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Abandon Ship! PDF

251 Pages·1974·14.192 MB·English
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SEVENTEEN OF THE WORS+ SHIP DISASTERS EPIC TALES OF HEROISM AND INFAMY * _ _._ . $7.95 Abandon Ship! Hal Butler The inexplicable, mystic relationship between men and the sea has long fascinated landsmen and seamen alike, and in this classic tradition Abandon Ship! focuses on man's struggle with the sea for survival, offering exciting, true accounts of heroism and bravery, self-sacrifice and endurance to exem¬ plify this relationship. Daniel Foss, the lone survivor of the Negotiator, who lived for five years on a small, barren island in mid-ocean without shelter and with very little food, became the living counterpart of his fictional hero, Robinson Crusoe. Captain Kurt Carlsen became the object of an international vigil when he chose to remain on the sinking Fiying Enterprise rather than abandon his doomed ship. The Birkenhead tragedy became the classic example of discipline at sea and set the rescue tradition of "women and children first." Stories like these, of amazing courage and startling excitement, emphasize the mystery of the sea and the indomitable spirit of man. But maritime history has not been with¬ out its villains, and Abandon Ship! also includes tales of negligence, incom¬ petence, murder, and cannibalism. (continued on back flap) WITHDRAWN No longer the property of the Boston Public Library; Sale of this material benefits the Library. BOSTON PUBLIC LIBRARY abandon ship! abandon ship! HAL BUTLER Henry Regnery Company-Chicago Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Butler, Hal. Abandon ship! 1. Shipwrecks. I. Title G525.B94 - 910\453 74-6886 ISBN 0-8092-9024-3 Copyright © 1974 by Hal Butler. All rights reserved. Published by Henry Regnery Company 114 West Illinois Street Chicago, Illinois 60610 Manufactured in the United States of America Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 74-6886 International Standard Book Number: 0-8092-9024-3 Contents 1 The Negotiator: Only One Survived (1809) 1 2 The Polly: Derelict to Nowhere (1811) 17 3 The Ghastly Wreck of the Medusa (1816) 34 4 Demise of the William Brown (1841) 52 5 Discipline on the Birkenhead (1852) 66 6 The Atlantic: Death at Mars Head (1873) 79 7 The Louis V. Place: Ship That Became an Iceberg (1895) 93 8 The Veendam: Rescue at Sea (1898) 107 9 La Bourgogne: Collision at Sea (1898) 117 10 The Fiery Finish of the Volturno (1913) 132 11 The Eastland: Disaster at Dockside (1915) 143 12 The Night the Noronic Burned (1949) 157 13 The Slow Death of the Flying Enterprise (1952) 168 / vi Contents 14 The Sudden Death of the Pamir (1957) 184 15 The Carl D. Bradley: A Visit to Hell (1958) 198 16 The Perilous Search for the Hans Hedtoft (1959) 212 17 Last Voyage of the Lakonia (1963) 224 Introduction w henever the subject of disaster at sea is discussed, the first two examples that come to mind are the sinkings of the Titanic and the Lusitania, the classic sea tragedies of all time. The loss of life alone—1,517 on the iceberg-shattered Titanic and 1,198 on the torpedoed Lusitania—is enough to give them a special niche in the annals of the sea. But ever since man first put a primitive raft in water, catastrophies of all kinds have pursued him. Men have fought the forces of nature, fire, and collision damage to keep their fragile crafts afloat. Sometimes they were suc¬ cessful, other times not. The continuous drama of men against the sea has fasci¬ nated not only mariners but landlubbers who have never been closer to the sea than a swim at Miami Beach. In some perverse manner, shipwrecks with great loss of life are always singled out as the most exciting and spectacu- Vll

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