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Disasters at Sea: A Visual History of Infamous Shipwrecks
A fully illustrated collection of the most thrilling shipwrecks of all time!Experience the mystery and wonder of the bottom of the sea with over sixty accounts of shipwreck catastrophes. Illustrated with detailed maps and shipwreck locations, Disasters at Sea takes readers on a fascinating journey through history and to the ocean floor. Learn all about the historical details and theories of the most infamous shipwrecks-from the most well-known sinkings like the Titanic, to the obscure, mysterious drifting ghost ships and unexplained disappearances. Subjects • Tragedies by Mother Nature• Shipwrecks and war• Fatal errors• Legends, myths, mysteries• And many more!Whether by human error, collision, piracy, or mutiny, this book has them all. With shipwrecks from the Old Testament, to ancient Greece, to modern times, this exciting book is compellingly written with accompanying sources, high-quality images, and a great deal of evidence. Find out interesting tidbits about Christopher Columbus’s Santa Maria, which eluded discovery for centuries despite long-term investigations. Stay afloat with the Mary Celeste and the Carroll A. Deering-ships that did not wreck at all but whose entire crews disappeared, never to be found. Readers are no doubt familiar with the tragedy of the Titanic, but this book also recounts the Wilhelm Gustloff, which took nine thousand lives at the end of World War II.Disasters at Sea is sure to offer an addicting and thrilling voyage that will leave you reading over and over again. This is an exciting book for the history buff-or for anyone looking for a fascinating read!Skyhorse Publishing, as well as our Arcade imprint, are proud to publish a broad range of books for readers interested in history--books about World War II, the Third Reich, Hitler and his henchmen, the JFK assassination, conspiracies, the American Civil War, the American Revolution, gladiators, Vikings, ancient Rome, medieval times, the old West, and much more. While not every title we publish becomes a New York Times bestseller or a national bestseller, we are committed to books on subjects that are sometimes overlooked and to authors whose work might not otherwise find a home.
193 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 2009
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54 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
February 15, 2021
For me, there has always been something fascinating about lost ships. I don't think I'm necessarily weird, just that ship disappearances serve to remind us that we have never conquered the oceans. This book provides a combination of history with visual (prints, photos, diagrams, maps, charts) representation of the missing ships. Rather than break up the chapters chronologically, the layout instead focuses upon how or why a ship went down into the Locker of Davy Jones.
NATURE'S FURY
(Mother Nature gets angry)
The General Grant was an American clipper ship that left Melbourne in 1866, laden with gold miners and their families. They were on their way to London with their wealth from the Australian Gold Rush. Instead, the ship was wrecked on the Auckland Islands, having drifted through fog only to suddenly emerge in front of a 400 foot jagged black rock. Sucked into a cave, the ship was destroyed with just 15 survivors. Their hell continued, as they had to live on the barren, rarely visited islands. After living off the land for months, four brave men launched one of the surviving lifeboats to try to reach help. They were never heard or seen again. A year and a half after the disaster, a sealing expedition chanced to come by where they found the 10 remaining survivors. The sunken gold has never been found.
THE FATAL FLAW
(caused by human error)
The Vasa was supposed to be the mighty warship worthy of the mighty King Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden. It was loaded with 64 cannons and bedecked with hundreds of heavy ornate carvings. The ship designers disagreed with the King, telling him the ship would be too top-heavy and would sink. The King ordered them to continue. The result: On her maiden voyage in 1628, the ship wobbled out of port and saluted the King with cannon fire...and promptly keeled over on her side, sending the greatest Swedish vessel, and fifty men, to watery graves.
COLLISION COURSE
(no one looking out for the obvious)
The Empress of Ireland had a ginger tomcat named 'Emmy' who never failed to sail with her ship. Until, that is, the early morning of May 29, 1914, when she refused to board the ship and instead watched it pull away. Call it feline intuition. 1,012 lives were lost when the ship collided with a Norwegian coal ship on the St. Lawrence River and quickly sank.
There are more chapters with each disaster given at least two pages for illustrations and text. I would have preferred more info and some of the disasters were not necessarily disasters, just shipwrecks. But this is a good start for anyone interested in maritime catastrophe.
