Amazon.com
The appeal of Dava Sobel's Longitude was, in part, that it illuminated a little-known piece of history through a series of captivating incidents and engaging personalities. Nathaniel Philbrick's In the Heart of the Sea is certainly cast from the same mold, examining the 19th-century Pacific whaling industry through the arc of the sinking of the whaleship Essex by a boisterous sperm whale. The story that inspired Herman Melville's classic Moby-Dick has a lot going for it--derring-do, cannibalism, rescue--and Philbrick proves an amiable and well-informed narrator, providing both context and detail. We learn about the importance and mechanics of blubber production--a vital source of oil--and we get the nuts and bolts of harpooning and life aboard whalers. We are spared neither the nitty-gritty of open boats nor the sucking of human bones dry.
By sticking to the tried and tested Longitude formula, Philbrick has missed a slight trick or two. The epicenter of the whaling industry was Nantucket, a small island off Cape Cod; most of the whales were in the Pacific, necessitating a huge journey around the southernmost tip of South America. We never learn why no one ever tried to create an alternative whaling capital somewhere nearer. Similarly, Philbrick tells us that the story of the Essex was well known to Americans for decades, but he never explores how such legends fade from our consciousness. Philbrick would no doubt reply that such questions were beyond his remit, and you can't exactly accuse him of skimping on his research. By any standard, 50 pages of footnotes impress, though he wears his learning lightly. He doesn't get bogged down in turgid detail, and his narrative rattles along at a nice pace. When the storyline is as good as this, you can't really ask for more. --John Crace, Amazon.co.uk
Book Description
The ordeal of the whaleship Essex was an event as mythic in the nineteenth century as the sinking of the Titanic was in the twentieth. In 1819, the Essex left Nantucket for the South Pacific with twenty crew members aboard. In the middle of the South Pacific the ship was rammed and sunk by an angry sperm whale. The crew drifted for more than ninety days in three tiny whaleboats, succumbing to weather, hunger, disease, and ultimately turning to drastic measures in the fight for survival. Nathaniel Philbrick uses little-known documents-including a long-lost account written by the ship's cabin boy-and penetrating details about whaling and the Nantucket community to reveal the chilling events surrounding this epic maritime disaster. An intense and mesmerizing read, In the Heart of the Sea is a monumental work of history forever placing the Essex tragedy in the American historical canon.
Customer Reviews:
Fantastic.......2007-09-24
I am a big skeptic when I read these types of books. I always assume the author is filling in the substantial blanks in the story with his own interpretation & fluff. I did not feel that way with this authors version of the story.
The story was really entertaining. It was a page turner that kept me up too late on work nights. I think I read the last 1/3 of it without putting it down.
Highly recommended. You will learn a lot about whaling and Nantucket, both of which I surprisingly found captivating.
A Captivating Read........2007-08-17
Knowing that this was not a fictional story added an element of intensity as I read this book. Truthfully, this would have made for good fictional reading as well. I enjoyed the character development and the way in which the story was told. I was on the edge of my seat, and looking forward to getting to the book every morning while reading this. In the Mr. Philbrick's words, "The Essex disaster is not a tale of adventure. It is a tragedy that happens to be one of the the greatest true stories ever told."
one of the best maritime disaster books I've ever read.......2007-08-13
What a fantastic story told in a fascinating way. I've read many books about maritime disasters, and this one has gone to the top of the list. Nathaniel Philbrick is a great story-teller and meticulous researcher. I'm very, very impressed.
great book!!!.......2007-08-04
Wow, this is a great book. The author is very skilled in telling historical facts and journal entries but into a story that is easy to read, full of factual informative information, and has great structure. If you like this book I would definitely suggest reading "Skeletons in the Sahara" another phenomenal book, it's not written by Nathaniel Philbrick, but also another amazing author who tells a tragic story of a crew and his captain lost at sea near Africa and the story of the few that survived.
I also bought Nathaniel Philbrick's Mayflower but haven't had a chance to read it yet but look forward to doing so now since i've read In the Heart of the sea.
If only I could give this six stars!!.......2007-07-10
This is a phenomenal book. I am putting it in my top five. It is that rare bit of nonfiction that keeps you on the edge of your seat. I am an avid horror reader, and although technically this book doesn't fit that genre, I am making a place for it on my horror shelf. This truly is a tragedy, and the depths of Captain Pollard's misfortune is staggering. Granted he wasn't a "fishy man," but he is a character you rooted for. Chase, more captain than first mate, was the true leader. He kept an almost obsessive watch over the rations and kept his battered boat in sailing shape despite the seemingly insurmountable odds set before his crew. This is an outstanding book. Philbrick is an excellent writer. I particularly like the way he handled the explanation of starvation and the effects on the psyche. I've heard some call the section about cannibalism gruesome, and it was, but in order to understand the sheer power of this tragedy, it was tactfully and, I think, brilliantly handled in this regard by Philbrick.
Kudos to the author and kudos to the lucky reader who picks up this book!
Amazon.com
The facts speak for themselves. In 1857, the Central America, a sidewheel steamer ferrying passengers fresh from the gold rush of California to New York and laden with 21 tons of California gold, encountered a severe storm off the Carolina coast and sank, carrying more than 400 passengers and all her cargo down with her. She then sat for 132 years, 200 miles offshore and almost two miles below the ocean's surface--a depth at which she was assumed to be unrecoverable--until 1989, when a deep-water research vessel sailed into the harbor at Norfolk, Virginia, fat with salvaged gold coins and bullion estimated to be worth one billion dollars.
Author Gary Kinder wisely lets the story of the Columbus-America Discovery Group, led by maverick scientist and entrepreneur Tommy Thompson, unfold without hyperbole. Kinder interweaves the tale of the Central America and her passengers and crew with Thompson's own story of growing up landlocked in Ohio, an irrepressible tinkerer and explorer even in his childhood days, and his progress to adulthood as a young man who always had "7 to 14" projects on the table or spinning in his head at any given moment. One of those projects would become the preposterous recovery of the stricken steamer, and the resourcefulness and later urgency with which the project would proceed is contrasted poignantly with the Central America's doomed battle in 1857 to stay afloat.
Thompson, who spent nearly a decade planning and organizing his recovery effort, emerges as one of the great unsung adventurers of these times (the technical innovations alone required for such a task produced a windfall for the scientific community and defined a new state of the art for deep-sea explorers and treasure hunters), and the story of the steamer's sinking is compelling enough to make any reader wonder why the Central America sinking isn't synonymous with shipwreck in this Titanic-happy age. --Tjames Madison
Book Description
"White knuckle reading...with generous portions of adventure, intrigue, heroism, and high technology interwoven."
--Los Angeles Times Book Review
This enthralling true story of maritime tragedy and visionary science begins with a disaster to rival the sinking of the Titanic.
