by Julian Sancton
‘The harrowing, survival story of an early polar expedition that went
terribly wrong, with the ship frozen in ice and the crew trapped inside for the
entire sunless, Antarctic winter. In August 1897, the Belgica set sail, eager
to become the first scientific expedition to reach the white wilderness of the
South Pole. But the ship soon became stuck fast in the ice of the Bellinghausen
sea, condemning the ship’s crew to overwintering in Antarctica and months of
endless polar night. In the darkness, plagued by a mysterious illness, their
minds ravaged by the sound of dozens of rats teeming in the hold, they
descended into madness,’ says the publisher’s note. ‘In this epic tale, Julian
Sancton unfolds a story of adventure gone horribly awry. As the crew teetered
on the brink, the Captain increasingly relied on two young officers whose
friendship had blossomed in captivity – Dr Frederick Cook, the wild American
whose later infamy would overshadow his brilliance on the Belgica; and the
ship’s first mate, soon-to-be legendary Roald Amundsen, who later raced Captain
Scott to the South Pole. Together, Cook and Amundsen would plan a last-ditch,
desperate escape from the ice – one that would either etch their names into
history or doom them to a terrible fate in the frozen ocean. Drawing on
first-hand crew diaries and journals, and exclusive access to the ship’s
logbook, the result is equal parts maritime thriller and gothic horror. This is
an unforgettable journey into the deep,’ it adds.
‘Julian Sancton’s exquisitely researched and deeply engrossing account of the
Belgica’s disastrous Antarctic expedition is a narrative of cascading system
failures. Anything that could have gone wrong certainly did. The crew of the
Belgica kept diaries of the expedition, which provide an extraordinary treasure
trove for Madhouse. Sancton uses the explorers’ personal accounts to tease out
the personalities and fears and rivalries of his subjects,’ says The New
York Times. ‘Sancton tells the disturbing saga of the crew’s mental and
physical anguish while isolated and trapped in the ice of Antarctica. In
graphic and meticulously researched detail, he describes the countless
impediments that pushed these men to the brink of insanity [and] does a
brilliant job of transporting the reader to a far-off place and time. In its
most basic structure, this work is a study of human nature under horrific
conditions and how leadership, professionalism, and compassion ultimately prevailed
over madness and disease,’ says the New York Journal of Books. ‘[Once
the Belgica became icebound], the crew did everything they could to prepare for
a dark, below-freezing winter, but they were wracked with despair, suffering
headaches, insomnia, dizziness, and later, madness – all vividly captured by
Sancton. With a cast of intriguing characters and drama galore, this history
reads like fiction. A rousing, suspenseful adventure tale,’ says Kirkus.
Madhouse at the End of the Earth is available on Amazon
by Michael J. Tougias and Casey Sherman
‘It’s the winter of 1952 and a ferocious Nor’easter is pounding New England with howling winds and seventy-foot seas. Two oil tankers get caught in the violent storm off Cape Cod, its fury splitting the massive ships in two. Back on shore are four young Coast Guardsmen who are given a suicide mission. They must save the lives of the seamen left stranded in the killer storm, and they have to do it in a tiny lifeboat. The crew is led by Bernie Webber, who has to rely on prayer and the courage of his three crew members to pull off the impossible. As Webber and his crew sail into the teeth of the storm, each man comes to the realisation that he may not come back alive. They’ve lost all navigation and have no idea where the stranded seamen are, and have no idea how to get back home. Whether by sheer luck or divine intervention, the crew stumbles upon the wounded ship in the darkness. More than thirty men appear at the railings of the SS Pendleton, all hoping to be saved. Once again, Webber and his crew face a daunting challenge. How can they rescue all these men with their tiny lifeboat?’ says the publisher’s note.
‘Readers who appreciate a gripping survival tale will be spellbound by this fast-paced, action-packed account of a real-life disaster involving two tankers wrecked in a ferocious North Atlantic storm and the crews’ hair-raising, valiant rescue by the Coast Guard. A thrilling, harrowing account of disaster and heroism,’ says Kirkus. ‘What unfolded in those desperate hours, as the gaping halves of the two ships slowly sank, and the unprecedented rescue efforts that followed, is the subject of this real-world maritime thriller. The authors capably weave together the gripping moments of the multiple actions by Coast Guard crews that took place, painting fully developed pictures of the individuals who risked their own lives to assist. The book moves swiftly through the chaos, pulling stories together from the rescuers as well as those awaiting aid. Woven in, without being ponderous or distracting, is the fascinating history of the local area and details about the community’s long relationship with the sea and the Coast Guard that protected it,’ says Vail Daily. Notably, Hollywood also found the story exciting enough to produce a movie based on this book; The Finest Hours, starring Chris Pine, Eric Bana and Casey Affleck, was released in 2016 and was a big hit with audiences.