Book Season = Autumn (gales of November come a'slashing)
NATURE'S FURY
(Mother Nature gets angry)
The General Grant was an American clipper ship that left Melbourne in 1866, laden with gold miners and their families. They were on their way to London with their wealth from the Australian Gold Rush. Instead, the ship was wrecked on the Auckland Islands, having drifted through fog only to suddenly emerge in front of a 400 foot jagged black rock. Sucked into a cave, the ship was destroyed with just 15 survivors. Their hell continued, as they had to live on the barren, rarely visited islands. After living off the land for months, four brave men launched one of the surviving lifeboats to try to reach help. They were never heard or seen again. A year and a half after the disaster, a sealing expedition chanced to come by where they found the 10 remaining survivors. The sunken gold has never been found.
THE FATAL FLAW
(caused by human error)
The Vasa was supposed to be the mighty warship worthy of the mighty King Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden. It was loaded with 64 cannons and bedecked with hundreds of heavy ornate carvings. The ship designers disagreed with the King, telling him the ship would be too top-heavy and would sink. The King ordered them to continue. The result: On her maiden voyage in 1628, the ship wobbled out of port and saluted the King with cannon fire...and promptly keeled over on her side, sending the greatest Swedish vessel, and fifty men, to watery graves.
COLLISION COURSE
(no one looking out for the obvious)
The Empress of Ireland had a ginger tomcat named 'Emmy' who never failed to sail with her ship. Until, that is, the early morning of May 29, 1914, when she refused to board the ship and instead watched it pull away. Call it feline intuition. 1,012 lives were lost when the ship collided with a Norwegian coal ship on the St. Lawrence River and quickly sank.
There are more chapters with each disaster given at least two pages for illustrations and text. I would have preferred more info and some of the disasters were not necessarily disasters, just shipwrecks. But this is a good start for anyone interested in maritime catastrophe.
Book Season = Autumn (gales of November come a'slashing)
May 26, 2021
I BORROWED THIS BROWSER'S DELIGHT FROM THE PRIME READING LIBRARY AT AMAZON. INCLUDED WITH PRIME!
My Review: It felt a bit odd to recommend a book of shipwrecks on a travel holiday blog post. I'll tell y'all what, though, it's nowhere near as odd as recommending a reader go spend yet more money than they already are on a holiday travel weekend...and thus this free-to-read recommendation.
This is eye-candy, pure and simple. Of course there is a bibliography, de rigueur in modern publishing, and it also has a very nice Index with hyperlinks to the subjects! It's really designed to be a picture book though, a lovely ornamental thing; those fare notoriously poorly on the Kindle. The small screen, the limited graphics capability, the inevitable awfulness of publishers' preferred Satanic nightmare, the PDF, playing badly with Amazon's technology so no one will be able to enjoy them. UNLESS you've sprung for a Fire tablet.
Now we're cookin' with gas.
Skyhorse, this book's publisher, has landed in the news here lately for their determinedly contrarian actions. What I think of that isn't meant for this occasion. What I think of their willingness and apparent ability to make illustrated history and nature and such-like ebooks available inexpensively and in formats that play well with Amazon's tech is entirely laudable.
As there are embedded images in the rest of the review, it can be seen at Expendable Mudge Muses Aloud.
My Review: It felt a bit odd to recommend a book of shipwrecks on a travel holiday blog post. I'll tell y'all what, though, it's nowhere near as odd as recommending a reader go spend yet more money than they already are on a holiday travel weekend...and thus this free-to-read recommendation.
This is eye-candy, pure and simple. Of course there is a bibliography, de rigueur in modern publishing, and it also has a very nice Index with hyperlinks to the subjects! It's really designed to be a picture book though, a lovely ornamental thing; those fare notoriously poorly on the Kindle. The small screen, the limited graphics capability, the inevitable awfulness of publishers' preferred Satanic nightmare, the PDF, playing badly with Amazon's technology so no one will be able to enjoy them. UNLESS you've sprung for a Fire tablet.
Now we're cookin' with gas.
Skyhorse, this book's publisher, has landed in the news here lately for their determinedly contrarian actions. What I think of that isn't meant for this occasion. What I think of their willingness and apparent ability to make illustrated history and nature and such-like ebooks available inexpensively and in formats that play well with Amazon's tech is entirely laudable.