In September 1857, the S.S. Central America, a side-wheel steamer carrying passengers returning from the gold fields of California, went down during a hurricane off the Carolina coast. More than 400 men--and 21 tons of gold--were lost. In the 1980s, a maverick engineer named Tommy Thompson set out to find the wreck and salvage its treasure from the ocean floor.
With knuckle-biting suspense, Gary Kinder reconstructs the terror of the Central America's last days, when passengers bailed freezing water from the hold, then chopped the ship's timbers to use as impromptu liferafts. He goes on to chronicle Thompson's epic quest for the lost vessel, an endeavor that drew on the latest strides in oceanography, information theory, and underwater robotics, and that pitted Thompson against hair-raising weather, bloodthirsty sharks, and unscrupulous rivals.
Ship of Gold is a magnificent adventure, filled with heroism, ingenuity, and perseverance.
Customer Reviews:
What an Adventure !.......2007-09-21
This is an appealing book on many levels. 19th century sea adventure, heroes, tradegies, great survival stories, heart stopping excitement, 20th century high tech recovery adventures, interlopers and bottom feeding lawyers and insurance companies, it's got it all. Why 4 stars rather than 5 ? I found it a tad long after they found the boat and began that part of the story. But, that is a small point. Well worth the reader's time.
Ship of Gold is a good story with excellent details about the recovery of the gold........2007-08-28
Ship of Gold is a good story with excellent details about the recovery of the gold.
In my next recovery book I will look for more diving experience. The ROV's do not have the same adventure value as the human diving experience we have on the North Sea but then again the North Sea is maximum 40 meters deep. We don't need ROV's at these depths.
I liked the sonar specialist story and the systematical scanning of the area's with the best values in the probability matrix.
Hands down one of the best book ever! .......2007-08-20
This is by far the best book ever. I have purchased more copies then I can count and I have given it to all of my family members and most of my friends. All of them loved it. Even my mom told it was one of the best books she had ever read. Being she reads a book every two weeks that's a pretty good compliment.
This is a short book, but it takes a long time to read. It's not that it's a hard read; it's just that it's so good you will take your time to read it. Almost like savoring a great wine.
I don't recommend many books, but this one should be on the top of your reading pile. Once you read it you will understand why and I'm willing to bet you will recommend it to all of your friends.
Good modern day treasure hunt.......2007-07-04
I liked the way the author took the reader back and forth from the past to the present. It was interesting to see how much planning and inguenuity it took to accomplish the recovery of the gold. Once the treasure was found, I have to admit to having a mild case of 'gold fever' due to the vivid descriptions provided by G. Kinder. The only reason I didn't give it the full 5 is because of the Tommy (the technical mastermind of the recovery) praising!!!! Alright already, he certainly must walk on water, and if he doesn't, he'll surely invent a way to. Inspite of the Tommy factor, this is a good book.
Also recommended: In the Heart of the Sea
Fantastic Nonfiction.......2006-12-28
When the Central America sank in 1857 she took 21 tons of gold and more than 400 souls to the bottom of the sea, including one of my ancestors. Kinder's incredible book weaves the tale of the shipwreck together with the story of the thrilling recovery more than 130 years later.
Ship of Gold is a fantastic book from historic and scientific perspectives. If you read this book, you will gain new insights about the Gold Rush and 19th-century sea travel; better yet, you will be amazed by the technological and biological advancements which were a direct consequence of Tommy Thompson's recovery.
I read Ship of Gold to fill in the details of an old family legend. I was pleased to discover a truly amazing work of nonfiction.
Customer Reviews:
Five Stars.......2007-08-08
An excellent book Margaret lives in an orphan in London while waiting to save up enough money for a ticket to America where her brother William in Boston. Margaret gets a chance to when Mrs. Carstairs wants a complain to accompany her to America aboard Titanic. Having never had money Margaret's impressions on the ship, people and Mrs. Carstairs are very intersting. She meets Robert a Steward on her floor whom she likes. Margaret was very brave during the sinking and I liked how she first decided not to get on one of the lifeboats. I was saddened though at Robert's death. It was a very good story.
Very sad, but good book!.......2007-05-30
Hey!;)
I love dear america, and have written reviews on a lot of them. This one was like, the fiftenth I read? (maybe twentieth???) and I loved it. I reread it more times than I can count! It's very touching and sad; I lvoe the author's style of writing. It has a good plot. There aren't many books about the titanic, especially in a young woman's perspective. The plot to this book is a little similair to the movie, "The Titianic", but not enough that it's obvois or annoying. The only parts that are similair to the movie is the relationship between Margret and Robert, and the small love scene. Besides that, there's no similarities. Again, this is an amaizng book, and I love it! a greta ddition to your historical fiction or dear america collection.
best young adult novel on the tragic sinking.......2007-05-05
A well-written and historically accurate telling of the Titanic disaster from the perspective of a young girl immigrating to the United States as a companion to a wealthy passenger. Margaret's perspective is that of an outsider, not only to the wealthy culture, but to the adult and American culture. Probably the best young adult fiction based on the disaster, as it's true to history (the period and the event) and the characters are real (Margaret is spunky, but obedient, emotional but constrained). It captures the emotional tragedy, the spirit and feel of the horrific event. For adults and the Titanic fascinated, the story isn't anything new or original or especially engaging. Grade: B+
The Ship of Dreams.......2007-03-08
Everyone called the Titanic the ship of dreams, and for Margaret Anne Brady, it was a dream. She would be traveling with a lady from London England to find her brother, whom she hasn't seen since her parents died a few years back. Margaret was leaving her friends which was her family to come to America on the Titanic. She loved it. It was everything she dreamed off until that dreadful day the Titanic sank. If I was her I would have never made it through the night of freezing cold weather with only a over coat. She had no family just Mrs. Carstairs who she was traveling with. I don't know how anyone could have gone through that. It truly would have been a nightmare.
Excellent Book Collection.......2007-02-26
I have started reading the "Dear America" book collection to my little sister. We started with Margaret and just loved the book so we bought another and then another. My brother has even started listening now and we have gone through eight or nine of the books and are continuing to read more. The thing about these books that make them so AMAZING is that they not only have an interesting story line for people of all ages (making it so enjoyable for people of all age groups) but they are also very historically acurate and well researched. My sister told me one day that her class was covering The Mayflower and she already knew everything and she got up to share more! These books are so educational and also fun. The one thing to throw iin as a warning would be the fact that they are VERY real to history-- and sometimes they can be very graphic. All in all these books are five star! Def. worth the investment!
Average customer rating:
- yeah, I'd recommend it
- Fiction, Fable, Fantasy
- What a fantastic ride!
