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Florentino Resulta Das (August 19, 1918 – October 7, 1964) was a U.S.-based Filipino yachtsman who holds the earliest record of single-handed sailing from Hawaii to the Philippines on a 27-footer homebuilt sailboat.
At the age of 12, Das got into trouble with his local school authorities, and thus he fled to the neighboring town of Lavezares, where he found work as a cabin boy in the inter-island ferry. Das found his way to the capital Manila later on, and survived by taking various jobs, such as a stevedore or boat crewman.
In February 1934 he boarded the English freighter Silverbeam as a stowaway, but was discovered after a few days en route to San Francisco. The captain put him and his fellow stowaway to work, and by the time they arrived in Hawaii he was given a choice whether to offload or continue to San Francisco with a guaranteed work on board the ship. Das opted to disembark, and arrived in Honolulu at the age of 16.
In Hawaii, Das took on work as a ship scalar, chipper and painter for interisland vessels, a security guard, and as a vocation he also pursued an amateur boxing career.
He met his wife, Gloria Lorita Espartino, a Filipino-American who grew up in Hawaii, and gave Das eight children.
During World War II Das was employed as a fishing boat captain and learned modern navigation.
Receiving sponsorship from a local fraternity called Timarau Club, along with proceeds from the sale of three fishing boats Das was able to acquire a surplus US Navy S-Bottom hull. Along with his four sons, Das worked on the boat, and rigged it with canvas sails and a 25 hp outboard motor. He named the 24-foot sailboat Lady Timarau.
On May 14, 1955, Das slipped out of Kewalo Basin in Honolulu in front of family and friends, and sailed into open ocean without modern communication or navigational systems, except for a compass. A month into his adventure, after encountering a number of storms and damage to his boat, he came across a Japanese fishing vessel, Daisan Shinsei Maru, who offered to tow him to Pohnpei in Micronesia. His sponsor had requested that he return to Hawaii, but Das instead took on odd jobs for the next eight months to generate funding for the continuation of his trip.
During a radio interview, Das explained his desire to continue in his voyage as he "wanted to prove that Filipinos are not only good boxers but also good boatbuilders and sailors."
On February 22, 1956, Das was able to secure clearance from the local authorities and sailed off towards the Philippines. Along the way, Das passed Truk Island, the Hall Islands, as well as Yap Island, and finally on April 25, 1956, after almost 12 months into his personal adventure, he saw the Philippines for the first time in two decades, landing Siargao Island at Masayay, Alegria, in the town of Santa Monica, Surigao del Norte. The locals did not know who Das was, nor what he achieved, but he became a local curiosity. However, the news of his arrival soon spread and the Philippine Navy dispatched a ship to escort Das on his plan to return to his hometown of Allen, Northern Samar, where he was welcomed as a local town hero.
In Manila, President Ramon Magsaysay received Das on May 11, 1956, with a fluvial parade along the Pasig River, and conferred him an honorary rank of Commodore of the Philippine Navy, as well as the Philippine Legion of Honor rank of Officer OLH. The Mayor of Manila Arsenio Lacson received a letter from his counterpart from Honolulu as hand carried by Das, and gave the latter Keys to the City.
Das and his wife moved to Mindoro where his wife took on teaching job with the Divine Word College of San Jose. He attempted once more to sell the Lady Timarau to the Philippine government for it to be preserved in a museum, but the boat sank in the Pasig River in one of the storms. On the seventh anniversary of his feat, he celebrated by sailing solo once more, on a 27-footer utility boat from San Jose, Occidental Mindoro to Manila, but by this time he was already suffering from diabetes and was losing his vision because of glaucoma. Das was admitted to the Ramon Magsaysay Memorial Hospital for glaucoma surgery, but by 1964 his health was deteriorating and he lost his sight.
Das died on October 7, 1964, at the age of 46 due to uremia at a hospital in Manila. During his funeral, he was accorded Navy Honor Guards, and was buried at the Manila North Cemetery.
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