Great Ship Disasters

If you like reading about maritime diasters, this is a good book to add to your collection. Basic information, short and sweet and very interesting.

I would have givin this 5 stars if it weren't for some wrong information I found, which I will explain throughout this review (please read all of it before deciding if it helped you or not). ABOUT BOOK: What this book is about (for those who don't know) is all the known, and unknown disasters that happened throught the years in meritime(misspelled) history. Such as the TITANIC (and sister OLYMPIC [collision]); her (other) sister BRITANNIC; submarine GREENEVILLE; EHIME MARU; M/V ECSTASY; Texas City Disaster; Burning of the L'ATLANTIQUE; capsizing of LA JENELLE; burning of YARMOUTH CASTLE; sinking from rough weather of the SS SEABREEZE I; near capsizing of tanker JESSICA; and the sinking of Egyptian cruiser ZAM ZAM. But it does go into other small ones with pictures (like Ensenada, Mexico sinking of the steamer SS CATALINA; siking of USS TOWERS; burning of the QUEEN ELIZABETH; burning of SS AMERICA; and the cut in half of USS PONAGANSET) HOW I GOT THIS BOOK & GOT INTERESTED: To start, this book is very "Fascinating", I was already into Ocean Liners at this time, and when I saw this at Borders I just had to have it. As I looked at all the very rarely detailed pictures, it interested me. But the one that interested me the most was the one on CARNIVAL cruise Lines, ECSTASY. I saw it in the Long Beach Cruise Terminal (where the pictures are based) in the back of the HOTEL QUEEN MARY in California, but didn't know anything about it. So reading that "Influenced" me into CARNIVAL, and that ship and now I'm an Ocean Liner & Cruise Ship fanatic. ATTRIBUTES: The fact that its pictures are just as informative as the stories in the text, make it it extreamly detailed. And the fact that you can just stare at one picture and never get board, makes it exciting, and either makes you feel like you are there, or makes you want to be there. You really learn a lot. MISTAKES: Now, for the reason I gave it 4 stars instead of 5. There were three mistakes. One (which isn't that big) is the fact that on page 73, stateroom, is spelled state room. It's not a ships cabin, unless it has both words together. But the second is very crucial - and is also on page 73. The authors stated that the class of ships the ECSASY is in, is 'FASCINATION class', which isn't true. The class the ship is in is "FANTASY class". Theres no such thing as Fascination class. And the third is on page 101, the picture above states the SS SEABREEZE I is docked in NYC during tall ship week 2000. When that ship is in fact CUNARD LINES QUEEN ELIZABETH 2 (aka QE2). I know this because I know the QE2 very well. There may be others, but thats all I can find. OVERALL: This book is richly detailed with its infomative pictures and descriptions that make it even more enhanced. The main stories are pretty good too!!! A-

I was a newcomer to the genre of nautical writing when I recently discovered this book by the Bonners, a respected husband and wife team in the field. After reading it, I can't imagine a more interesting introduction to the field. Prior to this my only knowlege of the area was when, about a year ago, I got on a website devoted to tracking current maritime accidents and disasters, and also piracy. It turns out piracy is on the increase, mostly off the coast of Pakistan and in Indonesia, but most are poorly armed, often with only knives or old, often not very serviceable guns. In one incident, an oil tanker turned away pirates trying to board her by turning the high-pressure fire hoses on them. (One almost feels sorry for the pirates). But getting back to the present book, the book is divided into six chapters: Passengers, Cargo, and Other Vessel Disasters; Collisions, Fires and Explosions; Groundings, Founderings, and Capsizings; Unplanned and Mysterious Occurrences; and Improving Saftety at Sea for Mariners, Ports, and Vessels.The book recounts dozens of famous and no- so-famous disasters. No book on sea disasters would be complete, of course, without discussing the sinking of the Titanic, and so there's a section devoted to that, which includes recently discovered facts and research. For example, it was learned that one factor contributing to the rapid sinking of the great ship was a large section of weakened hull with popped rivets, bulging plating, and eroded caulking that was hard to access and repair. Also, the captain and the senior officers were new to the new engines, being more familiar with triple-exapansion type engines, and they also didn't know the main center engine had no reverse gear, only forward and stop. It's thought that if they simply tried to make a hard turn rather than stop, the Titanic would have only grazed the iceberg and added many hours of life to the ship, during which many more of the passengers and crew could have been saved.Another fascinating fact about the Titanic disaster concerns the story written in 1898 by Morgan Robertson, 14 years before the Titanic sailed. The novel recounted the fictional story of the SS. Titan, the largest and fastest ship of its day, which sank after striking an iceberg. The dimensions, total tonnage, and top speed of the fictional ship were strikingly similar to the ill-fated Titanic. Not only that, but it carried the minimum number of lifeboats allowed by the British Board of Trade, the same as the Titanic. Because of all the amazing coincidences, Robertson was regarded as a genuine psychic by many during his time, although he quite commendably insisted on being considered only a maritime fiction author.In addition to the Titanic, many other stories are told, including that of the S.S. Zam Zam, the S.S. Olympic (the equally ill-fated sister ship to the Titanic, the same size, and sunk by a mine only weaks after it was converted to a hospital ship at the beginning of WWI), the Soviet