While some of us go sailing for sanity it is also well known that the sea can have the opposite effect, as this well-written volume explores. It’s a mix of general stories, such as the effects of scurvy, cramped conditions aboard ship and naval battles with individual stories of some of the more heinous happenings afloat which have sent people over the edge; shipwreck and starvation being chief causes.
We learn how Columbus, Fletcher Christian, Vancouver and the Shipping-Forecast Father Captain Fitzroy all suffered mentally as well as more modern-day sailors, like Donald Crowhurst whose mental anguish inspired the recent film The Mercy. Dan Houston
Published by Bloomsbury.
Buy it here Buy it HERE
