Adrift

A True Story of Tragedy on the Icy Atlantic and the One Who Lived to Tell about It

De: Brian Murphy, Toula Vlahou

Narrado por: Dan Woren

A story of tragedy at sea where every desperate act meant life or death

The small ship making the Liverpool-to-New York trip in the early months of 1856 carried mail, crates of dry goods, and more than one hundred passengers, mostly Irish emigrants. Suddenly an iceberg tore the ship asunder and five lifeboats were lowered. As four lifeboats drifted into the fog and icy water, never to be heard from again, the last boat wrenched away from the sinking ship with a few blankets, some water and biscuits, and thirteen souls. Only one would survive. This is his story.

As they started their nine days adrift more than four hundred miles off Newfoundland, the castaways--an Irish couple and their two boys, an English woman and her daughter, newlyweds from Ireland, and several crewmen, including Thomas W. Nye from Fairhaven, Massachusetts--began fighting over food and water. One by one, though, day by day, they died. Some from exposure, others from madness and panic. In the end, only Nye and the ship's log survived.

Using Nye's firsthand descriptions and later newspaper accounts, ship's logs, assorted diaries, and family archives, Brian Murphy chronicles the horrific nine days that thirteen people suffered adrift on the cold gray Atlantic. Adrift brings readers to the edge of human limits, where every frantic decision and desperate act is a potential life saver or life taker.

Reseñas de la Crítica

"The dramatic story of Thomas W. Nye, the sole survivor of the John Rutledge's tragic encounter with an iceberg in 1856, is beautifully rendered, gripping, and emotionally engaging from beginning to end. Murphy and Vlahou perform a literary magic trick of sorts, transporting readers into another era and enabling them to see and feel what it was like to travel across the ice-choked north Atlantic in the depths of winter, and confront the ultimate nightmare scenario--a sinking ship in the middle of the ocean with no help in sight. Adrift is a chilling and searingly memorable tale of unimaginable suffering and one man's bittersweet triumph over the odds."--Eric Jay Dolin, author of Black Flags, Blue Waters and Leviathan

"Ice is a killer. It kills ships and it kills the men and women on them. Brian Murphy reminds us that for every famous ship that goes down--think Titanic--countless thousands of others have been lost at sea, nameless, forgotten. In Adrift he brings back to life the story of the John Rutledge, and of the crusty Yankee sailors and seasick Irish immigrants who were aboard, and who died when the three-master foundered in the lonely, iceberg-studded North Atlantic--all but one man, that is, Thomas Nye, who kept his wits about him in a frigid open lifeboat and, half-frozen, clung to life. Murphy writes with such authority, you can feel the cold creeping into your bones."--Will Englund, Pulitzer, Polk, and Overseas Press Club Award-winning journalist

"It's obvious tremendous research went into Adrift, and maritime history buffs will appreciate not only the saga of the Rutledge but also other ships in peril during the 1800s, when crossing the Atlantic in winter was literally a life-and-death gamble."--Michael J. Tougias, coauthor of So Close to Home, The Finest Hours, and Above & Beyond

"Murphy writes a detailed but fascinating account of the ship leaving Liverpool harbor; it sounds as if he has done so on a sailing craft himself...He has researched the era assiduously."—Internet Review of Books

"[Brian Murphy] almost makes readers feel as if they were passengers in the lifeboat...and skillfully weaves a story of heroism, delusion, and survival...Adrift is well-written and well-researched, and offers a valuable analysis of a tragedy that is symbolic of hundreds of similar tragedies on the open seas."—New York Journal of Books

Amazing Story of Tragedy and Survival

Author brought the era, events, and people to life. It was wonderfully told and performed buy the narrator.

Very Enlightening!

What a wonderful story! It is told in a clear and concise prose and moves along at a pace that holds one’s interest. The author has done his work well, and put you right in the middle of the boat, which is cast adrift in the frigid sea.


I could have done without the reference to climate change presented as fact when it is absolutely anything but. Current political perspectives have no place in a historical account as far as I’m concerned. Nevertheless, I overlooked that and pay homage to the author, his research and his style of communication. This is a very good audiobook.

survival story where one survived

more could have survival but a series of problems made things worse. a survival story i never heard of.

Yes!

Do not miss this. We should be taught this stuff in schools. Such courage showed by these travelers !

Good enough that I finished it

Decent book. Maybe I missed it but there weren't a lot of nail-biting moments. It's just felt like he told the story, and i sat and listened, but there was never a moment where the suspense or characters arcs really hit a peak. It's good history, but there are survival stories I like much more than this

The Terrible Year of 1856

So the first 2 or 3 hours is a little dry. It's setting the scene of the type of ships crossing the Atlantic and for what reasons. The book overall is collection of many ships that sank in the same month of winter 1856, which was a particularly bad year for ice in the North Atlantic. But the last 3/4th of the book mostly focuses on the sole survivor out of all the myriad of ships that vanished without a trace in that time.

At first it seems so bizarre that the lifeboat with this sole survivor could start with 13 people and end with 1 just ten days later, but as the story progresses it becomes abundantly clear the numerous bad decisions they make. The story really becomes like a psychological experiment. It's fascinating to watch it play out knowing how it ends. If you're interested in survival stories, history, sinking ships in general you'll really like this book.

Very interesting

Lots of fascinating early American and European history. Very well written and informative. I enjoyed listening very much

Excellence

If you want a quick summary of that horrid shipwreck, move on. This incredibly beautifully written account was carefully researched: passengers, ships, crew are each as fully presented as records allow. Much contextual history is included as well as general weather conditions of Atlantic crossings. I can't put it down and I haven't even gotten to the wreck. There is nothing sensational about this author so I am not dreading the difficult passages. The reader is fantastic and to me, a devoted Audible listener, the reader can make or break a book. A winner all around.

Tragic, interesting and informative.

This book mixes historic factual recounting with quality story telling, which makes for a very intriguing and tragic read. I recommend this title to all who are interested in the not so triumphant side of maritime history.

Engrossing

As an avid listener to stories of ships, I enjoyed this well-researched narrative. The reader is excellent. The author balances the strangeness of this true story with textures and details and great sympathy for sole survivor Thomas Nye. It’s amazing that he survived. I usually let audio books lull me to sleep at night, but I had to stay awake for this one since I did not want to leave Mr. Nye out on the North Atlantic in his tiny boat. Highly recommended.