Ghost Ships: True Stories of Nautical Nightmares, Hauntings, and Disasters

by Richard Winer

Book Overview

A collection of paranormal stories from the high seas includes tales of hauntings and strange, unexplained disasters.

• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0425175480
• ISBN13: 9780425175484
• Release Date: July 2000
• Publisher: Berkley Publishing Group
• Length: 268 Pages
• Weight: 0.35 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 4.2" x 6.8"

Customer Reviews

Entertaining in a Scattershot Enough Manner

Richard Winer's Ghost Ships is subtitled "True Stories of Nautical Nightmares, Hauntings, and Disasters" and that is appropriate enough (although "true" may be stretching things somewhat) as the book is full of a variety of stories, only a very few which can properly be called "ghost ships". It is still fun and slightly creepy, though, and the author does avoid the more famous sea tales, such as the Mary Celeste, and sticks to stories the readers is less likely to have heard. Taken with a often large grain of salt, the tales ring true within the context of this book. The author does a good job setting the scene and telling the story, although so often ending the short narratives with a question can, at times, get a little grating.

Where have you been, Mr. Winer?

Okay . . . I really liked this book. Enough said. However, I have numerous problems with it. For one, Winer (who thirty-odd years ago wrote a book on the Bermuda Triangle) is either stuck in the past or hasn't done much reading; he lists numerous debunked or blatantly false occurances in this book. For example: the famous "message in a bottle" from the "Carrol A. Deering", which suggested that the crew was kidnapped and put in chains by a mysterious steamer, was proven to be a hoax perpetuated by the founder of it way back in the 1920s, when the "Deering" was front-page news - even though Winer lists it as being proven authentic. Also, as Lawrence Kusche writers in "The Bermuda Triangle Mystery: Solved", the disappearance of the USS "Cyclops" is not so mysterious after all, given that there was a rather severe storm in the immediate vicinity of Baltimore at the time that the "Cyclops" was supposed to arrive. The Japanese freighter "Raifuku Maru" or what ever it was called ("Danger like a dagger now!") went down during a severe storm off the coast of France; those famous words were never actually sent. Numerous other "Bermuda Triangle"-type incidences are listed in an equally erroneous manner (especially the "Revonnoc"). Nonetheless, the majority of the book is interesting - especially the chapters on items that I knew little or nothing about (the chapter about the "Ivan Vassili" is arguably the best in the book). I have long been haunted the pictures of the ghosts of the SS "Watertown"; it's interesting to get an insight into the actual events preceding it. Overall, a good book - if you don't mind the occasional dated/erroneous entry.

Do I Dare Go Out to Sea on a Ship

I really ejoyed Richard Winer book Ghost Ships: True Stories of Nautical Nightmares, Hauntings, and Disasters. I read this book at Myrtle Beach, S.C. a great book to read while you are near the ocean when you are looking out the window you just see water and late at night do you dare see a light of a ship out in the ocean it you see one could it be a Ghost Ship you are watching. I just got interested in things about Ghost's and this is the first I have read and recomend it to all, RIchard Winer is a very good writer. I hope everyone pick's up this book to read.