Table of Contents
Introduction
Storms
Richard Maury. The Saga of Cimba
"We now sailed a ship that knew of defeat—a ship we had imagined undefeatable. We stood there . . . knowing . . . how much more courage is needed by the once defeated." The Open Boat
"The sea is not cruel or angry or kind. The sea is insensate, a blind fragment of the universe, and kills us not in rage, but with indifference . . ."
Marlin Bree. Wake of the Green Storm
"'This is it, my brain warned. 'We're going over.'"
Kim Leighton. A Hard Chance
"'I opened my eyes and I could see the deck underneath the water and a few bodies floating around. When I surfaced, the boat seemed like it was a mile away . . .'"
Cape Horn
John Guzzwell. Trekka Round the World
"I looked up and saw another monster of a sea approaching and I thought, 'What a bloody shame! No one will ever know what happened to us.'"
Réanne Hemingway-Douglass. Cape Horn: One Man's Dream, One Woman's Nightmare
"We're spiraling to the bottom of the sea. I don't want to die this way."
Lisa Clayton. At the Mercy of the Sea
"If i get htrough this I shan't care about carring on I shall just be glad to e alive."
Dangerous Shores
Ann Davison. Last Voyage
"I heard Frank saying, what a shame, what a shame, as the ship rent beneath our feet. Then the tall cliff face was upon us with a tremendous splintering crash."
John Caldwell. Desperate Voyage
"'What the devil do you do next?'" I thought, and went below."
Gordon Chaplin. Dark Wind: A Survivor's Tale of Love and Loss
"We were underwater again. I opened my eyes and sawher clearly, as if she were outlined in black fire."
Gilbert C. Klingel. Inagua
". . . the sea is a savage place, she sends the gale screaming from the four corners of the world to remind men that their proper habitat is the land."
Jonathan Hall. Night Sail
"I saw my boat filling and breaking up and me trying to maintain a footing on jagged slippery rocks with freezing water breaking around me."
Polar Waters
Deborah Shapiro and Rolf Bjelke. Time on Ice
"Every minute of heavy weather experience is worth its weight in gold, because for every knot of higher managed, there is one less to worry about."
Tristan Jones. Ice!
"As I turned to go below, I saw the bear. Twelve feet long, padding silently . . . coming straight at the boat!"
Tim Severin. The Brendan Voyage
"All around us floated chunks and lumps and jagged monsters of ice."
Tragedy
Dougal Robertson. Survive the Savage Sea
". . . I dropped to my knees and tore up the floorboards to gaze in horror at the blue Pacific through the large splintered hole punched up through the hull . . ."
John Rousmaniere. After the Storm
"Out of the corner of his eye Robert Ames spies a white wall advancing from astern. He cries out—too late."
Tami Oldham Ashcraft (with Susea McGearhart). Red Sky in Mourning
". . . I threw cushions, anything that would float, overboard. He's out there somewhere. Maybe he's alive. Oh God, please."
Louise Longo. Let Me Survive
"The sea is merciless in its revelations. It knows how to punish human error."
Jim Carrier. The Ship and the Storm
"A lesser sailor might have panicked by now. A Category 4 hurricane was bearing down on him."
Appendix 1. Bibliography
Appendix 2. Sources
