Abandon Ship!

251 Pages·1974·14.192 MB·English

by  Hal Butler

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)
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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