Rating: 
Summary: A tale of cowardice and tragedy
Review: It's always refreshing to find a book that tells me about a little known incident in American history. This book, concerning the 1854 sinking of the steamship Arctic, is one of those books. As an added bonus, it's extremely well-written, reading almost as if it were a novel. There are a lot of nautical terms thrown about, but there is a glossary to help those, like myself, who are unfamiliar with them. We get a capsule history of the Great Race across the Atlantic between competing British and American companies, and a bit about ship design 150 years ago, when most were wooden, with side paddle wheels. The story about the collision of the Arctic with another ship, and the subsequent tragedy that happened because many crew members ignored the adage "women and children first" is heartbreaking. The astonishing survival of some of the folks from the ship, including the captain, is quite riveting, in large part because of the excellent writing involved. I thoroughly enjoyed this book, and highly recommend it to others.
Rating:
Summary: "the sea is an unforgiving body"
Review: Readers who approach Shaw's The Sea Shall Embrace Them as an academic historical account of the sinking of the American steamship Arctic in 1854 will be disappointed. Although Shaw mentions sources sporadically throughout the text (mostly at the beginning), most of the information, including quotations, are not referenced. Shaw writes a lot of details including what was going through the minds of the main people involved in the tragedy, their mannerisms, the environment they saw, etc. through interpretation. If readers approach this work as history written for a mass audience presented with a novelist's flair, they will find this book to be riveting. The chapters are brief (most around 8 pages) and the story is interesting, exciting, and fast-moving. At times, it may be a little more flowery than most students of history are used to, but such possibly superfluous descriptions of scenery, etc. are not that distracting. It mostly affects a handful of pages in the first chapters, although my favorite example is on page 152: "...men and women, as well as their teenagers, children, and infants, would never again admire the blazing fall foliage soon to be dressing the environs of New York in a spectrum of orange, red, and yellow even more intense in color than when Arctic set off on her last voyage in September." The book does not always read like this, though. Of course, the story gets more exciting as it approaches the accident and sinking with huge loss of life; however, I also found the beginning chapters very interesting, especially the competition between the English Cunard Line and the American Collins Line for supremacy of the overseas mail. Cunard will of course be challenged later by the White Star Line which created Titanic and her sister ships. Much of this story has similarities to Titanic, so those who enjoy reading about the latter will probably find this book to be of great interest. Shaw demonstrates an incredible amount of research. When listing the salaries of the Collins employees or the price of a ticket on the Arctic, he includes the equivalent in today's money which better explains his points (it cost over $2,300 in today's money for a first class one-way fair, pg 40. Ouch!). He also uncovers many interesting details. For example, 7 of the 9 ships Luce captained before Arctic sank under another captain's command (pg. 87). Footnotes would help this book. For example, why does Shaw describe Luce as being depressed while setting of on his final voyage on the Arctic? Was the detail garnered from a diary entry or a later account made by the captain? Still, Shaw demonstrates vast knowledge of the sea and I am confident many of his details, while probably not derived directly from sources, is relatively accurate. Some elements are found lacking. For example, there is much information on those struggling for life on rafts and a paddle box, but nothing on those who left early in the lifeboats who survived. Possibly these survivors-mostly crew-feared reprisals if they gave their accounts, but such is not noted. Also, Shaw maintains that the seemingly doomed Vesta could have saved all passengers and crew on Arctic if Luce had stuck around (pg. 120). What substantiates this claim? Vesta was a smaller ship crippled by the collision. Did an inquiry come to this conclusion? For the most part though, Shaw tells the story quite thoroughly considering the amount of source material available. Shaw also explains why this story is important (the Arctic was a symbol of American pride). Although the ending seems a little skimpy, Shaw explains that, due to the times, there was not as much outrage over some of the disgraceful stories that came out as to the behavior of some of the crew members as one would expect in the sue-happy times in which we now live (pg. 203). Despite its faults in terms of documentation, The Sea Shall Embrace Them is a compelling tale beautifully told.