The Finest Hours is available on Amazon
by Jonathan Franklin
‘On 17th November, 2012, Salvador Alvarenga left the coast of Mexico for a
two-day fishing trip. A vicious storm killed his engine and the current dragged
his boat out to sea. The storm picked up and carried him West, deeper into the
heart of the Pacific Ocean. Alvarenga would not touch solid ground again for 14
months. When he was washed ashore on January 30th, 2014, he had drifted over
9,000 miles. Three dozen cruise ships and container vessels passed nearby. Not
one stopped for the stranded fisherman. He considered suicide on multiple
occasions – including offering himself up to a pack of circling sharks. But Alvarenga
developed a method of survival that kept his body and mind intact long enough
for the Pacific Ocean to spit him up onto a remote palm-studded island.
Crawling ashore, he was saved by a local couple living in their own private
castaway paradise. Based on dozens of hours of interviews with Alvarenga and
his colleagues, search and rescue officials, the medical team that saved his
life and the remote islanders who nursed him back to normality, 438 Days
is an epic tale of survival and one man’s incredible story of beating the
ultimate odds,’ says the publisher’s note.
‘Franklin meticulously re-creates the harrowing voyage of Salvador Alvarenga, a
fisherman whose boat lost motor power hours after leaving the coast of Mexico
and was cast adrift upon the ocean in November 2012. More than a year later, in
early 2014, Alvarenga was discovered in the Marshall Islands, 5,500 miles away
from where he initially set sail. Though the story is clouded with public
scepticism, this is a fascinating, action-packed account of long-term survival
on the open seas,’ says Kirkus. ‘Going out to sea might seem simple but
it is a monster you must face. If you are going to face the sea, you have to be
ready for all it can toss at you, including the wind, a storm or a big animal
that might eat you – all those dangers. People go out for these little seaside
trips. That is not the ocean. The ocean is out there past 120km. Out there, you
feel the terror. Your heart beats different,’ says El Hombre Lobo, at
one point in the book, to his colleague Alvarenga. Drifting helplessly across
the open sea for more than a year, Alvarenga must certainly have felt that
terror in large doses. The book almost allows the reader to be in that boat
with Alvarenga and share some of his terror, experience a bit of the fear.
438 Days is available on Amazon
by Matt Lewis
‘In the depths of Antarctic winter, hundreds of miles from land or rescue,
a small fishing boat is swallowed by waves as high as houses. The captain is
fatally slow to act, and then paralysed by fear. The officers flee for their
lives. Only the actions of Matt Lewis, a 23-year-old British marine biologist
and one of the most inexperienced men aboard, will save the lives of the South
African crew. Lewis is the last man off the sinking boat, and leads the escape
onto three life rafts. There the battle for survival begins,’ says the
publisher’s note. ‘There’s nothing that armchair adventure lovers relish more
than a gripping true story of disaster and heroism, and Last Man Off delivers
all that against a breathtaking backdrop of icebergs and killer whales. On June
6, 1998, twenty-three-year-old Matt Lewis had just started his dream job as a
scientific observer aboard a deep-sea fishing boat in the waters off
Antarctica. As the crew haul in the line for the day, a storm begins to brew.
When the captain vanishes and they are forced to abandon ship, Lewis leads the
escape onto three life rafts, where the battle for survival begins,’ it adds.
‘In his riveting book, Lewis details the series of chance events and avoidable
missteps that culminated in unimaginable tragedy and remarkable survival. His
descriptions of the daily ins and outs of deep sea commercial fishing are
fascinating. He weaves together stories of human error keeping agitated company
with human heroism, as the crew of the Sudur Havid [the fishing vessel that
went down] began a formidable fight against the icy water and the tormenting
relentlessness of the waves. Lewis arrived on the Sudur Havid a rookie of the
seas, and by the boat’s tragic end, he was the very last to step off its
sinking deck. Last Man Off is an unforgettable, brutal story of survival
and loss, miscalculations and modesty – a must-read,’ says Vail Daily.
