Burning Cold: The Cruise Ship Prinsendam and the Greatest Sea Rescue of all Time [Hardcover]

H. Paul Jeffers (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 18, 2006

During the evening of October 4, 1980, in the Pacific Ocean nearly 330 miles from Valdez, Alaska, a fire engulfed the engine room of the Prinsendam, a Holland America cruise ship carrying 320 passengers, most of them elderly. As the fire raged out of control, the ship’s captain faced the most dire decision of his career: Could he give the order to abandon ship in the face of a typhoon bearing down on the Prinsendam’s position? The story of this disaster at sea, and of the near-miraculous rescue that ensued, is recounted in heart-stopping detail in this powerful book. Drawing on extensive interviews with passengers, crew, and coast guardsmen, combined with exhaustive research, Saving the Prinsendam brings to life the last moments of the doomed cruise ship and the heroic efforts of the Coast Guardsmen who managed to transport every passenger to safety before the Prinsendam rolled and slid bow-first to the bottom on October 11. Told in the hour-by-hour style of Walter Lord's Titanic classic: A Night to Remember, the book recreates the drama of one of the most memorable—and successful—rescue operations ever to be conducted at sea.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In October 1980, the Holland America cruise ship Prinsendam rolled over on her starboard side and sank in 1,473 fathoms of icy water in the Gulf of Alaska. Amazingly, none of the 320 passengers or 190 crew went down with her, recounts Jeffers (The 1,000 Greatest Heroes) in this workmanlike account of disaster and rescue on the high seas. After a fire broke out in the vessel's engine room and spread unchecked, everyone aboard was forced to abandon ship in a rising gale. Through the heroic efforts of the U.S. Coast Guard, whom Jeffers affectionately calls "Coasties," the evacuation resulted in no lives lost. While the story is laden with built-in drama, the prose is deadened with banal clichés: "Still unwilling to meet her maker just yet, Jeanie Gilmore was increasingly concerned about so much thick, black, acrid smoke." Jeffers has done a tremendous amount of research and the tale is packed with detail, but in his mundane recounting, the story fails to take off. 32 b&w photos not seen by PW. (Mar.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

The rescue of all the passengers from the burning cruise liner Prinsendam may not deserve the label given it by the book's subtitle, but when the Dutch vessel caught fire off the Alaskan coast in 1980, the rescue effort was undeniably conducted with the greatest of skill. Coast Guard helicopters retrieved many of the aging and ill passengers from the lifeboats, as did the cutter Boutwell. A piece of good fortune was the presence of the supertanker Williamsburg, whose crew displayed consummate seamanship as they turned their vessel into a combined helipad, first-aid and warming station, and command post. Although Prinsendam eventually sank, everyone involved displayed courage, clear-headedness, and a strong sense of organization. Jeffers' prose is no more than workmanlike, but his research has been thorough, and the story he tells is quite thrilling enough without authorial boosting. Maritime buffs of every variety will enjoy the book, not least for recounting a story that shows the Coast Guard at its best. Roland Green
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: Zenith Press; First edition (March 18, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0760320799
• ISBN-13: 978-0760320792
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.4 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #276,830 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars OK - but you didn't tell the whole story, March 29, 2006

By 

A. Kienitz - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Burning Cold: The Cruise Ship Prinsendam and the Greatest Sea Rescue of all Time (Hardcover)

I was there, as were several of my fellow Sitka Fire Department EMT's and State Troopers from the Sitka Academy. The 6 of us, along with two parajumpers from the Canadian Armed Services were flown through the typhoon winds, on a helicopter, out to the Williamsburgh where we spent the next 33 hours attending to the rescued passengers - literally giving them the clothes off our backs and keeping them calmed. We knew there was a doctor onboard, from Anchorage, but we literally never met or saw him - I'm sure he did good work in the little clinic he had set up - but that is where he stayed. The real story was out in the rest of the ship that weekend. But I was disappointed to see that Mr. Jeffers failed to fully research this book - the role the Sitka rescue teams played (both on the Williamsburgh and trying to assess/fight the fire on the Prinsendam) was totally overlooked - despite the fact that there is a lot of documentation available that tells our story - which was the human side & had some quite amusing moments in the face of this event. I was so looking forward to this book and then to find out he left a large part of the story out, was very sad. At least we all have our commendations from both the Coast Guard commendant and the Canadian armed services - they knew we were there! Too bad Mr. Jeffers didn't due diligence.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Lack of review/homework hurts the story., April 27, 2006

By 

James K. Woodle "Commander, USCG (Retired)" (Bellingham, WA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Burning Cold: The Cruise Ship Prinsendam and the Greatest Sea Rescue of all Time (Hardcover)

Initial glaring error creats many questions of Authors research, facts, and credibility. Considerable space is given to an "Admiral" Richard Schoel, USCG, including a full page quote following the Table of Contents. The "Admiral" of the Seventeenth Coast Guard District during the PRINSENDAM incident was Rear Admiral Richard J. Knapp, who is not even mentioned in the book. As Commanding Officer of the Coast Guard Marine Safety Office in Valdez, Alaska, I worked closely with Admiral Knapp throughout this incident, including matters involving use of the T/V WILLIAMSBURGH as a rescue platform, and then return of the survivors to Valdez. The Admiral was the key person representing the Coast Guard in this rescue and deserves full mention and credit. Numerous other errors in personnel rank, title, and areas of responsibility exist.
Additionally, no mention or credit is given of the major decision by the Alyeska Pipeline Service Company to allow the fully loaded T/V WILLIAMSBURGH to return their terminal. This was no small undertaking.
Not allowing the PRINSENDAM to be towed into sheltered waters of the State of Alaska was a major decision of Commander, Jake Jacoby, Commanding Officer of the Marine Safety Office, Juneau, Alaska.
Award ceremonies were held throughout Alaska by Admiral Knapp, including bringing the CGC BOUTWELL to Valdez to serve as a "Platform" for the citizens of that area. A little effort might have been made toward listing the persons receiving these awards.

James K. Woodle, Commander, USCG (Retired)

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Incomplete, July 24, 2006

By 

P. Welling (USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Burning Cold: The Cruise Ship Prinsendam and the Greatest Sea Rescue of all Time (Hardcover)

While the author obviously has done an enormous amount of research on the Prinsendam fire and subsequent sinking, he has totally ignored any and all statements and accounts of the Prinsendam's crew members. I am sure that there would have been many that would like to put the record straight after 25 years. The author is relying too much on press articles and passenger interviews while the official inquiry results of the Dutch Shipping Inspectorate are barely mentioned The book is also full of inaccuracies as to emergency operations on board a passenger ship.
For those readers interested in the disaster and rescue efforts as seen through the eyes of the rescue organizations involved, this book will be very entertaining.