Benito Cereno

Benito Cereno by Herman Melville 

Benito Cereno seems like it should have been a good book, but I had trouble getting into it. An American comes across a ship in distress. Benito Cereno, the captain is always accompanied by his servant.  He explains that many of the Spaniards had been taken by a fever. Only at the end does he jump away from the ship and let the Americans know that a slave revolt occurred and that the blacks controlled everything.

Windcatcher

Windcatcher by Avi

A boy is off in Long Island Sound. There are rumours of a shipwreck with possible treasure. He is sailing around with relatives. He also runs into some other treasure hunters. He loses his boat and decides he will swim from island to island to make it back. However, he also loses his compass and map. He starts swimming and makes it almost to the first island when he loses his shoe. In diving into the water to find it, he also sees something which he initially thought were animal bones, but may be what he was hunting for. He makes his way to the island, but does not know where he is. He does find the boat, and decides to sail away in the dark. He has no idea where he is, but does find his way to the treasure hunters. It ends shortly after. It feels like an interesting half-story.

The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder

The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder by David Grann

The H.M.S Wager was ship that was sailing around South America in the 1700s. It ran into trouble and eventually was run aground. Then trouble started. Order started to break down among the sailors. There were questions as to whether the leadership still applied since the would no longer be paid while aground. The acting captain, David Cheap killed one man in anger. Much of the other group decided to mutiny. They managed to fix things up and get back home. They were under provisioned, and dropped people off on the way. Only a small few made it back. They expected those left behind to die. However, Cheap and a few others managed to survive. They met some Natives and some Spanish and eventually made it back home. There was a trial regarding the events. With a murder and mutiny, there was a possibility for the death penalty all around. However, that did not occur. Britain was concerned with other wars and other events. Afterwards, Cheap was able to sail again, and captured a treasure-laden Spanish ship, making him rich. The book presents the story of the shipwreck and mutiny in the context of the day. Things are complicated. Different groups tried to tell their own stories, but got "caught" when others appeared.

Shipwrecked!: Diving for Hidden Time Capsules on the Ocean Floor

Ship wrecks tend to be very inaccessible, thus making them a rich store of archaeological information. While catastrophes on land are likely to be built over (or destroyed by elements), those at sea tend to stay there. They are much more difficult to access. Recent technology has enabled greater exploration of ship wrecks. It has enabled us to find out more about ancient civilizations and technology. (For instance, a Greek wreck had a millennias old computer.)

Even with new technology, some wrecks remain difficult to access (such as those in the Arctic.) It can often take considerable effort to find wrecks in order to explore them. Once found, the wrecks can help provide insight, but still require work to answer questions. (What caused an early submarine to sink, killing all the crew?) There are problem many other interesting discoveries can be made exploring shipwrecks.

The Outlaw Sea: A World of Freedom, Chaos, and Crime

International waters begin a few miles past the coast. The areas are truly international. Often a ship is registered in country while owned by residents of another country. The crew will often hail from multiple countries (often whereever labor costs are low). And then the ship will likely sail between a few totally different countries. There are different regulatory bodies involved. However, often the worst problems occur when ships are obeying the letter of the law. Outlaw sea explores some of the issues that happen out in the open seas by focussing on a few anecdotes. Commercial shipping is not a preofession for the faint at heart. The conditions are not great. However, the pay is relatively great for many of the crews that hail from low-income countries. Alas, pirates also can recruit from those same places. Pirate crews have captured ships and avoided detection in the wide open ocean. The shpis themselves have their share of problems. The book details the sinking of the Baltic Ferry Estonia in detail. There are also stories of environmental devastation. In one case, a ship was forced out, only to end up making a big mess in the ocean. In the case of the Exxon Valdez, the oil spill prompted important improvements to ships (like double hulling.) This has positive and negative impacts, but would probably not have helped prevent the oil spill. Finally the book ends with the end of ships. These days, many ships are just rammed on the coast of India where workers pick apart the valuable scrap. It is dangerous work. However, it is also a valuable source of employment for the many workers there. "Dry-dock" ship breaking in western countries is much more expensive, but it may do a better job protecting the local environment. (Though it may actually have a greater negative environmental impact in other ways. Those first world workers are driving to work and burning more fossil fuels.) The current situation is full of conflict. One one hand, it is a fairly optimal use of labor and resources. The Indian ship breakers require fewer resources and are able to more cheaply recycle the ship. On the other hand, this has negative impacts to their local environment. It is also dangerous, with many workers killed or injured. In spite of this, there are always plenty of workers lining up to take their place. They don't want the outsiders telling them how to manage themselves. It seems fitting that a ship can't even leave this world without stoking additional international conflicts.

Heart of Darkness

Heart of Darkness is a short novel about the ivory trade. It reflects many of the sensibilities of the the past days, with natives seen by the whites as "cannibals" and other racial terms that would not be acceptable today. It can, however, be read in various ways, including a condemning of the view of European superiority. It is a tough, dark novella to get through.