Rating:
Summary: "the sea is an unforgiving body"
Review: Readers who approach Shaw's The Sea Shall Embrace Them as an academic historical account of the sinking of the American steamship Arctic in 1854 will be disappointed. Although Shaw mentions sources sporadically throughout the text (mostly at the beginning), most of the information, including quotations, are not referenced. Shaw writes a lot of details including what was going through the minds of the main people involved in the tragedy, their mannerisms, the environment they saw, etc. through interpretation. If readers approach this work as history written for a mass audience presented with a novelist's flair, they will find this book to be riveting. The chapters are brief (most around 8 pages) and the story is interesting, exciting, and fast-moving. At times, it may be a little more flowery than most students of history are used to, but such possibly superfluous descriptions of scenery, etc. are not that distracting. It mostly affects a handful of pages in the first chapters, although my favorite example is on page 152: "...men and women, as well as their teenagers, children, and infants, would never again admire the blazing fall foliage soon to be dressing the environs of New York in a spectrum of orange, red, and yellow even more intense in color than when Arctic set off on her last voyage in September." The book does not always read like this, though. Of course, the story gets more exciting as it approaches the accident and sinking with huge loss of life; however, I also found the beginning chapters very interesting, especially the competition between the English Cunard Line and the American Collins Line for supremacy of the overseas mail. Cunard will of course be challenged later by the White Star Line which created Titanic and her sister ships. Much of this story has similarities to Titanic, so those who enjoy reading about the latter will probably find this book to be of great interest. Shaw demonstrates an incredible amount of research. When listing the salaries of the Collins employees or the price of a ticket on the Arctic, he includes the equivalent in today's money which better explains his points (it cost over $2,300 in today's money for a first class one-way fair, pg 40. Ouch!). He also uncovers many interesting details. For example, 7 of the 9 ships Luce captained before Arctic sank under another captain's command (pg. 87). Footnotes would help this book. For example, why does Shaw describe Luce as being depressed while setting of on his final voyage on the Arctic? Was the detail garnered from a diary entry or a later account made by the captain? Still, Shaw demonstrates vast knowledge of the sea and I am confident many of his details, while probably not derived directly from sources, is relatively accurate. Some elements are found lacking. For example, there is much information on those struggling for life on rafts and a paddle box, but nothing on those who left early in the lifeboats who survived. Possibly these survivors-mostly crew-feared reprisals if they gave their accounts, but such is not noted. Also, Shaw maintains that the seemingly doomed Vesta could have saved all passengers and crew on Arctic if Luce had stuck around (pg. 120). What substantiates this claim? Vesta was a smaller ship crippled by the collision. Did an inquiry come to this conclusion? For the most part though, Shaw tells the story quite thoroughly considering the amount of source material available. Shaw also explains why this story is important (the Arctic was a symbol of American pride). Although the ending seems a little skimpy, Shaw explains that, due to the times, there was not as much outrage over some of the disgraceful stories that came out as to the behavior of some of the crew members as one would expect in the sue-happy times in which we now live (pg. 203). Despite its faults in terms of documentation, The Sea Shall Embrace Them is a compelling tale beautifully told.
Rating: 
Summary: More Disaster on the High Seas
Review: The recent resurgence of interest in The Titanic disaster has led to a whole slew of books recounting historical shipwrecks. Some have been obviously just been attempts to cash in on Titanic-mania, while others have diligently recounted the events they chronicle. Fortunately, "The Seas Shall Embrace Them" is in the latter category. Author David W. Shaw sets the backdrop nicely, explaining how the U.S. merchant marine challenged Great Britian's supremacy in the Trans-Atlantic trade during the first half of the 19th century. A great race was on to see who could build the fastest and most luxurious steamships. Unfortunately, as both sides broke each other's time records, concerns such as safety inevitably got the short shrift. Enter Captain James C. Luce and his steamship The Arctic, which struck another vessle in the waters off Newfoundland in late September of 1854 and sank in about five hours. There were not enough lifeboats abord the vessle, and many among the crew violated the cardinal rule that their passengers should be saved first. Luce and several men loyal to him tried valiently to prevent it from happening, though their efforts proved futile. All of The Arctic's women and children passengers, including Luce's own sickly son, died. Luce himself was determined to go down with the ship, but survived by a strange twist of fate to become a tragic hero. The account of the sinking and rescue is chilling to say the least. Author Shaw is a good storyteller. The only flaw with the book is that at a brief 213 pages of text, the narrative is not quite as fleshed out as perhaps it should have been. Nevertheless, it is still a good read for anyone who likes a good nautical adventure tale.