- From interest to anger
- An Entertaining and Unique Piece of Art
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Life of Pi
Yann Martel
Manufacturer: Harcourt
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Middlesex: A Novel
ASIN: 0151008116 |
Amazon.com
Yann Martel's imaginative and unforgettable Life of Pi is a magical reading experience, an endless blue expanse of storytelling about adventure, survival, and ultimately, faith. The precocious son of a zookeeper, 16-year-old Pi Patel is raised in Pondicherry, India, where he tries on various faiths for size, attracting "religions the way a dog attracts fleas." Planning a move to Canada, his father packs up the family and their menagerie and they hitch a ride on an enormous freighter. After a harrowing shipwreck, Pi finds himself adrift in the Pacific Ocean, trapped on a 26-foot lifeboat with a wounded zebra, a spotted hyena, a seasick orangutan, and a 450-pound Bengal tiger named Richard Parker ("His head was the size and color of the lifebuoy, with teeth"). It sounds like a colorful setup, but these wild beasts don't burst into song as if co-starring in an anthropomorphized Disney feature. After much gore and infighting, Pi and Richard Parker remain the boat's sole passengers, drifting for 227 days through shark-infested waters while fighting hunger, the elements, and an overactive imagination. In rich, hallucinatory passages, Pi recounts the harrowing journey as the days blur together, elegantly cataloging the endless passage of time and his struggles to survive: "It is pointless to say that this or that night was the worst of my life. I have so many bad nights to choose from that I've made none the champion."
An award winner in Canada, Life of Pi, Yann Martel's second novel, should prove to be a breakout book in the U.S. At one point in his journey, Pi recounts, "My greatest wish--other than salvation--was to have a book. A long book with a never-ending story. One that I could read again and again, with new eyes and fresh understanding each time." It's safe to say that the fabulous, fablelike Life of Pi is such a book. --Brad Thomas Parsons
Book Description
Winner of the 2002 Man Booker Prize for Fiction
Pi Patel is an unusual boy. The son of a zookeeper, he has an encyclopedic knowledge of animal behavior, a fervent love of stories, and practices not only his native Hinduism, but also Christianity and Islam. When Pi is sixteen, his family emigrates from India to North America aboard a Japanese cargo ship, along with their zoo animals bound for new homes.
The ship sinks. Pi finds himself alone in a lifeboat, his only companions a hyena, an orangutan, a wounded zebra, and Richard Parker, a 450-pound Bengal tiger. Soon the tiger has dispatched all but Pi, whose fear, knowledge, and cunning allow him to coexist with Richard Parker for 227 days lost at sea. When they finally reach the coast of Mexico, Richard Parker flees to the jungle, never to be seen again. The Japanese authorities who interrogate Pi refuse to believe his story and press him to tell them "the truth." After hours of coercion, Pi tells a second story, a story much less fantastical, much more conventional-but is it more true?
Life of Pi is at once a realistic, rousing adventure and a meta-tale of survival that explores the redemptive power of storytelling and the transformative nature of fiction. It's a story, as one character puts it, to make you believe in God.
Customer Reviews:
yeah, I'd recommend it.......2007-10-10
I kinda would like to rate this book a 4, because there are a few things I didn't like. I didn't like everything getting 'over-explained' in the end. That wasn't necessary. It was like the author didn't think the reader was smart enough to keep track of what was going on. That did a real disservice to the book.
And I didn't like all the start - I mean, too much opinion that seemed like an rookie blog.
But, I did recommend the book, and I wanted my Mom to read it and talk to her about it. So, what does that say? I don't do that too often. So, I gotta give it a five.
Read it and tell me what you think. :)
Fiction, Fable, Fantasy.......2007-10-10
Yann Martel's Life of Pi is at the least, a first rate adventure yarn. Even the simplest reader needs just to suspend a small amount of disbelief to join in the fun. There is enough texture to the writing-detail of place and experience-that the book is almost cinematic. You could imagine this being filmed as a simple 'survival in a lifeboat' story.
What makes this such a wonderful tale is that each little piece-the man-eating island, the orangutan, Pi's wonderful real name, is jolting and provocative. It's hard to hear the stories without connecting them to some other fantasy or alternative reality.
At the end, Pi's rescue and redemption are really nothing more than the technique of fantasy applied to the story itself. I'm sorry for the folks who were disappointed that this wasn't one kind of book and I hope they get a chance to experience the pleasure of it being a very good fable, fiction and fantasy.
----Lynn Hoffman, author of New Short Course in Wine,The and the slightly fabulous bang BANG: A Novel
What a fantastic ride!.......2007-10-07
A great book should not only answer questions, but lead us to ask questions about the very nature of our lives: our perceptions and beliefs. This book delivers all of that and more. Life of Pi is an amazing literary journey that carries the reader through the life of a young boy as he experiences life and becomes a man, a postmodern bildungsroman. It's all here: relationships with parents, God, nature, humanity, love, adventure, a quest for meaning, and a survival story. This is the stuff life is made of!
Martel is an apt storyteller, and this tale drips with allegory, symbolism, and skillful description. I didn't want it to end. I felt so connected to the story and characters, unlike any story I've read recently. I'm so grateful for the journey. Wow.
From interest to anger.......2007-10-05
This book plays on the reader's gullibility. I was willing to believe up to the man eating island. Then I just got upset. Is this book supposed to help me find God or is it supposed to prove that I am gullible enough to believe in a "better" story? Where do you find 16 year old boys who spend pages philosophizing on tigers while their own life is in great danger? The Boy Scout in my enjoyed the survival story of Pi, but the amazement of survival becomes overshadowed by things that don't add up. It made me lose sight of the meaning of the story. Then part 3 comes along and I am more confused about which of two unbelievable stories I am supposed to believe. It reminds me of Jesus' parables where even his direct reports couldn't understand. It leaves me asking "Why?". Why don't you just give me a story that clearly supports your point?
An Entertaining and Unique Piece of Art.......2007-10-05
I literally just finished reading this book a few minutes ago, and the first thing I did was come to this site to see what others said about it. I think this is going to be one of those pieces that grows on me the further away I get from it, like how I felt about the movie American Beauty, which by the way turned out to be one of my favorite movies after all.
My first feeling after I was done with it was of shock, but the longer I sit here, thinking about it and reading the negative "1 star" reviews, the more I find myself defending and liking it. All the people that said it was "unbelievable" in their reviews need to seriously get a grip. This is a work of FICTION, and an interesting and entertaining one at that! When did we start berating artists for creating works that are unbelievable? So should we bad mouth the movie ET for depicting a boy flying around on his bike with an alien, or the Harry Potter series for assuming that there can actually be wizards and witches living amongst us in secret? Come on, those are some of the most beloved works in pop culture history, and they, like Life of Pi, are FICTON. Isn't that why we read and watch fiction? To be entertained with a good story and take our minds off of our mundane lives? Besides, that's exactly what Pi was trying to tell the Japanese men at the end....sometimes we all just need a good story to make us forget all the bad stuff that we have to endure in the real world. At least that's why I enjoy it.
