Years ago, years and years and years ago, almost twenty years ago, I read Julian Barnes's novel A History of the World in 10 1/2 Chapters and in it was a line that I memorized and have never forgotten.

An extreme resource proved necessary to prolong their miserable existence.

I'm reading a non-fiction book right now (on my fabulous Kindle) that is very much in that vein. The book is translated from Russian, first published in I believe 1917, about a group of thirteen men who, after being stranded for two years on an icebound ship, built sleds and kayaks covered almost 300 miles of frozen ocean to reach land. Two of them actually made it; the rest died of malnutrition or in accidents.