Scurvy

Scurvy is an extremely debilitating condition that had a simple cure (Vitamin C). The cure was even "discovered" a few hundred years ago. However, competing (but non-functional) cures from established figures delayed the widespread adoption of the real cure, leading to the loss of many lives.

Scurvy was often seen on ships, where crews had to travel for long periods of time, subsisting on barely edible, preserved food. It was also seen among the poor in the cities. These people had limited access to fresh food, and thus the needed vitamin C. On ships, the officers were less likely to get scurvy as they would often carry aboard some of their own fresh food or meat. Some theorized that it was the "Bad air" on the ship that caused the problems. (There were plenty of problems caused by the poor sanitary conditions on ships, but scurvy was not one of them.) Captain Cook lead a voyage to in part find a solution for scurvy. They did verify that citrus did prevent scurvy. However, it was expensive and "wort of malt" was the more popular solution. Not willing to rock the boat, Cook did not firmly denounce the "cheap cure", thus leading to its attempt to be adopted. IT took many more years before the citrus was more firmly adopted. (But even then, it was some of the least effective citrus.)

The delay in adopting a cure for scurvy may have also contributed to the American Independence. The British had trouble manning all of their ships due to the poor health of the mariners. They would round up men from the slums and overload their ships in anticipation of great casualties. (And thus overloading would contribute to more casualties.) They were thus unable to adequately man a defense of their remote outpost in the Americas. Later, however, their implementation of the cure would help them to dominate Europe and the world.

The Curve of Time

A widowed mother travels boats around the Pacific Northwest with her childen in the pre-World War II era. They come across as seasoned mariners, who understand the unique weather patterns of the northwest and are comfortable going into areas that are uncharted at times. They encounter some "harrowing" experiences, including running into a "clergyman" who turns out to be a bear. (They quickly escape to their boat.) There are also numerous storms and various encounters with animals and isolated "pioneers" in the area. The book covered the experience of Northwest sailing and personal relationships. However, I was hoping for more specific geographic details.

Madness, Betrayal and the Lash: The Epic Voyage of Captain George Vancouver

The Pacific Northwest is filled with "Vancouvers". There is a big island, the largest city in British Columbia and a large city in southern Washington. But, who was this person they were named after? I do not recall learning much about him during studies of the age of exploration. It turns out that I am not alone. Vancouver led a voyage that produced detailed maps of the pacific Northwest. However, he also managed to annoy a few members of high-society that were "forced" on his cruise. They led a smear campaign when he returned to Britain, causing him to be all but ignored from the history books. However, his names for many of the features in the region still stick. (Could you guess that there was a Mr. Puget on his voyage?)

Madness, Betrayal and the Lash portrays Vancouver as a dedicated mariner who wants to do everything right, yet lacks the charisma to navigate through difficult people issues. He often relies on following the "letter of the law". This leads him to lash noble crew members and create enemies. However, his attention to duty also led him to complete detailed charts of the Pacific Northwest and to engage in mostly friendly relationships with the residents of the area. (Alas, the friendliness did not necessarily extend to the crew. This book portrays Vancouver as the lonely commander who is isolated from the other officers. He manages to further alienate the crew by prohibiting them from partaking of the "festivities" while they are wintering in Hawaii.)

Vancouver completed his mission, but came home to be ignored and demonized by his countrymen (especially Thomas Pitt). He devoted his time to publishing details of his voyage and died shortly after completing it. Would Vancouver's experience had been different if he hadn't had Thomas Pitt thrust upon his voyage? We may never know. Pitt ended up dead before he was thirty, while Vancouver did live to the ripe old age of 40. His voyage showed us that charisma is perhaps more important than technical merit in establishing the immediate legacy of explorers. (And it makes me wonder what other great explorers had been ignored because they were not in with the proper crowds.)

Robinson Crusoe

Robinson Crusoe was the inspiration for Bike Friday, so it must have something going for it. The story reads a lot like the Victorian adventures of Jules Verne - only Defoe wrote his work a couple centuries before Verne.

Crusoe denies the advice of his family and takes to a life at sea. He runs in to trouble but manages to come ahead. Eventually, he is the lone survivor of a shipwreck on a deserted island. He luckily is able to get some provisions from the hip and live off the bounty of the land. The bulk of the novel concerns his quarter-century adventures on the island.

Eventually he notices cannibals using the island to consume captives. He eventually chooses to rescue one, and this fins his faithful servant Friday. They later rescue Friday's father and a Spanish shipwreckee from similar fates. Eventually some English mutineers arrive. The island crew return the captain to his post and eventually exit the island.

The return to Portugal where he checks the state of his estate and eventually travels overland towards England. In this travel they have the last adventure fighting wild animals.

DeFoe spends a good deal of time in the head of his main character. His gradual increase in religious faith and optimism help him through what appear to be great challenges. Even with the heavy moralizing, the story moves at an effective pace.