The Tragic History of the Sea: Shipwrecks from the Bible to Titanic

by Anthony Brandt

Is there any tale more thrilling than a shipwreck? Disaster at sea is an ever-present peril, inspiring ancient legends, great works of fiction, and countless yarns of deadly typhoons, vessels consumed by fire, and desperate castaways alone on an empty ocean. Before Homer composed the Odyssey, sailors were already telling their terrifying stories, and Anthony Brandt has culled only the very best for this essential and engrossing chronicle of shipwrecks through the ages.

Brandt's selections range from the apostle Paul to Mark Twain to the Titanic disaster. The Tragic History of the Sea draws from tales around the globe: the doomed Medusa, whose survivors were abandoned to their fate by a cowardly crew, to live on only in a famous painting in the Louvre; the infamous Essex and her fatal cruise which inspired Melville's Moby Dick; and the harrowing wreck of the Wager, which left the earlier Lord Byron, the poet's kinsman, starving on Patagonia's bleak shores.

A riveting anthology of high adventure and astonishing survival against all odds, this storm-tossed voyage through history's gales and across unforgiving seas represents the best of a storytelling tradition that goes back centuries. Each extraordinary tale is linked to the next by Brandt's expert annotations and commentary, which sets them in context, provides a wealth of maritime and literary background and places this volume of shipwreck tales in a class by itself.

Genres: Nonfiction, History

352 pages, Paperback

First published August 15, 2006

About the author

From Random House:

Anthony Brandt is the editor of the Adventure Classics series published by National Geographic Society Press, and the books editor at National Geographic Adventure magazine. Formerly the book critic at Men’s Journal, Brandt has written for The Atlantic, GQ, Esquire, and many other magazines, and is the author of two previous books. He lives in Sag Harbor, New York.

Reviews

[Mallory · Rating 4 out of 5]

It is an ancient metaphor that life is a voyage. In shipwreck we come to its limits, to the most critical of test cases. Who could not be interested in the outcome?

Fascinating accounts often written by those who experienced the trauma of shipwreck first-hand. It's worth picking up, especially if the tragedies of the sea hold an obsession for you as they do me. Guaranteed you will read about at least one wreck you'd never heard of before.

Favorite quotes: "Thus shall we make it appear that Truth is the daughter of Time, and that men ought not to deny everything which is not subject to their own sense." - William Strachey, on being wrecked upon the dreaded "Devil's Islands" of Bermuda, only to realize they were "habitable and commodious"

"A striking proof this is that cowardice and guilt are only confident and brave when their cause is a bad one; but true, undaunted courage and goodness, like the main-mast, stands fast amidst the tempests, while the smaller spars are shivered and blown away." - Charles H. Barnard, on the treachery that stranded him in the Falklands

"Although I was far removed from the busy world and its distractions, yet I found that there was no spot of earth, however distant or concealed, which is free from the trials and disappointments incident to human nature, and that go where we will, we can never fly from ourselves." - Charles H. Barnard

[Roy]

Paints a sad picture of what life could turn into for a seafareing man /woman in this particular time and it sometimes did just that . Many lives were lost and some were saved but thet must of had nightmares for years to come after what they had done .

[Evan Brandt · Rating 3 out of 5]

Tragedy. Death. Drowning. Burning. Murder. Loss. Deceit. Betrayal. Cruel fate. Solitude. Cannibalism. Wild vengeful animals. War. Madness. Suicide.

What's not to like?

[Oridisi · Rating 5 out of 5]

very interesting, loved every page