With that being said, I thought the Life of Pi was a very entertaining read. Yann Martel does a great job of infusing his own brand of philosophical musings about God, country and family into a straight good old fashioned piece of adventure themed story telling. If you're squeamish or have a hard time dealing with violence and extreme situations, then you probably won't be able to get too into this book. I found myself grimacing a few times actually, but it's not worse than most of what you find on the Discovery Channel on any given afternoon. Also, if you don't enjoy a fluid, sometimes digressive, often ambling narrative and prefer the style of more straightforward prose such as that of Dean Koontz, then this might not interest you as well.
The only other book I've read recently that reminds me of this one is the very popular Cormac McCarthy Pulitzer Prize winner and Oprah Book Club selection, The Road. They both chronicle the journey of a boy (in The Road's case, a boy and his father) beating unbelievable odds and inconceivable circumstances to try and survive after a catastrophic event. Both are also written in a way that makes you feel as if you are experiencing the distress of the main characters, but in opposite ways. The Road has short, grammatically incorrect sentences that convey the urgency and erratic behavior of the parent and child on the run and trying to stay alive. In Life of Pi, the author sometimes rambles on in a nonsensical way, the same way your brain would function if you were suffering from hallucinations while nearing death on a lifeboat in the Pacific for over 200 days. I think that the authors' styles are what take both of the stories from just a couple of unremarkable novels you'd find in the discount bin, to truly memorable works of art.
In fact, I'm finding it very discomfiting that so many people gave it such bad reviews. I read through some of them, and I think the negative things they had to say about it says more about them than Martel's work. One review says they wish they were illiterate so they wouldn't have had to endure it and it made them vomit and want to scratch their skin off in the shower like a drug addict. Gee...I don't think I have to explain myself on that one. Others said it was boring, which makes me question our society's attention span more than anything because many of those same reviewers said they didn't even finish reading it. These same people are the ones that stopped watching the tv show Lost at the beginning of last season for the same reason. Well, if they would have just stuck around for a little while longer, in both cases, they would have been in for a pleasant surprise.
*Spoiler Alert in this Paragraph only*
Also, a common theme in the bad reviews was their distain for the ending. I thought that the ending was what really made the book something special. While anyone with half a brain would know that his original story had to have been false, whether he knew it or not since his delirium was quite advanced at some of his lowest points, the fact that he actually gives an alternate version of the story to the Japanese men, felt like a big payoff to me. I'm the kinda gal that likes to know what really happened...it helps me to bond with the characters and ultimately enjoy the story more in the end.
I was starting to get really upset with all the "1 star" reviews, until I did the math. A staggering 78% (as of today) gave it 4 or 5 stars which means they liked or loved it. Well, knowing that at least restored a little bit of my faith in the general public, because though it's not perfect nor the best thing I've ever read, it definitely doesn't deserve to be called horrible.
If you read a lot, like I do, and are looking for a unique story told in a distinctive style, and have an open mind, then definitely give this one a try.
Book Description
On October 12, 1972, an Uruguayan Air Force plane carrying a team of rugby players crashed in the remote snowy peaks of the Andes. Ten weeks later, only sixteen of the forty-five passengers were found alive. This is the story of those ten weeks spent in the shelter of the plane's fuselage without food and with scarcely any hope of a rescue. The survivors protected and helped one another, and came to the difficult conclusion that to live meant doing the unimaginable. Confronting nature at its most furious, two brave young men risked their lives to hike through the mountains looking for help -- and ultimately found it.
This P.S. edition features an extra 16 pages of insights into the book, including author interviews, recommended reading, and more.
Customer Reviews:
Alive.......2007-10-07
Alive
Piers Paul Read
In 1972 a group of rugby players from Uruguay boarded a plane to take them to Chile for a game. Unexpectedly, they had to make stop in Mendoza, Argentina because of bad weather in the Andes Mountains. Everything went downhill from there, for as they set out across the Andes, one of the planes wings broke, causing the plane to fall at a catastrophic speed. More than ten of the passengers died in the crash and most were severely injured. They were trying to survive in below zero temperatures with nothing but bits of chocolate and rugby clothes. Many of the injuries proved to be fatal, ranging from parts of the plane sticking through stomachs to crushed femurs and frostbite. As everyone struggles to survive, more and more people die. There is virtually no food and to top it all off, an avalanche kills even more people. As everyone continues to grow weaker they are faced with a major dilemma: in order to survive they must eat their dead teammates flesh. But who could eat his best friend, who was alive and talking only hours before? This incredible non-fiction tale is enough to get anyone crying. This book deserves a 4 star rating because of the excellent description and the amazing adventure itself. This book is like something people have nightmares about and I have never read a book that is so intense. A number one best seller and "thunderous entertainment ... a classic human adventure... a narrative of terrific and enduring significance" (The New York Times.) It's easy to see why this amazing book stayed on the New York Times best seller list for over seven months. It's an absolute must read.
Hard to put down.......2007-09-30
This being the first book I've read in a while, I found it easy to get back into reading. The story was a very detailed account of a heart-wrenching experience. I almost felt as if I was in the story itself, although I couldn't imagine what those terrified people went through. This book had a profound effect on me personally.
Snow.......2007-05-28
The book isn't too bad but I have to say that I actually enjoyed the movie more, which I usually don't. Being able to match the actors up to the characters though is making it easier to keep tabs in the book. Not sure I could of survived something like this.
This book needed an editor!.......2007-03-16
This book is about 100 pages too long for my taste. Though the story was very compelling, I felt lost and bored while I was reading through the middle section. I think that a good editor could have helped that situation. One certainly got a sense of the tedium of the young men's lives as they languished on the mountain but the sameness of the details soon became quite tedious to me.
In addition, I think a good editor would have made sure that a book of this nature would have included a chart or list of all the victims and survivors. With so many names to keep track of I became very confused who was who, who had died or survived, and when the deaths occurred. As I read the book I searched the book more than once looking for such a help.
Admittedly I read a First Edition of the book so, perhaps, later printings included such a chart. If not, it needs one.
Good literature for non-fiction, survival adventure readers!.......2007-02-19
I read the book first and then read a lot of its reviews. It was interesting to read, afterwards, the comments of people who didn't particularly care for the book.
If you appreciate the pained lengths that consciencious authors take to accurately describe true life events, then you will appreciate this book. It is evident that the author expended enourmous efforts researching the chronology of this extremely traumatic, harrowing adventure. (So to those who criticize it for a kind of "documentary" style, you are right in this regard. The "read" is much better suited for connoisseurs of non-fiction. It is written in typical but credible "drama in real life" narrative style.) My view is, with all the criticism given, it is notwithstanding very suspensful, vivedly written and captivatingly interesting. Probably the greatest hallmark of Piers Paul Read's account is simply the detail he includes to give you a complete and realistic perspective of the traumatized human psyche in morbedly perilous moments. After you finish reading the book, you really feel like you can appreciate the grit it would take to survive where most would choose to die.
