Death Raft

What a masterful telling of some poignant human drama. This tragedy at sea served to change some maritime laws and mores which are still respected today. The ignorance, incompetance and selfishness of the ship's masters, caused incredible loss of life and great suffering. It is also a social examination of actions and attitudes of groups of people as it relates to surroundings and events. It also talks about the justice or lack thereof and the political ramifications of different courts/countries at the time in history. Truly a book which is very hard to read and digest from a compassionate view, yet you will be unable to stop turning the pages.

This is a tale of human endeavour and tragedy so great that an oil painting of the survivors from the wreck of the Medusa on board their raft actually hangs in the Louvre Art Gallery in Paris. It is a story of a shipwreck in the early part of the 19th Century where a few of those who survived the original wrecking set out on a raft seeking rescue. Many of them made it - but many did not. It is a harrowing tale of survival against everything that both life and death can throw at a group of people when they are at extreme disadvantage. Once again Alexander McKee provides the reader with a well researched and equally well presented book based on a factual story from the sea. It is also an excellent read - which is exactly what I have come to expect from this author. NM.

This is a well-told story of a horrible drama that unfolded in the early 1800's. Not just the story of another shipwreck, this book details the aftermath: an attempted political whitewash, and the struggle for the truth by those who were involved.What makes this story so tragic, in addition to the many who died, is the fact that at so many points along the way, the calamitous end could have been averted, were it not for selfishness, incompetence, and ineptitude.At the end of the book, the author compares and contrasts the Medusa tragedy with more modern cases of groups being stranded in inclement conditions, including the plane that went down in the Andes several decades ago.I thought the book was well written, well constructed, and it did a great job of holding my attention.

This true telling of the Raft of the Medusa has to rank as one of the very best historical accounts of any disaster ever written. I literally could not put it down, as each page revealed a progressive, sinking horror more intense and seemingly hopeless than anything Stephen King could ever imagine! To give any details would spoil the impact of this great book. If you can't get a new copy, then find a used one, but find one and READ it! You won't be disappointed.