As there are embedded images in the rest of the review, it can be seen at Expendable Mudge Muses Aloud.
March 4, 2021
A short book with photos and illustrations of shipwrecks, some of which I learned for the first time. A nice read for children and adults alike who are fascinated with the sea.
November 16, 2019
I expected a little bit more info from this book, but just know that these are very BRIEF overviews of each disaster described. That's not to say they aren't informative - this book is great if you're not well-versed in maritime disasters. I know most of the events described in this book and honestly feel like a Wikipedia entry may have more details. For a complete novice, someone who may have never heard of most of these before, this is a decent introduction.
There are a lot of fascinating images/paintings/photos throughout, but a problem I had (with the Kindle edition) is that a great many of the paintings aren't referenced until the very end in the credits section, and my credits section was all squashed together, making it difficult to go back and forth trying to figure out the painter or title of the painting. Maybe creating a link to pop up the info or open the credit page would have helped here. Another issue with the Kindle version was that a lot of the captions for the photos were incorrectly sequenced, and not matching with their images.
There was an instance where the author referenced a letter found on a body and said that the letter has been widely reprinted, but only gave a short section of the letter here. I would have liked to read the whole letter! I really don't want to have to constantly put my book/Kindle down to go online and search for things. Another similar issue was a reprint of a news article about the Mary Celeste but only the first half of the news article was provided! I wish they would have printed the whole thing. The author gives no reason for the omission. These little issues frustrated me.
I would also have liked to see some diagrams of the layouts of the ships, or at least of similar ships, for reference. Maybe some of those can be amended to future editions.
Overall, it's definitely not a waste of time, especially since this did not take me very long to read at all. It's probably great for middle school or high school kids who are interested, or laymen in general who are not familiar with maritime history.
There are a lot of fascinating images/paintings/photos throughout, but a problem I had (with the Kindle edition) is that a great many of the paintings aren't referenced until the very end in the credits section, and my credits section was all squashed together, making it difficult to go back and forth trying to figure out the painter or title of the painting. Maybe creating a link to pop up the info or open the credit page would have helped here. Another issue with the Kindle version was that a lot of the captions for the photos were incorrectly sequenced, and not matching with their images.
There was an instance where the author referenced a letter found on a body and said that the letter has been widely reprinted, but only gave a short section of the letter here. I would have liked to read the whole letter! I really don't want to have to constantly put my book/Kindle down to go online and search for things. Another similar issue was a reprint of a news article about the Mary Celeste but only the first half of the news article was provided! I wish they would have printed the whole thing. The author gives no reason for the omission. These little issues frustrated me.
I would also have liked to see some diagrams of the layouts of the ships, or at least of similar ships, for reference. Maybe some of those can be amended to future editions.
Overall, it's definitely not a waste of time, especially since this did not take me very long to read at all. It's probably great for middle school or high school kids who are interested, or laymen in general who are not familiar with maritime history.
Currently reading
July 15, 2025DNF, so I did not rate it.
I borrowed this book because it came up on my Libby search for the Andrea Doria.
I did not read the whole book, which Amazon reviewers described as written for adults or older children, but says it is engaging as a read-aloud for younger kids who are interested in the topic. The author is listed as an English teacher at a K-9 school.
Other reviewers also say that the coverage of each disaster is superficial and somewhat haphazard.
The description of the Andrea Doria disaster was adequate. It was interesting to point out that the tilt of the ship made it impossible to access many of the lifeboats. But yet the caption of one of the photos implies that the listing/tilting began just moments before sinking.
My main complaint about the Andrea Doria chapter was the line "Smaller boats nearby joined the rescue flotilla;" This is like the Gilligan theme song saying "and the rest" instead of naming the professor and Mary Ann, which always made me mad as a kid.
My own father was involved in the rescue from one of these so-called "smaller boats." A boat implies something for short trips or recreational use. The USNS William H. Thomas was a transport ship with a complement (crew) of 460 according to Wiki and beds for 700 passengers. Hardly a smaller boat!
The captain of the Thomas directed rescue operations for almost six hours and received the Italian Order of Merit of the Republic for the part he and his crew played in the rescue. The Thomas directly rescued 159 passengers, and provided a hydraulic jack in a dramatic but failed attempt to free a trapped woman in Cabin 56.
