Recently, I have embarked on a new, rather morbid fascination with nonfiction featuring shipwrecks and the stranded crew's quests for survival. This is a departure from my usual crime spree nonfiction and my love for political nonfiction. Shipwreck: the very word conjures up images of carnage, desperation, survival, unkempt beards, cannibalism, and the ultimate battle between the forces of nature and man. As a society, we have romanticized the idea of a shipwreck, of the castaways stranded, and of the epic battle to get home. There is absolutely nothing romantic about Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage by Alfred Lansing and In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex by Nathaniel Philbrick . These are stories of horrible circumstances, lives in peril, the brutality of nature, the despair and hopelessness that come with the dawning realization that they are probably not going to survive. Nevertheless... I hate to a...
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