REVIEWS
One of Maritime History's most Famous Unsolved Mysteries
GHOST SHIP OF DIAMOND SHOALS The Mystery of the Carroll A. Deering
Bland Simpson A compelling nonfiction novel. "There have been differing reports of [the shipwreck] ... ever since the five-masted schooner was discovered aground and abandoned on Diamond Shoals in 1921. Bland Simpson has merged those accounts with additional in-depth research, to present in detail the fascinating story of the ghost ship of Diamond Shoals."-David Stick, author of Graveyard of the Atlantic
"A spanking good yarn." -Janet Lembke, author of River Time 256 pp., 38 illus., $24.95 cloth THE UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLI NA PRESS at bookstores or 800-848-6224 w ww .uncpress .unc.edu
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nights ashore in thriving New York and the bombed-our seaports of Britain, and the camaraderie rhar binds men whose community co uld be wiped our in minutes. More vulnerable than rhe Queens , rheAquitania survived the war, as, formnarely for us, did Satchell, to rel! the ship's story. PS Twelve Men Down: Massachusetts Sea Rescues, by Robert H . Farson (Cape Cod Historical Publications , PO Box 281 , Yarmouth MA 02675, 2000, 246pp, illus; $36hc +$3s&h) Today's Coast G uard uses long-range aircraft, sophisticated helicopters and virtually indestructible rescue boars to reach those in peril at sea. Yer their success srill depends on the bravery of those who risk their lives to save others. A hundred years ago this same kind of men threw themselves against rhe worst the North Atlantic had to offer in small wooden boars propelled only by muscle and oar and a shared understanding that no matte r how horrendous conditions were, when a distress signal was sighted, "you just have to go." Twelve Men Down draws its ride from a tragedy in March of 1902 during which seven members of rhe US Life-Saving Service lost their lives along with rhe five men rheywere attempting to rescue in the treacherous waters so uth of Cape Cod. Farson begins by laying our rhe history of life saving in New England and its progression from the Massachusetts Humane Society to the US Life-Saving Service, which eventually became part of the US Coast Guard. He then recounts some of the most dramatic rescues ever conducted. The author's dry writing style, however, and choppy flow take some getting used to. Despite shortcomings, Farson' s research and the stories themselves make the effort worthwhile. By rhe way, this book is one yo u'll want to read on dry land, or at least safely at anchor in a well protected harbor! JERRY ROBERTS Intrepid Museum New York, New York Treasured Islands: Cruising the South Seas with Robert Louis Stevenson, by Lowell D. Holmes (Sheridan House, Dobbs Ferry NY, 2001, 304pp, illus, biblio, index, ISBN 1-57409-130- 1; $29.95hc) This book describes the final years of the famous author of Treasu re Island and
beloved poet of childhood invalids. Ir recounts th e South Pacific voyages by Stevenson, his wife Fanny, his mother Maggie, Fanny's son Lloyd , and various servants, relatives and hangers-on from 1888 onward. If the tales told by Professor Holmes were nor so carefully researched, drawing on his knowledge of South Seas anthropology and taken largely from the diaries and letters of rhe Stevenson family, they wo uld be preposterous. Despite (or maybe because of) rhe derail that sometimes burdens the author's prose, th e book has tro uble conveying what must h ave been an extraordinary scene: the 38-yea r-o ld world-renowned author; his wife, ten years his senior, who, desp ite the author's restraint, can best be compared to Lucy van Pelt; his mother, the best ab le to endure the morion sickness rhar afflicted them all , only ten years older than her daughter-in-law; and his stepson, Lloyd, an asp iring writer himself-all crammed into the right quarters of the three vessels: rhe 93-foor schooner/yacht Casco; rhe smaller schooner-rigged Equator (still with us, in her form as a rug, awaiting resto ration in Washington Stare); and the sooty, 184-foor steam- and sai l-powe red island trader Janet Nico!L. Stevenson was frail and ill all his life. The belief rhar he was a consumptive is challe nged by Holmes, who builds the case that he had bronchiectasis, brought on by childhood bronchitis and whooping cough. This explains why the climate of the South Sea islands was so beneficial to Stevenson 's health , and why none of the people who lived with him contracted tuberculosis. Stevenson fell in love with the islands he visited in the Marquesas, rhe Society Islands, rhe Tuamotus, Hawaii and, finall y, Samoa, where he built the house, Vailima, now a museum, where he died at age 44 . He is buried at the top of the mountain that rises above the house; his grave is a place of pilgrimage for people from all over the world , but in particular for the Samoans, who adopted him as he adopted them . WALTER]. HANDELMAN White Plains, New York Historical Atlas of Empires, by Karen Farringron (Checkmark Books, New York NY, 2002, l 92pp, illus, index, ISBN 08160-4788-X; $35 hc) In this middle-s ized work tracing the
SEA HISTORY I02, AUTUMN 2002