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The Lost Fleet: A Yankee Whaler's Struggle Against the Confederate Navy and Arctic Disaster, by Marc Songini
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It's the mid-ninteenth century and the American whaling fleet is struck by one hammer blow after the other. Yankee whalers are contending with icebergs, storms, rogue whales, sharks, hostile natives, and disease. Many whalers give up the life―but some carry on the vocation. One such man is a captain from Connecticut, Thomas William Williams. Not only does he go out on voyage after voyage, he even takes on board with him his tiny wife, Eliza, and his infant son and daughter.
The Lost Fleet's thrilling narrative recounts Williams' remarkable career, including a daring escape from the Confederate cruiser Alabama and a daring rescue and salvage of lost ships off Alaska's coast. Songini has crafted a historical masterpiece in recording a family saga, a true narrative of adventure and death on the high seas, and a detailed and well-researched look at the demise of Yankee whaling.
- Sales Rank: #2738244 in Books
- Published on: 2008-07-22
- Released on: 2008-07-22
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 8.50" h x 1.02" w x 5.50" l, .93 pounds
- Binding: Paperback
- 448 pages
From Booklist
Songini's book chronicles Thomas William Williams' four-decades-long career—from 1840 to 1880—as the captain of the whaling vessel Florida. On its first voyage, the ship was due to sail east through the sperm whale grounds that lay toward the coast of Africa. From there it was bound for the Indian Ocean via the Cape of Good Hope. On board were Williams' wife and their infant son and daughter. The story includes his escape from the Confederate ship Alabama and accounts of a number of ship disasters off the coast of Alaska. Songini spent six years doing the research, some of it at the New Bedford Whaling Museum, which contains the most comprehensive collection of whaling documents in the world. Songini has examined a vast subject, not only the history of Captain Williams but also of the whaling trade itself, in great depth. The book, with eight pages of black-and-white photographs, is a thoroughly absorbing look at life and death at sea. Cohen, George
Review
“A Nantucket sleigh ride of a read, guaranteed to thrill and amaze.” ―Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
“Marc Songini has crafted a magnificent tale of perseverance in the face of the declining whaling industry in the mid-1800s....The Lost Fleet is a narrative tour-de-force.” ―Linda Rosencrance, author of Murder at Morses Pond, and An Act of Murder
“The Lost Fleet is rich in detail, broad in scope and brilliant in its ability to capture a lost era that eerily parallels some of the military misadventures of today. Simply stated, this is the best book of its kind since A Perfect Storm.” ―Jon Land, author of The Fires of Midnight and The Walls of Jericho
About the Author
MARC SONGINI is a Boston-area journalist whose work has appeared in the Boston Book Review, the Boston Herald, and the Boston Globe.
Most helpful customer reviews
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful.
An Important Lesson
By James B. Daley
At the dawn of the age of oil, whale blubber illuminated the homes and streets of America and lubricated the early machinery of the industrial revolution. The United States was once the most important whaling nation. By one estimate we accounted for 70% of the world's catch. Now Boston Journalist Marc Songini has written a poignant and thought provoking account of the decline of whaling and the people associated with it.
His book, The Lost Fleet, is centered on the fortunes of New Bedford, Massachusetts which was once one the wealthiest cities in 19th century America. The town motto was Lucem Diffundo, "We Light the World". By 1850 of the 700 or so whalers in the American fleet 80% sailed from the port of New Bedford. As Herman Melville himself wrote:
The town itself is perhaps the dearest place to live in, in all New England. Nowhere in all America will you find more patrician-like houses; parks and gardens more opulent, than in New Bedford.
Within a few short years political, economic, and ecology changes had destroyed the fleet and delivered a blow to New Bedford which it has never recovered from.
One punch came with the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861. After two ill advised efforts to block Charleston Harbor using New England stone laden whalers, the fleet became a special political target of the Confederate Navy. New Bedford's fleet was decimated first by the CSS Alabama and later by the CSS Shenandoah.
Ecology also played a major role in ending New Bedford's prominence. As the over-hunted whales retreated further and further north to escape the fleet's harpoons, whalers where forced to sail further and further to capture them - in some cases to the waters off Alaska. Two unusually early winters in 1871 and 1876 trapped and wrecked many New Bedford ships in the ice around Point Barrow.
Still, the biggest blow to whaling may have been the least dramatic, when in 1859 the first oil well was drilled in Titusville, Pennsylvania. This shifted the economics of oil, whittling whaling further and further away from profitability.
Yet whaling has cast a very large shadow on the United States in form of the acquisition of Hawaii and Alaska into the Union, one of the greatest American novels Moby Dick, many of its best folk songs, and tattoos. New Bedford was also a hotbed of abolitionism and gave refuge to Frederick Douglass after he escaped from slavery.
With entertaining turns of phrases and memorable characters, Songini captures not only the facts but the sense of the era.
Whaling was a hard, cruel business for men and especially for whales. Today the United States has no whaling industry and it is the national champion of the effort to save them. As we approach the end of the oil age there are many parallels that are worth appreciating and The Lost Fleet is a great book to start considering them.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful.
A Little Known History Of Whalers Brought To Life
By Esteban Ess
This is a book about the whaling industry, its sea captains, their families, the financial backers, the whales themselves and the eventual demise of this once important industry. There are three main sections in this book. The first treats the whaling industry, its history, and the life of one whaling family in particular then delves into the involvement of whalers in the War Between The States as they embark upon a mission to help reduce the sea power of the South. The second section takes us world-wide on the high seas and is a great adventure story as the Confederate Navy dispatches vessels to hunt and destroy Yankee whaling vessels. Finally, we are led into a struggle of the whalers to find their prey when the population of whales has been seriously reduced by over-hunting. The whalers take their fleet into the Arctic and encounter travails that are legendary though little known today. This is one exciting book. I will value what I learned from this book when I go back to New england and visit the whaling museums and the last old, sail rigged whaling vessel still floating (at dockside). The book is also educational and a nice addition to the know-how that can benefit a trip to Alaska.
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful.
What a world!
By Matt Hamblen
Songini's new book shows a gritty world almost unimaginable by today's standards. A sea captain persuades his wife to join him in the pursuit of the world's largest animals, which are hunted and rendered before her eyes, ears and nose. She is pregnant, gives birth at sea and recuperates with her new son on an island under the care of a Christian missionary who entertains her with stories about the native cannibals. And this is only the first chapter. You might think it is fiction, but there is a bibliography. Still, the book doesn't seem to be too sensational, nor too academic. I'm liking the balance between the two extremes.
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