Story of an American Tragedy: Survivors' Accounts of the Sinking of the Steamship Central America

By Barry SchatzColumbus-America Discovery Group, Inc. StaffJudy Conrad, et al.

No Synopsis Available.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 096210910X
• ISBN13: 9780962109102
• Release Date: January 1988
• Publisher: Columbus-America Discovery Group
• Length: 77 Pages
• Weight: 0.70 lbs.

Customer Reviews

One ship, but so many stories!

This 77-page book shows how each person aboard the sinking ship had a unique point of view, based on their own ordeal. Fortunately the sinking had survivors to help piece the event together, and this book also details the ship's accommodations (pg:13) and interesting facts like passage rates, and details of the Panama Route that was the best way to get from the west coast to our east coast cities. Details of the passengers being ferried to a nearby ship (the "Marine", pg:32) with each account being credited and dated by the particular passenger's name. The herculin effort to dismantle the ship to create floating objects that passengers could float on until they were picked up (pg:43). Amazing that some survivors were rescued miles from the sinking (pg:63) and weeks after the event, which makes the book even more interesting, because many accounts of the tragedy were not known for months. The summary of the event(pg:66) has more interesting, related facts, such as number of victims and the amount of financial loss (in 1857 dollars), as well as a timeline of key points of the sinking (pgs:69-76).