Customer Reviews

Simple Courage: A True Story of Peril on the Sea

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

The Christian Science Monitor said something like - "Simple Courage made The Perfect Storm look like a paddle in a duck pond". No kidding. This is, perhaps, the most exciting non-fiction book I've ever read. What more can I say? It's exciting, exhilerating, ferocious, frightening, breathtaking -- and ultimately, heartwarming and life affirming.

I've been sitting up tonight trying to think about whether I would have had the courage to stick to my guns and do everything in my power to bring a damaged ship to port in the worst storm in history, and here's what I think: it's more than bringing in a ship - the central theme here is whether a man will honor his promise and his word.

Obviously Captain Carlsen does this, and along the way his example seems to inspire other people to behave with great courage. From his boss to his crew and passengers, to the captains and crews of the rescue ships and an incredible sailor who jumped from a tug to join him on board this `sinking ship' - there is so much courage jammed into these pages, you cannot help but ask yourself if you would be up for the task.

In the end, we read that Carlsen's reason for staying on board is as much about love as duty - but it's very clear that simply doing what's right can actually be heroic.

I can't type anymore - I actually have tears in my eyes.

The world has not long remembered Captain Henrik Kurt Carlsen, but in 1952 he was deservedly one of the most famous men in the world, "The Man of the Year" according to Life magazine and plenty of other listmakers. Frank Delaney, an Irish writer, was nine years old at the time, and one of the connections he had with his difficult father while growing up in Ireland was sharing the world's fascination with Carlsen's peril at sea. Delaney remembers his father uncharacteristically summoning the family to the radio: "There is an incident happening at sea." An incident, indeed, and one that stuck with Delaney for years, finally flowering into the grand account _Simple Courage: A True Story of Peril on the Sea_ (Random House). Delaney's personal interest in the story, as part of his own family's lore, is told in episodes through the book, illustrating how all the world over people were waiting to hear of the fate of Carlsen as he clung to his sinking vessel, so it helps us understand what a sensation the story was at the time. Delaney's book brings the sensation back for our own time.

For the voyage of _Flying Enterprise_ at the end of 1951, she had picked up passengers and cargo in various European docks, and was headed to the United States. The master of the ship was Captain Carlsen, a 37-year-old Danish-born American who had two decades of seagoing experience, including 43 Atlantic crossings. He was an impeccable sailor and captain. He had no pretense; everyone who knew him said that he was exactly the sort of straight-arrow he seemed to be. The ship had the ill fortune to be hit not by one but two rogue waves, the first cracking the hull and the second giving it a sixty degree list which shifted the cargo so that she could not right herself. Eventually there were ships that came to the rescue, and although one passenger died in the transfer, all the rest of the crew and passengers jumped, often heroically, into the raging and frigid waters to be dragged to safety. Carlsen ordered everyone off, including those that volunteered to continue to try to save the ship, and then began a solitary stay on the vessel, attempting to find food or a dry place in which to wedge mattresses so he could catch some sleep. A seagoing hero in peril was a great story, and the press ran with it, ensuring that even Delaney's isolated family knew of "Stay-Put Carlsen" or "Captain Courageous." There were those who thought there must be some hidden motive to keep Carlsen aboard in such atrocious conditions, but the truth is, as the title of the book implies, simple: Carlsen knew his duty, he loved his ship, and until there was no hope, he was not leaving.

This was the biggest one-man heroism story since Lindbergh. He was honored on his return to England, and when he got to New York, he was given a ticker tape parade. He refused to cash in on his fame; even while he was awaiting rescue, a beer tycoon had arranged for a packet to be dropped to him offering him $30,000 to endorse a particular brew. He declined an appearance on _The Ed Sullivan Show_. He was quickly put back at work for his shipping line, and was a hero to all, except for himself. For one thing, he never understood why people would get so worked up over a man who was simply carrying out his duty; for another, he felt a deep personal shame that he had become a captain who had lost a ship. It is a true touch of tragedy within a spellbinding tale of a hero pitted against the vicious sea.

As a sailor and someone who has great respect for the sea I have recommended this book to my Friends and also given away copies to family, whom I would like to read this book and get the experience though the book.

The sea can be Cruel and wonderful at different times, I love the Ocean but at the same time Respect it for what it can do. The book leaves you wondering how things could have been done differently and perhaps there was other reasons for what took place, the book leaves you thinking, which is good, I can highly recommend this book.

Hans Andersen.

I listened to the CD version of Simple Courage. Other reviewers have deducted marks for the book's length and author's personal narrative. None of that mars the audio version. LISTEN to the CD. It's been expertly abridged by Kristin Lesko into a tight, taut, compelling story. Frank Delaney is an absolutely OUTSTANDING reader/narrator (a long prior career at the BBC probably helped). I begrudged every moment it took to eject the finished CDs and spin up the new ones.

It is not a tremendously fast paced book, full of drama in every chapter. But it is a book that is full of insight, both in the merchant marine and in the character of the hero in the story.

I guess I am in a phase of reading true adventure accounts, that not only are positively affirming but also informative. By those standards, this book merits four stars. It is a decent adventure tale, though not a stem-winder, and is quite a positive story. But it also taught me quite a lot about what is like to be a merchant seaman.

So if this what you are looking for, I would consider this book a good choice. If you just want a BIG adventure tale, this book may not be for you.

The book is certainly well written and could form the authoritative account of the "Flying Enterprise", but I found myself stalling in some of the detail. The storm action really ends after the first 100 pages and the attempted towing of the wreck takes up the remainder of the book. It's a well-written book, I learned a lot about the shipping industry, and the making of a hero, but this isn't an edge-of-the-seat page turner, if you are looking for that.

