Wreck of the Medusa: The Tragic Story of the Death Raft (Paperback)

by Alexander McKee (Author) "THE girl who ran impulsively into the fields to gather blooms was saying goodbye to France..." (more)
Key Phrases: engineering workmen, march party, Charlotte Picard, Lieutenant Espiaux, Cape Blanc (more...)

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 Description
"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

Product Details

• Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: Signet (August 1, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0451200446
• ISBN-13: 978-0451200440
• Product Dimensions: 6.6 x 4 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #420,834 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 12 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 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.

3 of 3 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

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.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Well Written, Amazing Story, January 15, 2002

By	C. Sahu "Cathy Sahu" (Southern California) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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."