Customer Reviews:
Great photographic complement to "Ship of Gold".......2005-12-29
Category: treasure hunting
Boats: SS Central America and a big, capable ROV
Heroes: Tommy Thompson
Location: USA, Midwest and East Coast
Synopsis: Coffee table companion book to Gary Kinder's excellent Ship of Gold in the Deep Blue Sea. Thompson has put together a very good set of photos and descriptive text that doesn't overlap the Ship of Gold story. It's great to see the systems and treasure recovered that you read about in detail in the earlier book.
The Picture Companion to Ship of Gold in the Deep Blue Sea.......2002-03-16
Tommy Thompson is one methodical scientist. He found a ship that sank in the Atlantic Ocean in 1857 that had eluded searchers for 130 years. He has taken the same methodical approach in creating this book "America's Lost Treasure".
Gary Kinder wrote a 1998 bestseller on Thompson's search entitled "Ship of Gold in the Deep Blue Sea". It is one of the best pageturners I have ever read! More amazing is that it actually happened! The ship was the United States Mail Steamship "Central America" which was making rounds between the Atlantic coast of Panama and New York City during the California Gold Rush era. She was a side paddlewheeler steamship and was hauling a huge cargo of gold ingots, freshly minted gold coins, gold nuggets, and gold dust along with 38,000 pieces of mail and 578 passengers. Much of the gold was being brought to New York to shore up the bullion holdings of banks that had been putting out too much paper money without the available gold reserves to back it. Most of the passengers were returning from the Gold Rush; many were women and children. The ship sank after a heroic battle with a hurricane in 1857 off the Carolinas taking about 425 lives with her and all the gold. Both books chronicle Thompson's epic adventure finding the ship and recovering the gold down 8000 feet underwater where even the US Navy couldn't effectively recover items. Kinder's book clocks in at over 500 riveting pages but, is largely without pictures of all the incredible finds. "America's Lost Treasure" fills in that photographic void quite admirably in it's 186 pages.
"America's Lost Treasure" is broken down into a background history of America at the time leading up to the Central America's sinking, a detailed account of the CA's fateful last voyage, a background of the equipment and people involved in the search and rediscovery of the CA, the discovery of the ship and the 'Garden of Gold', a review of the personal items found at the bottom other than the gold, and a section on the other scientific discoveries made at the site such as decay processes and new species of life found. There are hordes of very appropriate photographs that perfectly illustrate the topic discussed in the very readable and concise narration. The page layout is very well done and makes full use of the book's ten inches by ten inches size. Particularly interesting is the discovery and opening of several intact passenger's trunks revealing intact clothing and still visible photographs! The gold, however, is the expected showstopper.
Overall, I can't recommend this book enough when read in companion with "Ship of Gold in the Deep Blue Sea". Some people will bristle with disfavor on the efforts in general to recover items from this wreck feeling it is a desecration of history and wrong. I couldn't help but be astounded by the disciplined and rigorous scientific and engineering skills put on display in the efforts. This is an absolutely fascinating pictorial account of a remarkable period in the history of America. It will rivet your attention from beginning to end and have you looking back at sections again and again. It is one of the best coffee table books in existence. The lost treasure found is truly breathtaking and this book is an absolutely worthy account of it! VERY highly recommended!
As exciting as any mystery novel!.......2001-11-26
Tommy Thompson is one of those unusual individuals with the fantastic mind of an inventor/engineer, yet with the ability to work with people to bring out their best. Our government should take note of this man, or hopefully they have, and give him the freedom to let his mind find solutions to many of our problems, as he has shown he can do in this book. It was an adventure, filled with suspense and I would recommend the picture book to go along with the text so you can see the magnificent photos of his find.
As exciting as any mystery novel!.......2001-11-26
Tommy Thompson is one of those unusual individuals with the fantastic mind of an inventor/engineer, yet with the ability to work with people to bring out their best. Our government should take note of this man, or hopefully they have, and give him the freedom to let his mind find solutions to many of our problems, as he has shown he can do in this book. It was an adventure, filled with suspense and I would recommend the picture book to go along with the text so you can see the magnificent photos of his find.
Splendid Book, Manipulated Reader, by fermed.......2001-11-13
This book is chronologically a sequel to the narrative "Ship of Gold in the Deep Blue Sea" by Gary Kinder, in which this writer masterfully described the tragic history of the "Central America" and the details of the successful recovery (by Tommy Thompson's group) of the gold she carried when she sank in 1857. Kinder's name is not mentioned in the body or the index of this book. What happened?
The good news is that this is a spectacular book: it is beautifully printed and illustrated. The pictures of the sunken "Central America" loaded with gold and lying in deep waters since it went under are simply breathtaking. The gold ingots, and coins and nuggets and dust have acquired a queer beauty during the years they have rested in the sea bed; the luster of the metal is still there even as it has been affected by is 131 year immersion in the depths: to be crawled over and probed by the strange denizens that thrive down there, and to react to the mysterious chemistry that is created in the deep.
Yes, this is a beautiful book that is irresistible to look at. When exposed to the passinge gaze of others it is invariably picked up and held, and exclamations of awe become intermingled with "Can I borrow it?" One must be strong if the book is to remain ours.
The not so good part is the feeling of sheer manipulation that the book imparts, based on what the book does not say--but should. I remember how distressing it was that "Ship of Gold" lacked clear photographs of the treasure found. It seemed downright stingy not to publish at least a few pictures of the loot. Well, here are the missing photos, yours for [item price] plus shipping. So what is missing in this one?
For one there is no manifest of what was taken out of the "Central America." While in the previous book (if I remember correctly) it was stated that the ship sank with 20 (or so) TONS of gold, in this book the author is ever so elusive about totals.Here he speaks in these tersm: "In addition to many tons of gold..." or "This was compounded by the sinking of the "Central America," which sent its huge load of gold...to the bottom of the sea." It isn't that Tommy Thompson doesn't know how to count: "Bound for New York with 578 passangers and crew and 38,000 pieces of mail, the "Central America" also contained tons of gold..."
Yes, there are lots of beautiful pictures of the artifacts and even clothing that was brought up, but no accounting of exactly what was extracted. The absence of this accounting (just how many tons of gold, how many coins, bars, ingots, how many glass bottles) renders the book of limited historical value. It would have taken no more than a couple of pages to furnish such information, but one feels the absence of this data was a conscious decision of the author.
In summary, if you want to regale your eyes with the treasures of this ship, get the book. I you are interested in the exact details of this find and recovery, don't.
Customer Reviews:
Bonansinga brings history alive.......2007-08-13
Prior to purchasing this book, I had never heard of the Eastland disaster. But soon after opening the book, I had become invested in the tale of the Western Electric employees who boarded the doomed vessel, the leaders of the rescue and recovery efforts and the tales. At times the sad tale brought me to the verge of tears.
This book introduces and makes the reader a part of an event in history that should not be forgotten, and God-willing, must not be repeated.