Frank Delaney gives a gripping account of a story I remember reading about in primary school, the story of the Flying Enterprise. This was a stricken freighter that ran into trouble off the coast of Ireland in the new year of 1951 during several dramatic weeks that included attempts to tow her into port and some hair-raising moments in which there could have been major loss of life. Every wave that crashed over her cracked hull was splashed across the headlines on both sides of the Atlantic, and the saga gripped the public imagination for weeks as the drama unfolded.

The story is of Captain Kurt Carlson, a Danish shipmaster whose name became legendary in the popular imagination as well as in maritime history. He shunned the title of 'Hero' for the rest of his life, always insisting that he was just doing his duty.

In one of the best openings to a book that I have read in a long time, Delaney draws you in with a vivid description of the Beaufort scale, describing in shocking detail the weather conditions that sailors are subjected to when nature unleashes its unforgiving fury at sea as well as on land.

When Flying Enterprise left Antwerp in late December 1951 on her voyage to New York with her cargo, fifty crew and ten passengers, little did anyone know of the drama that was in store. One of the biggest storms in living memory pounded Western Europe, prompting rescue operations up and down the Irish Sea, the North Sea, the congested English Channel, and the North Atlantic. A freak wave assailed Flying Enterprise from the side, lifted her out of the water, dropped her in it again with a loud thud, cracking her hull and pushing her over on her side to a 60 degree list. Water poured into the holds, the cargo shifted, and the list became permanent.

Carlson arranged an incredible operation to lash the hull together with chains, cover the crack on the deck, and pump the water back out. It was enough to stop her taking any more water, for now. The engineers below worked themselves into a state of exhaustion to keep the water out of the machinery and keep the engines going until the men could do no more, literally collapsing on the steel plates, and the ship lost power. Enormous waves continued to pound the vessel. The rudder was sheared off. The lifeboats were either smashed or in too dangerous a position to be launched. When help arrived, Carlson saw to it that the passengers got off by jumping into the stormy water accompanied by crewmen who helped them aboard the rescue boats that had taken hours to get into a safe position in heaving mountainous seas. When the last crewman was off, he turned around and asked Carlson if he was coming. The answer was no.

Carlson stayed aboard, used a makeshift radio and his skills as a ham radio operator to communicate with the armada of ships that had gathered, and continued to run his disabled ship single-handedly for over a week. He risked his life moving about the listing boat, scavenged what little food and drink there was, wrote it all down in the store log, and maintained the ship's log and kept her 'legal.' As long as he was captain and on board, nobody could claim salvage. He arranged for a contract to be negotiated to get Flying Enterprise towed to port, all of this over a period of days in which she could have gone down at any minute. When the tug Turmoil arrived, after a day of trying to get a line to the lone captain in a large swell, Kenneth Dancy sprinted across the tug's deck and jumped across to Flying Enterprise to help Carlson secure the tow line. Dancy became First Mate and he saw the horrendous and terrifying conditions that Carlson had been living in, where some walls had become sloping floors, some walls had become sloping roofs, and sea water and diesel and oil was everywhere. Carlson had been working, eating, and sleeping in the middle of all this and remained calm and professional throughout.

Delaney has a real talent for going into the necessary detail while keeping up the suspense and giving a careful analysis of the complex motivations that led Carlson to stay aboard his ship alone and his determination to get her into port. He uses first hand accounts to build up a picture of the impact of the incident on the lives of those involved. There's also a fascinating theme of etymology, explaining the origins of everyday words that have their ancient roots in the practices of the craft of sailing. This is a real nail-biter right to the end, and just when you think the author is wandering off into the weeds with reminiscences about his own childhood, he pulls you right back to the Carlson story with the lesson that one Danish captain inadvertently taught the world about family loyalty, about putting others first, about professionalism, and about duty.

Frank Delaney's SIMPLE COURAGE: A TRUE STORY OF PERIL ON THE SEA tells of a 1951 ship laden with passengers and tons of cargo heading from Europe to America which faced huge waves which about destroyed her. Her captain fought to bring her cargo and passengers safely to port: his courageous story is told on audio for the first time, and uses historical documents and modern accounts to spice true adventure.

Diane C. Donovan

California Bookwatch

I was a child of 7 at the end of 1951, and vividly recall going to the Saturday flicks and watching the MovieTone newsreel footage (voiceovers by Ed Herlihy)of the Flying Enterprise in her ongoing struggle to remain afloat. It was the most gripping drama of that era, and the Captain was rightly lionized for his perverse determination to stay with the ship and bring her to port.

At the time, his devotion was seen largely as a blind commitment to duty and obligation, and few commentators ever seriously made the case that abandoning ship would make the Enterprise fair game for marine salvage companies.

So, the tale is well-told, with solid pacing and few digressions into irrelevancies. The things that really were missing from the book, given the saturation photographic and media coverage of the event when it happened, are (1) a cross-sectional diagram of the ship showing how it was loaded, hold by hold, (2) drawings of how the split-hull repair was made and (3) a good collection of photos of the wreck in distress. The omission of these photos is sad, considering that the struggle was filmed for days and the author has only seen fit to include some gray-tone renderings as cover sheets for each section.

The "Flying Enterprise" is an absolutely excellent shipwreck! (and I really like to read about and see films of shipwrecks!)

The book is a little slow and could have used more pictures. But it clearly portrays Captain Carlsen's heroism in staying with his mortally damaged ship.

I think I read about it in the newspaper when it happened but I was very young.

Over the years, there has been two or three things on TV about the "Flying Enterprise" that I taped.