Lost Voyages: Two Centuries of Shipwrecks in the Approaches to New York [Paperback]

Bradley Sheard (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 10, 1998

This highly illustrated volume traces the evolution of shipping through the drama of shipwrecks.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Sheard, whose first book, Beyond Sportdiving, chronicled the exploration of East Coast shipwrecks lying beyond the accepted depth limits of sport diving, here provides a highly readable account of the evolution of oceangoing ships, the tragedy of shipwrecks, and the maritime history of the region encompassing the approaches to New York Harbor. He has dived and photographed most of the wrecks described, and the photographs here are keyed to line drawings he has rendered of many of the wrecks as they lie today. This work in no way claims to chronicle every shipwreck in the region?such a task would be virtually impossible because of the sheer number of wrecks in these waters?but it is an entertaining account that should appeal to naval and other military buffs, scuba divers, maritime history aficionados, sailors, and readers of dramatic adventure stories.?Michael Coleman, Regional Lib. for Blind and Handicapped, Montgomery, Ala.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

In one of the most comprehensive and insightful views of shipping history in the Atlantic ever assembled, Sheard's mastery of detail is coupled with an innate sense of the big picture to create the definitive lost-ship chronicle. With Titanic mania showing no real sign of subsiding, Sheard tackles all the wrecks from colonial times to the present off New York Harbor (one map shows every wreck--hundreds of them--off Long Island.) What's more, he does it with a breezy but serious style, facts, charts, and maps, maps, and more maps. This information is colorful, insightful, and sometimes surprising (for instance, more U-boats than expected sank off the coast of New York), and when it is not surprising (let's face it, every story ends the same--the boat sinks), Sheard offers so much background (lots of color photos, too) that even the casual mariner will be enthralled. Joe Collins

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Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Aqua Quest Publications (March 10, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1881652173
• ISBN-13: 978-1881652175
• Product Dimensions: 11.3 x 8.8 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #537,771 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Finest Kind, April 16, 2005

By 

Capt. Lou Costello "Capt. Lou" (Asia) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Lost Voyages: Two Centuries of Shipwrecks in the Approaches to New York (Paperback)

Although there are now many books extant on shipwrecks and shipwreck lore this work stands out head and shoulders above the rest. It's area of provenence is that of the Approaches to New York, an area that also includes a huge graveyard of ships long known to sailors as the New York Bight. This area of the coast is home to many a maritime disaster running the gamut from vessels lost to storm and tempest, to those lost in collisions and to other misfortune, and also the many victims of the U-Boat campaigns of WWI and WWII. Tugboats, tankers, freighters, warships and submarines, they are all here to the delight of many a shipwreck diver and reader.

Many fantastic and historic wrecks, such as the famous Grand Dame of the Sea the Andrea Doria and the WWI Battlecruiser San Diego are discussed in detail here.

Author Bradley Sheard's outstanding effort spans two centuries of maritime history as it thoroughly and entertainingly documents the fate of numerous shipwrecks. The book contains a beautifully written textual history supported by outstanding photographs taken by the author along with a good mix of well researched archival material. There are also many carefully and accurately done drawings illustrating the wrecks themselves as they now rest on the sea floor.

The author has obviously gone the extra mile to combine exhaustive research with first hand diving experience to provide the reader with a type of description that brings these shipwrecks to life with many amazing stories of ships and their people that is high drama as only as disaster at sea can be. Bradley Sheard was a member of the legendary Atlantic Wreck Divers and is also one of wreck diving's most skillful and articulate practitioners.

I close by saying that I have dived many of these shipwrecks and the book enriches my own memories wonderfully and I am compelled to say to Mr. Sheard, in the terms of an East Coast Waterman, well done and "Finest Kind!"

The Wreck Hunters: Dive to the Wreck of the USS Bass

6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Lost Voyages, January 5, 2000

By 

Paul F Stone (Wyoming) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Lost Voyages: Two Centuries of Shipwrecks in the Approaches to New York (Paperback)

I think this has to be one of the best shipwreck books I have ever read. Not only does it give detailed accounts of the events leafing up to and including the sinkings, it's packed full of maps, photos, evn drawings of the present state of the wrecks. I think this is probably a must-read.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Another of New York's Finest., February 9, 2002

By 

Ned Middleton (British professional underwater photo-journalist & author) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Lost Voyages: Two Centuries of Shipwrecks in the Approaches to New York (Paperback)

"Two centuries of Shipwrecks in the Approaches to New York" it says on the cover - and that just about says it all. They include HMS Culloden - lost off Long Island in 1781 and the USS San Diego - a four-funnelled armoured cruiser and the only major US Warship lost during WW1. There are tankers and freighters and even one or two U-Boats that sank some of them. There are Cruise Liners from the earliest days of passenger travel, right up to the Andrea Doria - still so sleek and beautiful, it really is hard to believe she was lost in 1956 - almost 50 years ago already.

Lost Voyages is paperback measuring approx. 11½ in x 8½ and filled with over 200 pages of detailed information, historic photographs, underwater photographs, sketches, maps and sectional drawings. Expertly crafted, the book is laid out from the earliest days of America - as a fledgling nation, at Sea right up to the present. With chapters dedicated to; Wooden Warships, Sailing Merchant Ships, the Ascendancy of the Steamship, Ships that ran Aground, the 1914-1918 War, Between the Wars, WW2 and the Era of Modern Navigation, this is a fascinating voyage through the Shipwrecks of time in this one small corner of the world.

The layout, and combination of historic and up-to-date information have been engineered in such a way as to provide the reader with a fascinating insight into the maritime casualties off one major American seaport.

From a Scuba Diver's perspective, these shipwrecks are easily "New York's finest" making this an essential addition to any bookshelf. Once read by any diver - even if you don't live in New York, you just know you will "have" to dive some of these wrecks - someday...

NM