Pi Patel searches the lifeboat more carefully and is dismayed to find no built-in containers or hidden storage in the benches, buoyancy tanks, or floor. Desperate thirst forces Pi to consider the only remaining possibility: supplies might be under the tarpaulin at the bow, even though that means exposing an opening to Richard Parker’s den.

Pi loosens the tarpaulin’s ropes from the hooks and unrolls it enough to reveal an outlined lid with a hasp on the bow bench. Peering under, Pi first mistakes an orange shape for the tiger, then realizes it is a pile of life jackets. Through them, Pi sees Richard Parker clearly for the first time—massive, striped, and only a couple of feet away—then freezes in fear and prays silently.

Needing water, Pi quietly opens the hasp and lifts the lid, discovering a locker packed with supplies. The lid’s hinge placement creates a makeshift barrier between Pi and the den, and Pi positions himself so that any attack would warn him and allow him to fall back into the sea with a lifebuoy. Inside, Pi finds stacks of 500 ml cans labeled “Drinking Water,” but no can opener.

Pi improvises by striking the can tops against the tarpaulin hooks until he punches holes, then drinks ravenously. Pi downs four cans (two litres), feeling immediate physical and mental revival as thirst and weakness fade. With hunger rising, Pi opens a carton of Seven Oceans emergency ration biscuits and eats the entire package quickly, despite instructions limiting intake.

Recovered enough to think ahead, Pi inventories the locker: thirty-one unopened ration cartons remain, which Pi calculates as ninety-three days of food, and 124 water cans, which suggests 124 days of water at the recommended ration. The abundance of manufactured survival goods restores Pi’s hope, and Pi repeatedly whispers thanks while continuing to examine the “treasure chest.”