The story of the American clipper ship Hornet, which went down in flames near the Galapagos Islands while on a journey from New York to San Francisco. The ship's crew and passengers spent forty-three days adrift on the open ocean.
"The story of the American clipper ship Hornet, which went down in flames near the Galapagos Islands while on a journey from New York to San Francisco. The ship's crew and passengers spent forty-three days adrift on the open ocean."@en
"When an accident with an open oil lantern set the American clipper Hornet alight in 1866, the 31 passengers and crew were forced to abandon ship. Cast adrift in three small lifeboats, they had less than 10 days' rations to share between them. They were over 1,000 miles from the nearest island. Over the next six weeks they were to encounter every danger the Pacific could throw at them. They were attacked by sharks and swordfish. They endured storms, and even tornadoes. Their hunger became so intense that they resorted to eating their clothes, and later, half-mad from the effects of drinking sea water, were driven to the edge of cannibalism. Of the 31 men who abandoned ship, only 15 ever saw land again. The newspapers of the time were quick to hail the survivors as heroes; however, as Joe Jackson shows, there was much about the behavior of the castaways that was far from heroic. In the confined space of the open boats tensions between the men ran so high that the threat of violence was constantly present. There was open talk of mutiny, even of murder, and gradually the normal rules of society began to break down. Here, for the first time, is the true story of the men who survived the wreck of the Hornet. Written by Pulitzer Prize-nominated author Joe Jackson, it is one of the rare great historical survival tales from the dying days of the age of sail. - Jacket flap."@en
"On May 3, 1866, the first mate of the Hornet accidentily lit a cask of varnish on fire, which torched the entire ship. The the crew escaped, but half were lost, and they barely survived for six weeks on ten days' worth of rations and shoe leather, drifting 4,300 miles in a single lifeboat as they all slowly weakened and became delirious or mad."
""In the tradition of Nathaniel Philbrick's bestselling In the Heart of the Sea, Joe Jackson's A Furnace Afloat tells of the American clipper ship Hornet, which went down in flames, casting its crew adrift for forty-three days on the open ocean. Along with the stories of the Bounty and the whaleship Essex, the Hornet disaster was once one of the country's most infamous naval disasters.""
This is a placeholder reference for a Place entity, related to a WorldCat Entity. Over time, these references will be replaced with persistent URIs to VIAF, FAST, WorldCat, and other Linked Data resources.
This is a placeholder reference for a Topic entity, related to a WorldCat Entity. Over time, these references will be replaced with persistent URIs to VIAF, FAST, WorldCat, and other Linked Data resources.
This is a placeholder reference for a Topic entity, related to a WorldCat Entity. Over time, these references will be replaced with persistent URIs to VIAF, FAST, WorldCat, and other Linked Data resources.
This is a placeholder reference for a Topic entity, related to a WorldCat Entity. Over time, these references will be replaced with persistent URIs to VIAF, FAST, WorldCat, and other Linked Data resources.
This is a placeholder reference for a Topic entity, related to a WorldCat Entity. Over time, these references will be replaced with persistent URIs to VIAF, FAST, WorldCat, and other Linked Data resources.