Wreck of the Medusa: The Tragic Story of the Death Raft [Paperback]

Alexander McKee (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 1, 2000

"Wreck of the Medusa" is the same book, only retitled, as one called "Death Raft."

In July, 1816, a French frigate ran aground on a sandbar forty miles off the coast of Africa. Forced to abandon ship, 150 men and women embarked on an overloaded makeshift raft. After twelve days of riots, mutiny, murder, and, ultimately, cannibalism, only fifteen were alive.

"If Alive chilled your soul, read this...One of the strangest and most

horrifying true stories ever told."-John Fowles

"One of the grisliest of sea epics...a first-rate piece of work."-Newsweek

"Compelling."-Washington Post

"Superior non-fiction." -Wall Street Journal

"Impossible to put down."-Kirkus Reviews

"Weird and tragic...a spellbinding drama that made its mark on history."-Publishers Weekly

"The most horrible sea tragedy of the century."-Business Week

"If anything makes that soccer team's ordeal in the Andes seem tame, this story does."-Chicago Daily News

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

In July 1816, a year after Napoleon's defeat at Waterloo, a French ship bound for the colony of Senegal foundered off the West African coast. Aboard were some 400 men, women, and children, some aristocrats, some Republicans, and all at the mercy of an incompetent captain who, a tribunal later found, had alienated his battle-tested officers and favored a shockingly incompetent and untried navigator.

That captain, writes Alexander McKee in this forceful work of historical reconstruction, did not wait to see the results of his incompetence; he abandoned his crew and set off on a longboat for the Senegalese shore. Other officers and crewmen left on the remaining lifeboats, taking most of the ship's provisions and leaving more than 150 passengers to brave the open sea on a raft. Within a few days, most of those castaways had been burned to death by the sun, providing food for the survivors. When rescuers arrived, they found only "fifteen men, almost naked, faces and bodies blotched and disfigured by the scorching sun"--a sight that would soon be reported to a horrified world.

McKee writes not only of the fate of the Medusa and its unfortunate passengers, but also of other terrible shipwrecks and kindred incidents. Along the way, he looks at the making of Géricault's celebrated painting The Wreck of the Medusa, the effect of exposure and dehydration on the human body, and assorted questions of bravery and cowardice. His book makes for a vivid, highly readable--if sometimes repugnant--tale of disaster and terror. --Gregory McNamee

Product Details

• Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: Signet (August 1, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0451200446
• ISBN-13: 978-0451200440
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 4.1 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #836,621 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the most astonishing books you'll ever read!, August 8, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Wreck of the Medusa: The Tragic Story of the Death Raft (Paperback)

This true telling of the Raft of the Medusa has to rank as one of the very best historical accounts of any disaster ever written. I literally could not put it down, as each page revealed a progressive, sinking horror more intense and seemingly hopeless than anything Stephen King could ever imagine! To give any details would spoil the impact of this great book. If you can't get a new copy, then find a used one, but find one and READ it! You won't be disappointed.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A complete and exciting account of human tragedy., December 2, 2004

By 

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

This review is from: Wreck of the Medusa: The Tragic Story of the Death Raft (Paperback)

This is a tale of human endeavour and tragedy so great that an oil painting of the survivors from the wreck of the Medusa on board their raft actually hangs in the Louvre Art Gallery in Paris. It is a story of a shipwreck in the early part of the 19th Century where a few of those who survived the original wrecking set out on a raft seeking rescue. Many of them made it - but many did not.

It is a harrowing tale of survival against everything that both life and death can throw at a group of people when they are at extreme disadvantage.

Once again Alexander McKee provides the reader with a well researched and equally well presented book based on a factual story from the sea. It is also an excellent read - which is exactly what I have come to expect from this author.

NM.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Another worthy shipwreck read, September 9, 2002

By 

Raoul Duke "R. Duke" (San Antonio, Texas USA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Wreck of the Medusa: The Tragic Story of the Death Raft (Paperback)

The Wreck of the Medusa is a well-told tale of the crew and passengers of the ill-fated french frigate. McKee has done an incredible job of assembling the facts of this story into a coherent tale. Anybody who enjoys stories of disaster at sea will enjoy this book.

The criticism: near the end of the book, McKee launches into a psuedo-psychological analysis of the Medusa tragedy as compared to several other modern-day tragedies. While the other stories made for interesting reading, I wasn't too impressed with the self-evident parallels he drew from the comparisons. These portions of the book should have been edited out.