Shipwrecks: An Encyclopedia of the World's Worst Disasters at Sea

by David Ritchie

Book Overview

Describes the historical background of the most famous shipwrecks around the world.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0816031630
• ISBN13: 9780816031634
• Release Date: January 1996
• Publisher: Facts on File
• Length: 292 Pages
• Weight: 2.48 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 8.8" x 11.2"

Customer Reviews

would be better if it was divided by locations and/or periods of time within locations.

Unless you know the name of the ship, there is little help here. And there are a few well known wrecks that are not even mentioned, as another review addresses. I have a growing libray of non fiction books dealing with a wide range of historical subjects, and the most frustrating layout for some encyclopaedia style books is the strictly A-Z format. It's to general, and with little effort the book could have been far more a ready reference if it had some location and or time period divisions.

Nice reference work, but uneven

David Ritchie has produced a good basic reference work on shipwrecks throughout the world.It is a bit uneven in concentrating on New England, the Outer Banks, the Great Lakes, the Columbia River bar and the Caribbean. Other areas of the world, by comparison, receive relatively short shrift.I was particularly puzzled why Ritchie left out some shipwrecks that were very well-documented and dramatic. The one that immediately comes to mind is the burning of the immigrant steamer Volturno in the mid-Atlantic in 1913. Hundreds of the ship's passengers were rescued thanks to the bravery of the ship's captain and crew and those of the rescue ships that steamed to the scene.I also would highly recommend that in subsequent editions, Ritchie consider a detailed entry on the Derbyshire, a mammoth freighter that disappeared during a typhoon in the South China Sea in the 1980s. The recent discovery of the ship in water nearly two and a half miles deep helped solve a mystery, bring closure to a horrible loss for the crew's families and offered engineering lessons that may well save the lives of hundreds of seamen in the years ahead.If you want good narrative (and aren't too finicky about accuracy of detail), try to obtain a copy of Jay Robert Nash's book on disasters. (Hint to a publisher: This one urgently needs to be dusted off, updated and republished, as do Dwight Boyer's works) Until that happens, Ritchie's book will do yeoman service in your reference collection.