‘Writing in unflashy and economical prose, Lewis describes how at the age of 23
he was offered a job as a marine biologist observer on the Sudur Havid, a
fishing boat making a routine trip from Cape Town into the Antarctic. [It is a]
story of survival against the odds that is simultaneously terrifying and
stirring. Lewis skilfully depicts the horror of the events even as he depicts
himself as the unassuming hero of the hour, taking control because nobody else
was capable or willing. [The] book deserves high praise. And the inevitable
film adaptation should be terrific,’ says The Guardian.
Last Man Off is available on Amazon
by Michael J. Tougias
‘In the midst of the blizzard of 1978, the tanker Global Hope floundered on
the shoals in Salem Sound off the Massachusetts coast. The Coast Guard heard
the Mayday calls and immediately dispatched a patrol boat. Within an hour, the
Coast Guard boat was in as much trouble as the tanker, having lost its radar,
depth finder, and engine power in horrendous seas. Pilot boat Captain Frank
Quirk was monitoring the Coast Guard’s efforts by radio, and when he heard that
the patrol boat was in jeopardy, he decided to act. Gathering his crew of four,
he readied his forty-nine-foot steel boat, the Can Do, and entered the
maelstrom of the blizzard. Using dozens of interviews and audiotapes that
recorded every word exchanged between Quirk and the Coast Guard, Tougias has
written a devastating, true account of bravery and death at sea,’ says the
publisher’s note.
‘The 1978 blizzard lashed the Massachusetts coast with blinding snow,
90-mile-per-hour winds and 40-foot waves. Into the juggernaut sailed the small
boat Can Do and its crew of five civilians on a doomed mission to assist two
other vessels imperilled by the storm. All hands were lost, but since the Can
Do sank only a few agonising miles from shore, there are records of terse radio
transmissions to help the author recreate their last desperate hours. Tougias
delivers a well-researched, vividly written tale of brave men overwhelmed by
the awesome forces of nature,’ says Publishers Weekly. ‘The author has
ably put together the ensuing scenario from taped radio communications and
extensive interviews with ‘coasties’ who were also at sea and with others
monitoring the situation that night. A must-read for marine disaster buffs,’
says Kirkus.
Ten Hours Until Dawn is available on Amazon
by Mark Shand
Hey, wait a minute, isn’t this supposed to be about books on adventures at
sea? So, what’s this – a book about one man’s journey on the mighty Brahmaputra
– doing here?! Well, bear with me. It’s an entertaining, well-written book and
the Brahmaputra is no ordinary river. ‘Beginning as a tiny glacial stream in
Western Tibet the Brahmaputra flows through India and Bangladesh before gushing
out into the Bay of Bengal. Unable to reach the northern part of the river due
to Chinese intransigence, Mark Shand nonetheless set out to attempt what no
foreigner had ever done: complete the huge journey from the unexplored jungles
of the Indo-Tibet border to the largest river delta in the world. River Dog
is a chronicle of that journey, a remarkable story encompassing sublime
landscapes – in Assam where the river begins to broaden into its full majesty –
and rather odd encounters, including a bizarre group of identical-looking monks
in Majuli (the largest river island in the world). But it is also a celebration
– of a river that flows with mystery and legend, the men who have set out to
discover it and a rather charming canine travelling companion,’ says the
publisher’s note.
I did observe that a significant part of this ‘journey down the Brahmaputra’
takes alongside the mighty river rather than actually on it, as Shand spends
time traveling on foot, in rickety jeeps and even on airplanes rather than in a
boat. But River Dog is still an undeniably well-written travel tale, a
story of the author’s time spent in Northeast India and an account of his
fascination with the mighty Brahmaputra. The interesting cast of characters
keeps the story moving, though the author’s many and very detailed descriptions
of his dog, and of the special relationship which they purportedly share, can
get a bit tiresome. Still, a good story, very readable.
‘Classic Shand, a tale told with his usual zest, warmth and ironic wit. Whether
displaying a marked ineptitude in the crossing of cane bridges, being placed
under house arrest, or making unscheduled contact with the river after one too
many puffs on an early morning chillum, Shand shows that whilst he may
occasionally lose his cool, he never loses his sense of the absurd, or his
sense of wonder,’ says Wanderlust. ‘River Dog is bolstered by humour on
a grand scale, with the extraordinary river journey as the backdrop. Any other
travel writer might have been hard pressed to follow such a precarious trail
but Shand is made of stern stuff,’ adds Literary Review.
River Dog is available on Amazon
Also see part 1 of this article
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