Great book on long-forgotten tragedy.......2007-05-12
Since one of my relatives died in the disaster, I've grown up hearing about the Eastland, but I've never read much about it. With a novelist's eye for detail and description and a historian's sense of accuracy, Bonansinga captures the times and this sad event in vivid detail. This book is truly moving in its depiction of the victims and survivors and made me take pause and think for the first time what my great-aunt's last moments on earth must have been like.
Why haven't many people heard about this?.......2006-07-27
I'm going to cheat. I'm going to write one review and use it on three separate books. No doubt I'll offend the review gods at Amazon, but this subject merits it. Even though I live only 4 hours away from Chicago, I had never heard of the Eastland until I was searching for something entirely different and found a Western Electric website mentioning it. This is an utterly incredible story. I promptly ordered "The Sinking of the Eastland." The book goes into a fair amount of detail about the tragedy itself, yet its primary purpose is to describe the people involved and how they were affected. The author never claims to be a technical authority and instead makes reference several times to another book "Eastland: Legacy of the Titanic." I promptly ordered that one as well and while searching for additional information I learned of a third book "The Eastland Disaster (Images of America)." That one was ordered as well. Since you have read this far, you are obviously interested in my opinions and in my opinion, all three are required reading to grasp what happened. "The Eastland Disaster" is primarily a collection of relevant photographs which augment the other two books. Many more photographs of the events surrounding the ship, the sinking and the aftermath. And finally, "Eastland: Legacy of the Titanic" is much more technically oriented including the naval architecture concepts concerning the ship itself. I found this book to be especially good as it attempts to provide as much of a balanced view as possible, including several contemporary naval experts analyzing the court testimony of a leading architect of the day. Absolutely fascinating stuff. Not only that, but it is interesting to learn our concern for American jobs being lost to China is not a new thing. Ninety years ago people were worried about the same thing as a result of new regulations coming from the Titanic sinking. All three books solidly contribute to gaining knowledge about the disaster.
Chicago's deadliest disaster........2005-12-13
This disaster is little known, even in Chicago. Since I live in the West Suburbs, it is interesting to read this story about the disaster that killed 844 people. Even the death rate is suspect, since some claim it was more, and some less. The Chicago Fire and the Iroquous Theater Fire claimed less than this disaster. Yet, Chicago people remember the fire and forget about the Eastland.
The author does a service in putting a human spin on this tragic event. Hundreds of people died in this disaster. These were hard working immigrants and their families who were hoping for a pleasureable cruise. The author limits his story to the human aspect of the disaster. As Bonansinga would say, another book has investigated that aspect and his story is about the human beings that were affected. There were a few memorable experiences about this book. The fireman carrying a dead child from the boat. A whole family wiped out because of the disaster. A small boy nicknamed little feller dead.
This is a good book about a little known disaster. A must read for someone from Chicago.
A Really Good Historical Tale.......2005-09-03
I never got to know my Mother's sister, my Aunt Rose. She drowned
on the Eastland. She was buried on her 18th Birthday. But, by
reading this book I learned about the Eastland and what really
happenend. I really didn't know because my Mom was only 9 at the
time and families didn't discuss "bad" happenings. That's why
this book is so great. It takes you through the boarding and then
the overturning and the rescue. If you have anyone, who was a
passenger on that boat, or even if you don't , this is very
excellent reading. It made me cry at times to think of all those
people just dumped into the water. I thought about my Aunt,
and her final words, "Tom, what about Frannie?" Frannie being
my Mother. Tom was Rose's boyfriend. He tried to save her but
people just clung to him and he couldn't get to her.
Book Description
Superb well-researched guide to every major shipwreck in the western hemisphere, from time of Columbus to ca. 1825. Expert advice on locating, surveying, excavating, identifying, and preserving artifacts from sunken vessels. Also detailed catalog of wrecks arranged by year and locality — over 300 pages and 4,000 listings. 73 illustrations. Bibliography.
Customer Reviews:
Wonderful Reading.......2003-12-02
Mr. Marx has written a wonderful book, which should be of value to anyone interested in sunken treasure. It is a labor of love, by a man who has lived an exciting life searching successfully for both treasure and historic material.
The book begins with a wonderful and very detailed history of the Spanish treasure fleets - and their impact on Europe, based on extensive research by the author. This is a most impressive and detailed scholarly effort, and alone justifies a read by anyone interested in the conquest of the New World and the effects of this newfound wealth on Old Europe.
The book then discusses modern salvage techniques and provides the would-be treasure hunter with helpful advice on how to conduct a search. I believe that anyone considering actually conducting an operation would be well advised to read this material and follow Mr. Marx's excellent advice.
The rest of the book consists of an index of known shipwrecks off the coasts and islands of the Americas, by location, and a brief history of each.
Many brave souls are asleep in the deep, and Marx has created a wonderful testament to them.
Encyclopedic Review.......2001-05-30
This is not a book for the casual reader -- the text on underwater archaeology can be somewhat dense and technical, and the listings of shipwrecks are encyclopedic, not narrative. However, if you are a wreck diver, shipwreck enthusiast or archaeologist, this is a useful reference volume. Marx's knowledge of the subject matter is obvious, though put to more enjoyable use in his books on the underwater excavation of Port Royal.
Book Description
This thrilling adventure narrative recreates the epic, never-before-told story of Columbuss fourth and final journey to the New Worlda voyage that was by far his most dangerous, unexpected, exhilarating, and consequential.
Customer Reviews:
Amazing Story...and it was never told before?!!?!.......2007-10-09
Dugard is a fantastic writer. Although the beginning of the book begins slowly, the tale of the fourth voyage is one of the most thrilling adventures I ever read. The fact that this was a true story and not fiction makes the reader hold onto their armchair as Dugard's narrative reads beautifully and steers the reader along, and it does so as masterfully as the great Columbus himself, who tenaciously led his frightened men to the New World. And despite Columbus' later misfortunes during this fourth voyage, he was an extremely clever man with outstanding resolve that although never found that elusive passage to Asia did manage to return home safely after a nerve-racking series of disasters. That is astounding by any mortal's standards.
I was glad to see that the History Channel made a movie on Dugard's book, as it is a crucial piece of history and an amazing story. Despite Columbus' failed mission he led his crew through, while even being deathly sick, to finally being rescued. That so many men did follow him, regardless of the mutiny, which was understandable at that crisis, it seems the main issue many others and I have is about Columbus being a tyrant. This whole issue truly needs factual evidence to prove that it was Columbus rather than his officers who committed those gross misdeeds on Hispaniola that tarnished Columbus' name, honor and right to govern.