Rating: 
Summary: Gripping story, awful storytelling
Review: This book contains a fact-based account of a tragic accident in the Grand Banks in 1854. The US steamship Arctic, charging through the fog at top speed (as was customary in the days when transatlantic speed records were a matter of national pride), collided with a smaller but hardier ship that ripped a fatal wound in Arctic's hull. Captain Luce made a mad dash for land, but there wasn't enough time to save his ship, and Arctic was seriously lacking in lifeboats. This desperate situation brought out the worst in some of the crew, whose cowardly actions helped cause the death of every woman and child on the ship (so much for the idea of noble seafarers). The crew wasn't the only problem; try to imagine the dread that passengers felt as they blew up inflatable life jackets only to see the defective items deflate seconds later. The ensuing chaos in which over 300 people died is described by the author in gruesome detail. So why give this book only two measly stars? I should say that the author obviously has a vast knowledge of and love for the sea. But his writing style is ponderous and overblown, especially in the first half of the book when nothing much is happening. It is as if Mr. Shaw is afraid we will lose interest, so he empties his thesaurus in our general direction. The book is stuffed to the gills with pointless adjectives, blatant foreshadowing, and mind-melting statements such as "At sea, the ceaseless motion, the salt in the air, and the relentless ocean swells transport one's sense of identity, some say to the sublime." Huh? Adding to my discomfort is the fact that although this book is advertised as a historical account, much of the filler material leading up to the collision is fabricated. Captain Luce isn't around anymore to tell us whether he "walked to the rail and gazed off into the gloom, shivering slightly from the dampness." We can imagine that Luce might have done that, but by blurring this and other hypothetical statements with the facts, Shaw has transformed the real-life captain into a boring fictional character. I didn't care about Luce as much as some of the other more minor but more real people in the book because I figured he would be back for the sequel. I continued reading past about page 40 only because I wanted to see how bad the book could get. Fortunately, I was rewarded for my "patience" with a compelling description of Arctic's last hours. The horror of the events finally catches up to the horror of Shaw's writing around page 95. If you're going to buy the book, start reading at that point and spare yourself the harrowing experience I had.
Rating:
Summary: "Oh Captain! My Captain!"
Review: This book is evocative of the sorrow and loss at sea of which Walt Whitman wrote so emotionally. In contrast to Whitman's poem however, here the vessel - the steamship Arctic - did not make it to port, and rather than a son mourning for his lost father it was the other way around. The Captain of the Arctic, James C Luce, was grief-struck as he helplessly watched his son and the vast majority of the passengers drown in the frigid north Atlantic some fifty miles off Cape Race, Newfoundland. The story has its origins in competition between the UK and the US. In 1840 Britisher Samuel Cunard inaugurated steamship service on his Royal Mail Steamship Line (the Cunard Line). In 1848 he brought the competition to the US by making New York his base for transatlantic crossings. By now Cunard was operating a fleet of ten ships that provided a regular schedule of steamship service between Liverpool and New York. Cunard had also raised the ire of US officialdom. Shaw quotes a US Senator as saying "America will soon become tired of being informed now of British maritime supremacy." Shaw says the response was "a new breed of steamships, stamped with American ingenuity and backed with the might of the US Treasury [whose] sole purpose was to 'cast this man Cunard from the sea'". Three such steamships built for this purpose were the Atlantic, Pacific, and the Arctic. They belonged to the United States Mail Steamship Company or the Collins Line as it was more popularly known - named after its owner Edward Knight Collins. Collins we are told was a man bent on "maintaining schedule and setting records whenever possible." The Arctic was a 3,000 ton, wooden paddle-steamer and was the largest, most luxurious, and fastest of the line. She set a record in 1852 making the New York to Liverpool crossing in ten days. The fateful voyage of the Arctic took place in September 1854. In command was Captain James C Luce. There were over 400 aboard with more than 300 being passengers; the rest comprised the "black gang" (as the stokers for the boilers were called) and the ship's officers. Among the passengers was Luce's son and E.K Collins' wife Mary and two of their children. Everything was routine as the Arctic set off from Liverpool but she shortly ran into a rolling fog bank. Luce maintained his course and speed of thirteen knots, but unknown to him, a French steamer called the Vesta had also entered the fog. The Vesta was a much smaller ship at 250 tons but she had iron cladding and when the two collided bow on, the larger wooden Arctic came off much the worse. This wasn't immediately apparent and Luce, fearing he had crippled and sunk the smaller ship, lowered one of his lifeboats as rescue. What was supposedly a mission of mercy to another ship soon became a desperate attempt to save his own as Luce soon discovered that the Arctic had been pierced in three places and the ship was taking on heavy water through a five-foot gaping hole. Shaw's description of the ensuing events is where the book is at its compelling best and we are caught up in it. As the reality that soon THE SEA SHALL EMBRACE THEM all sank in, the best and worst of humanity emerged. Cowardice and bravery were on display, more of the former than the latter. Captain Luce ordered full speed ahead, but while she was still some twenty miles offshore with land tormentingly just in sight, the ships paddles stopped as the engines flooded. The Arctic quickly began foundering and Luce gave the order to abandon ship with women and children to be put in the boats first. There were not enough boats for all those remaining and the stokers were not inclined to wait while a raft was hastily built. They mutinied and brushed passengers aside and stormed the lifeboats. One brave officer pulled his pistol but before he could restore order a stoker bashed his head in with a vicious hit from a shovel. Forty-five persons made it into the raft before the Arctic sank and all told only 85 were eventually rescued. Captain Luce lived but was witness to what he described as "a most awful and heart rendering scene" as "men, women, and children were struggling together amidst the pieces of the wreck of every kind calling on each other for help, and imploring God to assist theem." Neither Luce's son, nor Collins' wife, only daughter, and youngest son were rescued. Tragically there was not one woman or child among those saved. What became of the survivors? The Vesta made it to port with minor loss of life. As is usually the case with such tragedies, where blame can not be properly ascribed, it falls on the Captain. Luce received a minor official reprimand and gave up the sea for a job ashore in maritime insurance. Of much greater pain would be the personal anguish of losing his son and the accusatory words of E.K. Collins ringing in his ears. The ships owner said Luce "had practically murdered his family". If you like sea stories, naval history and geography, with a little bit of 18th century US and British industrial and shipping history thrown in then you'll thoroughly enjoy this well written and thrilling tale of a little known maritime tragedy.
