Customer Reviews

Wreck of the Medusa: The Tragic Story of the Death Raft

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2 star:		(1)
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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.

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.

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.

I have to admit that for years I thought Gericault's painting, "The Wreck of the Medusa" was based on some portion of the mythological exploits of the snake-headed goddess. Obviously the author of this book, Alexander McKee gives the true account of the tragedy that inspired the painting. Though similar to another shipwreck story; "In the Heart of the Sea," which deals with the wreck of the whaleship Essex "The Wreck of the Medusa" differs because the tragedy of the Medusa is entirely manmade. Through the actions of the cowardly captain and the obnoxiously snobbish Gov. Schmaltz hundreds of innocents are abandoned on a overcrowded, rickety raft with next to no provisions while Schmaltz and Capt. de Chaumareys row off in large well provisioned lifeboats....echoes of Titanic here. But even more disgusting is how these two sorry excuses for human beings continue to harrass the few destitute survivors long after the ordeal at sea ends. This story shows humanity at it's best and far beyond it's worst.

In 1816, the French frigate Medusa became stranded off the west coast of Africa, and a harrowing tale of desperate survival began. British author Alexander McKee writes his account in straightforward, journalistic style, avoiding any temptation to sensationalize the dramatic story.

As one might expect, the extreme situation brought out the best in some persons, the worst in others. Men on a barely seaworthy raft, in water up to their waists, eventually had to resort to cannibalism to remain alive.

McKee presents the full story to us, replete with human error, arrogance, cowardice, and heroism, endurance, and faith. In the final chapters of the book he relates other stories of shipwrecks and plane wrecks, such as the famous crash of the rugby team high in the Andes in 1972. He compares these disasters with the Medusa situation.

Although his style seems rather pedestrian at times, I suspect he deliberately wrote this way to present the story factually and completely. "Death Raft" belongs on the list of any reader who enjoys true-life sea stories.

This is a good story, well told, that grips the reader & draws a lot of emotion from him. One feels anger at the incompetance of the pompous, lily-livered captain who cruelly & swiftly abandons the ships complement, saving only himself & a few "favoured" high-ranking passengers & crew. The terrible sufferings of the poor wretches on the raft are shocking & one wonders to what lengths the human species will endure to survive. Yes, it is certainly a moving story. Unfortunately, the "meat" of this immensely exciting survival tale finishes half way through the book. There follows a series of tedious & dreary accounts of the events ocurring as a consequence of the tragedy. The dreadful French bureaucracy that pillories the raft survivors who try to bring relate their struggles & completely fails to adequately punish the craven captain. There is a rambling account of the manner in which the famous painting of the Death Raft is finally completed & recognised. Finally, comparisons are made between the Death Raft survivors & survivors of other events, including another ship-wreck, the famous Uruguayan Andes plane crash & even modern day hi-jacks. These are mostly irrelevant. The conclusions are nebulous & stretch the imagination. In conclusion, 50% of the book is great, but spoiled by the final 50%, which is pure padding. Shame!

I have to disagree with the reviewer who thought this book wasn't well-written. The author does a great job, to my mind: the book is well-paced, the character sketches excellent, and all my questions regarding technical as well as psychological issues answered. Of course, different people like different styles of writing.

Another, even more amazing true-story book by Alexander McKee is "Ice Crash."

The Wreck of the Medusa (The Tragic Story of the Death Raft), by Alexander McKee, has been reissued to benefit from the recent interest in survival stories, whether in the Artic regions, high atop a mountain, or on the high seas. This addition to the genre may not be as well written and researched as some (In the Heart of the Sea sets a high standard for going beyond simply the events of the tragedy and taking the reader into the context) but this book makes up for any faults by telling one of the most horrific stories imaginable. It begins with gross incompetence by the leaders of the expedition and then becomes a story of murder, mutiny, suicide, cannibalism and the very occasional act of heroism. It is stunning to see a raft (appropriately referred to as a death raft) go from one hundred and fifty to fifteen people in a couple of weeks. It is a gripping tale for those readers who have developed a taste for these rather gruesomely riveting survival tales.

This book does a wonderful job of documenting a tragic event that captured nearly everyone's attention in the early part of the 19th Century. Alexander McKee shows the role that French politics played in putting incompetent and self-serving military officers in charge of an operation that ended with a grisly outcome. After running their vessel aground off the coast of West Africa they discover that they have insufficient boats so a 65x25 foot raft is constructed for 150 folks so they might be towed to shore. But when it is discovered that the raft is a couple of feet below water when loaded it slows the other boats and is therefore set adrift. Of the 150 only 15 survive and those by eating human flesh.

The first half of the book involves the events surrounding the wreck while the second half is devoted to a comparison and contrast of several other similar stories of challenge where depends on the competent leadership and the consumption of human flesh.

As a result of this tragedy a French painter named Theodore Gericault painted "The Wreck of the Medusa" which now hangs in the Louvre. McKee does an excellent job of sharing the events surrounding the creation of that painting and the book has several sketches of the work prior to completion.

My disappointment was in knowing how the author knew so much about this tragedy until half way through the book. Then you learn that there was a number of books written by the survivors and also written court proceedings available.

When you start it you'll have a hard time putting it down.

The Wreck of the Medusa is the amazing story of the so-called death raft off the coast of Africa nearly two hundred years ago. It is thoroughly engrossing, with lessons completely applicable to the modern world. It would make a terrific film, an interwoven tale of flower meadows in France, the grounding of the ship on the dangerous bank off West Africa, the death raft, storms, the march through the desert, the shameful conduct of the Medusa's leadership, the courtroom aftermath, the great work of art inspired by the experience of those on the raft that so emotionally and physically exhausted the young artist (who died three years later), and more modern events with similar human behavior. Images of scores of people crammed on a makeshift raft up to their chests in seawater, so close together that they could not move, and the events that reduced their number to under 20, are indelible for me and should be brought to others through film. The only surprise for me is that the author did not mention the survival story from the sinking of the Essex, just a couple years after the grounding of the Medusa.