way he describes ending up on that boat, and what happened next, is the heart of this episode. Listen to him tell it in his own words.
John told me he never expected the book to touch people the way it has, and that the reader messages mean more to him than anything else. There is something in a real survival story — ordinary people pushed to the edge — that resonates far beyond fishing. He talks about what readers tell him and why he thinks the story lands. Press play in the YouTube player above to hear that part.
Listen to the full conversation: Apple Podcasts · Spotify · or watch in the YouTube player at the top of this page.
The day after talking to John, what stayed with me was how a story can outgrow the person who lived it. He survived something most of us cannot imagine, and now strangers tell him it changed their lives.
Lost in the Stream is a reminder of why the water both gives and takes, and why the people who spend their lives on it carry stories the rest of us only read about. John's is one of the best I have come across.
Press play in the player above, or grab Episode 723 on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.
The Tom Rowland Podcast brings you long-form conversations with the most accomplished anglers, hunters, conservationists, and outdoor professionals in the game. Listen to every full-length Tom Rowland Podcast interview.
John Savage · Lost in the Stream (book) · Captain Fred Feller · the Gannet · Virginia Beach · Boynton Beach, Florida · British Virgin Islands
John Savage is a captain and the author of Lost in the Stream: The Miraculous Story of Two Fishermen Lost at Sea. A Virginia Beach native born in 1972, he grew up fishing the rural ponds and waterways of southern Virginia Beach and got his start on a Virginia Beach headboat as a young teenager under Captain Fred Feller. His book recounts a harrowing survival ordeal adrift at sea and has resonated widely with readers, many of whom credit it with changing their lives.
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