In comparison to King Ferdinand's Spain, which was entering its most ugly period of pogroms by first expelling the Muslims and currently on a mission to begin the Inquisition, Columbus appears to have been an angel. If harsh punishments were meted out on Hispaniola, it seems the evil King Ferdinand, who was killing people in mass, was no one to reprimand Columbus or his men for harsh treatment. Many factors indicate that the King's aim was to demote Columbus and his monopoly on the New World, which he and his evil bishop, Fonseca, managed to do. They were ruthlessly expelling Muslims and Jews, and Columbus was just another expendable victim added to the list. Hence, this vital information needs to be finally resolved by ALL historians writing about Columbus.
However, this book is titled "The Last Voyage of Columbus", so I can't criticize Dugard too much in this regard, yet his storyline does address this previous issue, and therefore should to some extent. But as for the tantalizing fourth voyage, this is nothing short of extraordinary and almost too unreal to believe.
This was a fascinating tale, written in a fascinating and engaging style. Bravo Dugard! And thanks for bequeathing to the world this great and important tale. A MUST READ!
IT'S A NOVEL........2007-09-25
Sigh. Dugard is such a good writer -- an awe-inspiring writer -- but a book with an index promotes itself as nonfiction. He's got the basic outline of the Columbian story, but the very vividness of his talent makes his historical blunders all the more jarring. Eventually they become unbearable, which is sad.
He keeps tripping over his own cursory research, bedecking Columbus in the correct colorful Renaissance attire, for example, at a time when the real Columbus wore monk's robes. He has Columbus the father holed up with his son Ferdinand in a hurricane -- getting to know each other "after a lifetime apart." What lifetime was that? Ferdinand's mother was Columbus's partner from 1485 to his death. Family life with her, their son Ferdinand, and Columbus's elder son, the motherless Diego, probably made seven years of waiting bearable for him. Cordoba, where Beatriz lived, was his home base, and we know that he stayed there with her and his children between voyages as well: At one point Ferdinand tells us in his biography that Columbus finally sent the two boys back to school because the next voyage was hopelessly delayed.
One night in a storm together may have made for vivid memories, but they knew "each other very, very well" already. With some research, this book could have been a masterpiece.
"He chose to live a bold life rather than settle for mediocrity" (a history teacher's review).......2007-09-01
"The only certainty about Columbus is that, for better or worse, he chose to live a bold life rather than settle for mediocrity." (p. 268)
That is how Dugard ends a lively and informative biography of Christopher Columbus. As the title indicates, Dugard focuses on the fourth voyage of Columbus and its successes and mishaps. In order to properly place this voyage in its correct context, he uses the first half of the book to give the reader a fairly comprehensive biography of Columbus, as well as a thorough look at the politics of the day and other voyages of exploration, especially those of the Spanish and Portugese.
Columbus has been a whipping boy for the politically correct crowd for decades now. Dugard does a solid job of putting Columbus's actions in their proper context without becoming an apologist for his actions. Dugard is unabashadly admiring of Columbus's skills as a navigator and his bravery, but he's quite critical of his abilities as a colonial administrator. His narrative would be a wonderful movie except for two things: #1) Columbus is still radioactively politically incorrect; #2) No one would believe it.
It is a fascinating story and I highly recommend this read. However, I cannot give it 5 stars because Dugard does the unthinkable for a writer of any history - he fails to provide any sort of footnotes or endnotes. None. He does provide an extensive bibliography, but that is not good enough. I require my high school students to provide footnotes or endnotes. Dugard should do the same thing.
The Myth and the Man.......2006-12-04
This book is divided into two parts, the first deals with Columbus, his time spent getting some one (anyone) to back him finacially on a hairbrain scheme to get to China/India by sailing West, and his first three voyages and their results. The second deals with the Fourth Voyage (which he calls his "High Voyage) it's triumph(s), tragedies and their aftermath.
But what makes this book worth reading is what it really deals with, and that when a man's dreams come true they are not always what he expected nor what he wanted in the first place (or thought he did). Columbus wanted to sail west, discover a way to the Orient, make himself a fortune, be showered with lands medals and titles and leave a great legacy for his children and posterity.
Because of his political naivete, what he got was short term acclaim, then humiliation and banishment, the smugness and pettiness of syncophants and courtiers, privation and deprivation, and lastly he almost lost credit for discovering the "New World" to a man (Amerigo Vespucci) who might never have actually commanded a ship of discovery. Keep in mind that the two continents are called America not Columbia (or Colonia, or Colomboia).
Dugard does a marvellous job of bringing out the personalities of all the people involved, from Ferdinand (miser and ingrate) and Isabella (friend and admirer), to his schizophrenic crews (who could never make up their minds on whose side they were on), the indigenous people (some who fought him and others that saved him from starvation); to the man himself who thought that he was protected by God, and never lost his belief in the miraculous help of prayer.
Great Read!.......2006-09-21
This is exciting stuff! I enjoy the honest portrayal of Columbus, showing his strengths and weaknesses and how he was both an opportunist and a victim of the system. The narrative is spell binding and gripping. It is a great story and very well written. One thing the reader should be aware of is that the first half of the body of the book is background information. It interesting and important information to have before you read the account of the voyage, but there is a lot of it and the title may mislead you into thinking that the body of the book primarily consists of the account of Columbus's fourth voyage, when the account is really about half. Secondly, I wished that there were more maps marking the important places the book mentions in Spain, Africa and the New World. There is a map of the New World and the lines marking Columbus's four voyages, but not enough of the important points are included on that map. Having that would have aided my mental picture of what was happening. Also, one of the other reviewers mentioned the lack of source citations. I have noticed the same thing about other recent reader's-history books lately. I wonder if it is becoming a trend to cite less, in order to prevent distraction to the reader. I hope not. Citing sources is an important part of validating one's research and it reassures folks that undue embellishments are not being made. Nonetheless, these are all nit-picky points compared to the almost magical way that Dugard draws you into the story. Buy the book! You won't be able to put it down you will be amazed at what Columbus and his crew endured.
Book Description
An extraordinary and dramatic tale of shipwrecks, underwater discovery, and the dawn of the golden age of piracy.On January 2, 1678, a fleet of French ships sank in the Caribbean Sea, one hundred miles off the Venezuelan coast, on the killer reef of Las Aves Island. These wrecks, which claimed more than 1,200 lives, proved disastrous for French naval power in the region and sparked the rise of a golden age of piracy, an era that was forever to alter the shape of the Americas. In The Lost Fleet, writer, explorer, and deep-sea diver Barry Clifford interweaves the dramatic tale of this maritime catastrophe -- and the dangerous upsurge of piracy in the world's seas -- with the contemporary account of his own expedition to document and explore the wrecks.Tracing the lives of fabled pirates like the Chevalier de Grammont, Nikolaas Van Hoorn, Thomas Paine, and Jean Comte d'EstrÉes, The Lost Fleet delivers a stunning portrait of a dark age, rich with historical detail and romantic drama. Toward the end of the eighteenth century, the outcasts of European society came together to form a democracy of buccaneers, settling on a string of islands off the African coast. From there, the pirates made their fame and fortune by haunting the world's oceans, wreaking havoc on the settlements along the Spanish main and -- often enlisted by French and English governments -- sacking ships, ports, and coastal towns. Now, two hundred and fifty years later, Barry Clifford has followed the pirates' destructive wake around the world all the way back to Venezuela. With the help of a remarkably accurate map, drawn by Jean Comte d'EstrÉes (the captain of the lost French fleet) himself, Clifford was able to locate the exact site of the disaster and the wreckage of the once mighty armada. Beautifully told, epic in scope, and steeped in period detail, The Lost Fleet is a mesmerizing account of historical discovery and underwater reclamation for anyone with a heart for adventure and history, myth, and treasure hunting.
