Perils of the Atlantic: Steamship Disasters, 1850 to the Present

by William Henry Flayhart III

A colorful and deadly history of ocean liner disasters from the mid-nineteenth century to the present, Perils of the Atlantic is a chronicle of the most frightening episodes in the maritime history of the North Atlantic. From 1850 to the present day, the Atlantic has been home to hundreds of ocean liners and cruise ships, each more lavish than the last...all of them symbols of wealth and luxury. Perhaps this is why readers have always been fascinated by the lives of these ships--and their deaths. Many of us know the stories of the Titanic and the Lusitania. Both tragedies caused tremendous loss of life, even as they made the ships immortal. But there are many little-known accounts of extraordinary survivals at sea, such as the Inman and International liner City of Chicago that jammed her bow into an Irish peninsula in 1892 but stayed afloat long enough for all to be rescued, or the City of Richmond that survived a dangerous fire in 1891, and a year earlier the City of Paris, whose starboard engine exploded at full speed in the mid-Atlantic and yet miraculously still made port. Often such tales are forgotten even if the ship sank: In 1898 the Holland-America liner Veendam hit a submerged wreck and sank at sea, but all lives were saved--so this vessel's dramatic story seemed less important in maritime history than incidents involving human loss. As recently as 2000, the Sea Breeze I sank off the East Coast of the United States while on a positioning voyage, but all her crew members were rescued in a heroic effort by U.S. Coast Guard helicopters. These stories and many others are dramatic, and acclaimed maritime scholar William Flayhart has spent much of the last forty years in search of material from which to create colorful narratives.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0393041557
• ISBN13: 9780393041552
• Release Date: June 2003
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
• Length: 380 Pages
• Weight: 1.52 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.2" x 6.4" x 9.6"

Customer Reviews

Excellent Book

William Flayhart's "Perils of the Atlantic: Steamship Disasters, 1850 to the Present" is a well researched and well written book. The reasonable cost is absolutely worth the price to have this little jewel on the bookshelf. Each chapter describes one ship's life and loss. Some sort of illustration of each ship is provided, though with the early ships, a photo of a model might be the only representation, as is the case with the Collins Line's "Arctic" lost in 1852. Of the 22 chapters, 2 are dedicated to well known stories: the White Star Line's "Titanic" and the Italian Line's "Andrea Doria." Other chapters relate the stories of ships which the names may be familiar, but the stories less so: "Empress of Ireland," "Lusitania," "Morro Castle" and "Seabreeze I" - the raw video footage of the latter in her last hours a favorite on [...]. The gripping stories of the long forgotten 19th century ships, make for excellent reading, no less dramatic, or tragic, than the more recent examples. It would seem that telling the story of a ship far from land, slowly sinking, the desperate struggle to save the women and children, the valiant self sacrifice of the crew, the priceless cargo disappearing into the depths, would make for easy story telling. Nothing could be farther from the truth. Too many authors are able to drown the reader in tedious technical minutiae and endless back-story. Mr. Flayhart skillfully avoids those traps, balancing ample detail with genuine humanity to make the stories interesting, exciting and poignant. Mr. Flayhart's writing is smooth and seamless. Since each chapter is a complete and independent story (ranging from 8 to 32 pages), this is a good book for short reads. Highly recommended.