The Thomas was also awarded the distinction of "Gallant Ship" by the U.S. Secretary of Transportation. This is an exclusive distinction (an average of less than one ship a year receives this distinction).
This ship (not boat!) deserved a mention in the book.
I borrowed this book because it came up on my Libby search for the Andrea Doria.
I did not read the whole book, which Amazon reviewers described as written for adults or older children, but says it is engaging as a read-aloud for younger kids who are interested in the topic. The author is listed as an English teacher at a K-9 school.
Other reviewers also say that the coverage of each disaster is superficial and somewhat haphazard.
The description of the Andrea Doria disaster was adequate. It was interesting to point out that the tilt of the ship made it impossible to access many of the lifeboats. But yet the caption of one of the photos implies that the listing/tilting began just moments before sinking.
My main complaint about the Andrea Doria chapter was the line "Smaller boats nearby joined the rescue flotilla;" This is like the Gilligan theme song saying "and the rest" instead of naming the professor and Mary Ann, which always made me mad as a kid.
My own father was involved in the rescue from one of these so-called "smaller boats." A boat implies something for short trips or recreational use. The USNS William H. Thomas was a transport ship with a complement (crew) of 460 according to Wiki and beds for 700 passengers. Hardly a smaller boat!
The captain of the Thomas directed rescue operations for almost six hours and received the Italian Order of Merit of the Republic for the part he and his crew played in the rescue. The Thomas directly rescued 159 passengers, and provided a hydraulic jack in a dramatic but failed attempt to free a trapped woman in Cabin 56.
The Thomas was also awarded the distinction of "Gallant Ship" by the U.S. Secretary of Transportation. This is an exclusive distinction (an average of less than one ship a year receives this distinction).
This ship (not boat!) deserved a mention in the book.
May 10, 2025
Falls between two stools
If you are into history and want a decent book on shipwrecks, then this is not the book for you. It is far too superficial, giving the basic facts but none of the details that you would expect. I got fed up with going to the net to fill in the obvious questions that the gaps in the writing left.
On the other hand, if you're just just looking for a good background, there isn't enough rhyme or reason to the way the various wreck stories are arranged to kero you engaged.
I can't recommend this from either point of view. If give it a miss.
If you are into history and want a decent book on shipwrecks, then this is not the book for you. It is far too superficial, giving the basic facts but none of the details that you would expect. I got fed up with going to the net to fill in the obvious questions that the gaps in the writing left.
On the other hand, if you're just just looking for a good background, there isn't enough rhyme or reason to the way the various wreck stories are arranged to kero you engaged.
I can't recommend this from either point of view. If give it a miss.
September 16, 2020
An Interesting Collection of Stories
This overview of many shipwrecks are grouped together by similarities such as place, cause, and vessel. Each chapter includes wrecks from ancient history and modern times. If you’re interested in sea stories this book includes many events that have their tales told in great detail elsewhere.
This overview of many shipwrecks are grouped together by similarities such as place, cause, and vessel. Each chapter includes wrecks from ancient history and modern times. If you’re interested in sea stories this book includes many events that have their tales told in great detail elsewhere.
August 10, 2019
Terrific read. Full of fascinating stories. A real page turner.
January 30, 2020
i borrowed this book from the library and i liked it so much i wanna buy a copy
March 23, 2020
Interesting stories
Book was very interesting although I wish it would have had more pictures to go along with the stories. Overall it was informative and interesting.
Book was very interesting although I wish it would have had more pictures to go along with the stories. Overall it was informative and interesting.
June 3, 2020
A very informative history of several shipwrecks That were definitely infamous in nature.I enjoyed the stories.
February 14, 2023
I probably enjoyed the photos and paintings of famous shipwrecks the best. Many of the wrecks I knew about but a few were brought to light by the author. I enjoyed this very much.
August 16, 2024
very interesting
September 2, 2024
An interesting book all about different shipwrecks.
I read the e-book version of this book and the formatting was not the best.
The pictures would be better in a real book.
I read the e-book version of this book and the formatting was not the best.
The pictures would be better in a real book.
January 31, 2021
I love maritime history, and this ended up being a great collection of maritime disasters grouped by similarities. There was a good amount of info per wreck where you weren’t left hanging, but also short enough that a lot of wrecks could be included in the book.
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews