After the Storm : True Stories of Disaster and Recovery at Sea [Hardcover]

John Rousmaniere (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 17, 2002

An exploration of loss and survival by one of America's finest nautical writers

After the Storm is John Rousmaniere's most ambitious work ever, the unique expression of a master storyteller and authority on seamanship who has survived storms at sea. Each of the book's stories of seafaring disaster­­many little known, all exciting and of deep human interest­­presents a broad human drama. Rousmaniere tells of the hopes and choices that put these sailors in harm's way. He takes readers into the gales themselves with authoritative knowledge of horrific weather and the split-second decisions that seamen must make. Finally, he explores the consequences of these disasters for survivors, rescuers, families, communities, and in some cases nations. The pursuit of these elusive strands leads the reader deep into our ambivalent relationship with the sea as both "destroyer and preserver."

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In his latest, Rousmaniere (Fastnet, Force 10; The Annapolis Book of Seamanship) reconstructs 12 tales of sea wrecks and near-misses from captains' logs and eyewitnesses, which are as sad as they are compelling to read. The poet Shelley's romance with the sea (and his life) comes to an end from careless sailing and a black squall; an African-American church congregation is decimated when the side-wheeler Portland rolls in Massachusetts Bay; during the aftermath of Pearl Harbor, sailors of the supply ship Pollux teeter between heroism and madness while their ship breaks apart on a rocky shelf. But as the title indicates, this book is more than a simple curio of casualty. Having survived his own brush with a watery death in 1979, Rousmaniere arrays in these remarkable stories a study of the reactions to sudden calamity, be they acts of sheer heroism, mute observation or a helpless slide into panic, and the lasting misfortune of those who survive the dead. The book is not without religious overtones, and peppered throughout are insightful digressions into biography, literary criticism and the composition of popular hymns. At once ominously desperate and unerringly hopeful, this book is a wise, generous read. Photos and maps not seen by PW.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Rousmaniere, the author of 18 books, sailed in the 1979 Fastnet Race in which five boats were sunk and 15 sailors died in a storm near England. He has gathered here 10 electrifying true stories that describe disasters at sea. They contain what he identifies as the five elements of a storm: its demanding weather; the seamanship needed to cope with it; the intense stress it places on victims and survivors; the beliefs that play a part in it at every stage; and the consequences of storms for the victims' community. Included are the chronicle of the schooner Ariel, on which Percy Shelley was killed in 1822; the story of the passenger steamer Portland, which sunk in 1898 in Massachusetts Bay, killing almost 200 people; and the wreck of the supply ship Pollux off the coast of Newfoundland during World War II. Every item is engrossing reading. George Cohen
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 352 pages
• Publisher: International Marine/Ragged Mountain Press; 1 edition (April 17, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0071377956
• ISBN-13: 978-0071377959
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,500,301 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

After 30 years of professional writing about boats, sailing, New York history, cemeteries, religion, and other topics, it's still a thrill to learn that I've given people pleasure and security. Just this morning I read these words: "If you want your Ph.D. in sailing there's always John Rousmaniere's The Annapolis Book of Seamanship." That advice to a new sailor appeared in the Catalina Association Forum on June 27, 2009.

Though I've sailed some 35,000 miles on most of the oceans, I was born in Kentucky and spent my early years in Ohio. My family moved to the shore of Long Island Sound, where as a boy I fell in love with sailing and boats. Raised by parents who were wonderful story-tellers, I became determined to be a writer, and that's what I've been doing most of my life. I was educated at Columbia University (bachelor's and master's degrees in history) and Union Theological Seminary (M.Div. -- readers say they see religion and spirituality in my books), where my wife, Leah, works. After Army service, I spent several years as an editor at YACHTING magazine, them became a freelance writer while raising my two young sons solo.

I do a lot of lecturing and instruction -- 20-30 talks a year across the country -- in part because it puts me in touch with readers. When not sailing and writing, I enjoy mountain hiking, New York City, movies, reading fiction, poetry, and American history, and spending time with my wonderful sons, their wives, and their children.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars The Literary Side of Nautical Disaster, July 16, 2002

By 

Brian D. Rubendall (Oakton, VA) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: After the Storm : True Stories of Disaster and Recovery at Sea (Hardcover)

Be forewarned if you purchase "After the Storm" expecting it to be another in the recent spate of books recounting tales of nautical disasters. It does focus on ten seperate instances of seaborne mayhem dating from the 1820s to the 1990s. But instead of including straightforward narrative accounts, author John Rousmaniere is more concerned with the literary and spiritual aspects of such events. The common thread that runs through these tales is that for the most part they all either affected or were commented upon by notable literary personalites, from Mary Shelley to Robert Louis Stevenson to Joseph Conrad and others. So much so that the accounts of the disasters themselves take a back seat to describing their social, psychological, religious and even political effects.

All in all there is nothing necessarily wrong with Rousmaniere's approach, except that its appeal will be limited to the interest that the reader has in the exteraneous subject matter. Unfortunately, the book's subtitle, "True Stories of Disaster and Recovery at Sea," leads one to believe that it is a collection of adventure tales, which is really not the case.

Overall, I would recommend that potential readers closely scrutinize the summaries of this book's subject matter to determine if it will appeal to them.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Too Academic, September 12, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: After the Storm : True Stories of Disaster and Recovery at Sea (Hardcover)

I enjoy reading sea stories such as "Working on the Edge", but it was a real chore to get through the maze of details which seemed to be included just to make the book 'thick' and did nothing to really add to the 'story'. Pass on this one and spend your money on something written as less of a text book.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Historical background and sea stories, March 10, 2010

By 

Rowena T. Mason (Chapel Hill, N.C.) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: After the Storm : True Stories of Disaster and Recovery at Sea (Paperback)

John Rousmaniere relates the historical facts that surrounded each disaster and arranges the stories in historical sequence. This background information adds depth to the stories of sailing disasters by relating them to one another. We learn how sailing and attitudes toward sailing influenced the events of each disaster and we get a better understanding of the sailors involved.