Customer Reviews:
Admirble.......2005-05-05
An entertaining and educational effort combining modern day treasure hunting with events from the piratical days of the late 1600's. Clifford and his crew search out and locate the nearly forgotten shipwreck of the 1678 French fleet to conquer the Dutch at a little unknown island by the name of Las Aves, off the coast of Venezuela.
The author blends the history of this rough and defiant time period with the modern day struggles he encounters in finding and obtaining permission to fulfill his explorations.
There is much to be learned about these forgotten pirates of the past and the lives they lived. Names such as Jean Compte d'Estrees, Laurens de Graff, Thomas Paine, Chevalier de Grammont, Nikolass Van Hoorn and others deserve the recognition Clifford attributes to them.
The intermittent flip-flopping back and forth from past to present and visa-versa may be somewhat hampering for a few, but still a good book. Makes you want to read more of this freebooter time period.
Buccaneers and Underwater Archeology.......2004-03-31
Barry Clifford has put together an entertaining book that tells two stories linked across 300 years by a maritime disaster that drastically altered the fate of the Caribbean. He interleaves the stories in a successful effort to provide tension and suspense, keeping the reader interested throughout the book.
The first story is a narrative of the underwater exploration of the site of the wreck of Jean Comte d'Estrées fleet off Las Aves island. He details the interpersonal relationships and trials of gaining approval to explore the wrecks in foreign waters. While I am not very interested in underwater archeology, Clifford made these segments entertaining and very readable.
For my interest, the other thread of the book was the real meat. Barry Clifford provides a detailed history of several of the major figures from the beginning of the Golden Age of Piracy, specifically 1678 to about 1700. He provides a good deal of information on the Chevalier de Grammont, de Graf, Thomas Paine (not the author of Common Sense) and Nikolaas Van Hoorn. Clifford recounts the many sackings of towns, and interactions with local governments, including the changing attitudes as the years wore on.
Overall, I found this to be an entertaining and informative read. I may have to look into finding copies of his other books. For more information on piracy in the Caribbean (from the Spanish viewpoint) try Pirates in the Caribbean :1493-1720 by Cruz Apestegui. P-)
Another engrossing read by expeditioneer Barry Clifford.......2003-07-31
Another book by the "archeological privateer" Barry Clifford, the oceanic excavator who found the wreck of Black Sam Bellamy's ship the Whydah in the sands off Cape Cod. His writing has improved since he wrote "Expedition Whydah," though he's still not a master with words. No matter, his subjects are always facinating enough I don't mind that the prose can be a bit clunky.
This one traces his team's discovery and exploration (underwritten by Max Kennedy, the BBC, and the Discovery Channel) of a wreck of an entire fleet of ships--5 French warships and two pirate ships the French fleet hired to assist them in warfare--on the reef of Los Aves off the coast of Venezuela. In a similar vein to the Whydah book, Clifford intersperses his text with photographs, maps, and drawings, and alternates the story of his expedition with history about the pirates involved in the wrecks.
In this case, he does the opposite of the Whydah story (which traced Sam Bellamy's rise to captainship and followed him until his demise), and instead follows the lives of the documented pirates who *survived* the massive wreck at Los Aves, among them a famous and ridiculously lucky mulatto captain named Laurens de Graff, and a New England pirate named Thomas Paine who later went on to return to his home and established himself as a powerful and corrupt politician (not the same Thomas Paine that wrote the "Common Sense" political publication, this was a few decades earlier). The historical portions of the text offer a lot of great insight into the piratical/buccanneer climate (political, economical, etc) of the mid- to late-17th c. in the Caribbean and Spanish Main.
Most interesting is the existance of a period map he brought with him, drawn by the leader of the shipwrecked fleet from shore where he survived the wreckage, outlining the positions of each wreck and labelling them by name--his accuracy was apparently quite high, so it functioned like a literal 'treasure map,' showing the explorers exactly where they would find the wrecks of which ships! There's not as much info on artifacts in this one, since they merely mapped and filmed the wrecks and haven't excavated yet (unknown if they will, in fact, due to most of the wreckage having become an integral part of the ecosystem of the reef by now), but there's a lot of really new discoveries on the research front (pub date on this is 2002) about the various pirates involved, most of whom are lesser known names (as opposed to the more "famous" pirates like Blackbeard and Captain Kidd, who came later...these were the pirates operating on the cusp of the Golden Age of Piracy).
So, if you want to read some detailed info about pirate captains of the pre-1700 era, this is a good book to check out!
Two Stories In One Book.......2002-10-06
Barry Clifford has written an interesting book on a fleet of French ships that were in pursuit of Dutch ships which led the French into the treacherous waters of the reef off of Las Aves Island near the coast of Venezuela in 1678. He states the wreckage of the French fleet on Las Aves was the beginning of some of the greatest pirate careers in history. British and French ships would attack Spanish ships as they returned to Spain after loading up on riches in the New World. Many pirates, Clifford states, met a brutal demise and he goes into detail in regard to a number of pirates to illustrate his point while one in particular, Thomas Paine (not the one of Common Sense fame), managed to retire and lead a somewhat respectable life. Clifford organized a team to visit the site in 1998 and locate the fleet for purposes of drawing and photographing whatever he may find of the remains. He was not interested in disturbing the reef by removing artifacts. Clifford goes into interesting detail on his team's visit to Las Aves as they go about doing their assigned work. Clifford alternates throughout the book covering piracy during the 1600's and his visit to the site during 1998. I took a chance on buying this book through the History Book Club not really knowing what I was getting. I found this book to be very worth while to read and it will have a permanent place in my library.
Books:
- Jesus and the Eyewitnesses: The Gospels as Eyewitness Testimony
- Jewish Literacy: The Most Important Things to Know About the Jewish Religion, Its People and Its History
- King Leopold's Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror, and Heroism in Colonial Africa
- King of the Delawares: Teedyuscung, 1700-1763 (Iroquois and Their Neighbors)
- Latin America: A Social History of the Colonial Period (with InfoTrac®)
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- Lords of the North (The Saxon Chronicles Series #3)
- New York Burning: Liberty, Slavery, and Conspiracy in Eighteenth-Century Manhattan
- NIrV Discoverer's Bible for Young Readers
- Nothing But the Truth: An Anthology of Native American Literature
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