Part 2 begins chaotically and suddenly with the sinking of the Tsimtsum. As he cries and laments the loss of his family, Pi spots a Bengal tiger drowning in the water, struggling to stay alive. The Bengal tiger is Richard Parker, and Pi frantically urges him to stay afloat. He throws Richard Parker a lifebuoy and reels him in to climb aboard the Tsimtsum. Upon realizing the danger of sharing a lifeboat with a Bengal tiger, Pi quickly throws himself overboard.

The narrative jumps back to just before the wreck when the Tsimtsum is four days out of a Pacific port in the Philippines. The sound of an explosion awakens Pi, and he tries to wake Ravi, but his brother is fast asleep. Pi scurries out onto the deck, where it is raining heavily. Pi realizes the ship has severe structural damage and hurries back to his family only to find an impassable flooded stairwell. After spotting several escaped animals, Pi finds three crewmen, but he can’t communicate with them because they only speak Chinese. They give him a life jacket and a whistle before tossing him overboard.