Dimensions
140 x 214 x 18mm
The 1854 collision at sea between the American ship "Arctic" and the "Vesta", a much smaller French steamship, set in motion one of the most harrowing events in maritime history.
David W Shaw has based this fascinating account on the first-hand testimony of the few who survived the wreck, including the Arctic's heroic captain, James C Luce, who was forced to fight his mutinous crew as they took the lifeboats and left hundreds of passengers to suffer a cruel and painful death.
Not only did 400 people - including Luce's own frail son - die by daybreak, but the wreck also ended the domination of the seas by the American maritime fleet for the rest of the nineteenth century.
Utterly compelling, this is a stirring slice of heretofore little-known American history. Beautifully written, it puts the reader on deck as a ship full of men, women, and children do battle both with a mighty ocean and with their own baser instincts.
