Shipwreck Tales

Great American Shipwreck Stories is a magnificent collection of gripping accounts of a ship's encounter with a great whale or an overwhelming monsoon or a disastrous passage through the Straits of Magellan, leading to a wreck and a crew's harrowing plight for survival on the open seas or on a desert island. Capturing all the elements of ancient and powerful tragedy, this book is chockful of thrilling tales of survival - as well as a frightful examination of man's darkest impulses - which allow the reader a gruesome glimpse behind the veil of honor and bravery that history often ascribes to such men of the sea. These are all stories that have endured the test of time, and have attracted discerning readers for generations. Includes stories by Joseph Conrad, Erskine Childers, Joshua Slocum, James Fenimore Cooper, Herman Melville, Richard Henry Dana, Edgar Allan Poe, Richard Hakluyt, Owen Chase, and many others.

On January 22, 1906, the passenger ship Valencia lost her way in heavy fog and rain and rammed into the deadly rocks at Pachena Point on the west coast of Vancouver Island. As the wreck was shattered by the pounding waves, the survivors clung desperately to the rigging. Few made it the short distance to shore through the frigid and turbulent waves—117 of the 164 souls aboard perished. A year earlier, the King David had been wrecked on Bajo Reef near Nootka Sound. The fate of her sailors was much more mysterious. Today, the magnificent Pacific coastline of Vancouver Island draws hikers, surfers and storm-watchers to marvel at its natural splendour. But the ghosts of the Valencia, King David, Janet Cowan, Pacific, Soquel and dozens of other lost ships still haunt the rugged shores of the Graveyard of the Pacific. Anthony Dalton tells the incredible stories of many of these ships and their courageous crews, who often discovered that their nightmares had only begun once they made it ashore. These true tales of disaster and daring rescues are a fascinating adventure into British Columbia maritime history.

On September 8, 1923, seven US Navy destroyers rammed into jagged rocks on the California coast. Twenty-three sailors died that night. Five years earlier, the Canadian Pacific passenger ship Princess Sophia steamed into Vanderbilt Reef in Alaska’s Lynn Canal. When she sank, she took 353 people to their deaths. From San Francisco’s fog-bound Golden Gate to the stormy Inside Passage of British Columbia and Alaska, the magnificent west coast of North America has taken a deadly toll. Here are the dramatic tales of ships that met their ends on this treacherous coastline—including Princess Sophia, Benevolence, Queen of the North and others.

"Describes how sailor Debbie Kiley survived a shipwreck and several days adrift in the Atlantic Ocean"--Provided by publisher.

In the 450 years since Jacques Cartier's arrival, Prince Edward Island's history has been tied to the sea and to ships. From the first explorers through immigrants, traders, sailors, and fishermen, thousands of seafaring people and their ships have come and gone – many lost to the relentless sea. Julie Watson has dug through the archives and unearthed harrowing accounts, from the expulsion of the Acadians to the amazing 1836 adventure of Tommy Tuplin, age six, who was washed overboard in a storm then washed back into the ship's rigging. This book includes fascinating stories of buried treasure, legends of ghost ships, and tales of storms that have become part of the island's history and folklore. Add to these stories of seal hunts, waterspouts, U-boats, and ice boats, and you start to share in what it means to be an islander – and what the unforgiving sea can yield.