Rating:
Summary: Gripping but Sad Account of Maritime Disaster
Review: This new book by David Shaw tells the story of the tragic sinking of the United States Steamship 'Arctic' in 1854. The 'Arctic' was one of the new generation of ocean travelling boats offering the paying public comfort and speed whilst crossing the Atlantic. Involved in a race against the liners of the British owned and operated Cunard Company the 'Arctic' was set to break all records, travelling full steam ahead regardless of weather or any other considerations. Sadly on September 27, 1854, the 'Arctic' collided with a new ironclad vessel, the 'Vesta', off the coast of Newfoundland and then within a short period of time plunged to the bottom of the sea, sparing only 87 of her 408 passengers. The book tells the sad story of this collision, the sinking and the terrible actions of the crew and some of the passengers trying to survive in the cold sea of the Grand Banks. This incident was a foretaste of the epic 'Titanic' sinking which was to occur some fifty years later. The author also tells the story of the competition between the British Cunard Company and the United States Collins Company in the race to provide the best and fastest service in crossing the Atlantic, which led to this terrible tragedy. The account of the boat sinking as the crew fails in their duty and desert, leaving just a few duty bound men, including the Captain with his sickly 11-year-old son is quite harrowing. In the end most of the crew escape with the few lifeboats available, leaving behind the stricken passengers, which resulted in the death of every woman and child aboard. This is great, and at the same time, very sad story and although quite short, only 220 pages of narrative, it is well told and gripping throughout. The author utilises numerous first hand accounts to convey the feelings at the time and also provides a number of black and white photographs. Overall this was a very satisfying book and I am sure anyone who enjoys reading about maritime history will be quite taken with this story.
Rating: 
Summary: A Tragic Story Adequately Told
Review: This somewhat insubstantial volume is about the loss in 1854 of the American steamship Arctic in a collision on the Grand Banks off Newfoundland. This tragedy somewhat prefigured the more famous 1912 Titanic disaster in many respects. One of the big differences, though, is that out of 87 survivors (from roughly 400 people on the ship), only 22 were passengers, and all of those were men. This is because the crew bum-rushed the lifeboats and took off as quickly as possible, and the women weren't strong enough to claw their way through the frenzied masses. The book takes a somewhat novelistic approach, which I find awkward. It features some dialogue, but evidently only as drawn from primary sources. Still, there are a lot of references to minor details that seem pretty clearly made up just for atmosphere. It may be nit-picky of me, but I don't want to hear about the captain staring at himself in the mirror and looking at his scar and thinking about his lost child unless a document can be cited that that is exactly what happened. Also, the author is a sailing dude, so he made sure to lard his book with phrases like "Under a stiffening breeze, the crew had no choice but to let the biffenboffer spank the stalwart broadsheet." Okay, I get it--you know all about sailing. That doesn't mean you have to go showing off in front of the laypeople. (A glossary is provided in the back, but I didn't know that until too late.) Overall, it's a fair effort, but really only of interest for those who want to pack their libraries with maritime disaster stories.
Rating:
Summary: The sinking of the Arctic
Review: With an eye to maritime history, David W. Shaw recounts the heady days of the American fleets' domination of the high seas...and the dreadful price paid because of pride and ignorance. The details are well written and there are several people who come to life, especially captain James C. Luce who made the voyage with his sickly son. Using the available newspaper reporting, as well as the testimony of surviving eyewitnesses, this book is a harrowing tale of the perils of the seas and a engrossing read.
Rating:
Summary: The sinking of the Arctic
Review: With an eye to maritime history, David W. Shaw recounts the heady days of the American fleets' domination of the high seas...and the dreadful price paid because of pride and ignorance. The details are well written and there are several people who come to life, especially captain James C. Luce who made the voyage with his sickly son. Using the available newspaper reporting, as well as the testimony of surviving eyewitnesses, this book is a harrowing tale of the perils of the seas and a engrossing read.
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