Rob Boffard is a South African author who splits his time between London, Vancouver and Johannesburg. He has worked as a journalist for over a decade, and has written articles for publications in more than a dozen countries, including the Guardian and Wired in the UK.
"[Brian Murphy] almost makes readers feel as if they were
passengers in the lifeboat...and skillfully weaves a story of
heroism, delusion, and survival...Adrift is well-written and
well-researched, and offers a valuable analysis of a tragedy that
is symbolic of hundreds of similar tragedies on the open
seas."--New York Journal of Books
"A heartrending and compelling account of shipwreck and
survival...Vividly recreates life and sailing in the middle of the
19th century. [Murphy's] primary purpose is to tell the story of
one ship and the people aboard her, yet a secondary goal is for the
book to serve as an elegy to all the forgotten men, women, and
children who lost their lives. He accomplishes both with dignity
and passion. Adrift is so riveting that even in the midst of summer
heat, the wintry cold seeps so deeply into your bones that not even
the warmest wool will dispel the bleak aloneness of being
surrounded by water and ice in a small boat."--Pirates and
Privateers
"A magnificently researched telling of the sinking of the John
Rutledge and subsequent nightmare endured by her passengers and
crew...A gripping and informative read...Readers don't need to be
able to discern a mizzen from a main or port from starboard to
enjoy Murphy's tale of Thomas Nye and his fight for survival...As
beach season comes to a close and hurricane season begins to come
into full swing, there are few better books to remind readers of
the power of the deep blue ocean than Brian Murphy's
Adrift."--Shipwreckology
"A tale of harrowing adventure, but also a study of human nature in
desperate circumstances when conventional morality and social norms
are washed away."--The Literate Quilter
"Consider the modern-day books on boat-meets-immoveable-object:
ships doomed by rogue waves (The Perfect Storm), humongous whales
(In the Heart of the Sea) and wartime torpedoes (Dead
Wake)...Joining this flotilla of masterful histories is Brian
Murphy's Adrift."--Winnipeg Free Press
"Extensively researched and likely the best book ever written
explaining the decades lasting, interlacing effects of shipwrecks
on families, businesses, and even global politics...[For] both
scholars and the general public alike."--Shipwrecks.com
"Ice is a killer. It kills ships and it kills the men and women on
them. Brian Murphy reminds us that for every famous ship that goes
down--think Titanic--countless thousands of others have been lost
at sea, nameless, forgotten. In Adrift he brings back to life the
story of the John Rutledge, and of the crusty Yankee sailors and
seasick Irish immigrants who were aboard, and who died when the
three-master foundered in the lonely, iceberg-studded North
Atlantic--all but one man, that is, Thomas Nye, who kept his wits
about him in a frigid open lifeboat and, half-frozen, clung to
life. Murphy writes with such authority, you can feel the cold
creeping into your bones."--Will Englund, Pulitzer, Polk, and
Overseas Press Club Award-winning journalist
"It's obvious tremendous research went into Adrift, and maritime
history buffs will appreciate not only the saga of the Rutledge but
also other ships in peril during the 1800s, when crossing the
Atlantic in winter was literally a life-and-death gamble."--Michael
J. Tougias, coauthor of So Close to Home, The Finest Hours, and
Above & Beyond
"Murphy writes a detailed but fascinating account of the ship
leaving Liverpool harbor; it sounds as if he has done so on a
sailing craft himself...He has researched the era
assiduously."--Internet Review of Books
"Murphy's use of nautical terms and imagery situates readers in the
boat with boatswains and horseshoe crabs, longboats and buoys and
dock riggers...[A] forward-moving, wave-after-wave
story...Gripping."--Washington Independent Review of Books
"Piecing together information from newspaper accounts, diaries,
family records and the salvaged log, Murphy has meticulously
reconstructed the events of the tragic collision at sea and its
aftermath."
--Cape Cod Times
"Read this book now. It feels like Sebastian Junger's The Perfect
Storm meets the sinking scenes from the movie 'Titanic'...A
thrilling page-turner of a true survival tale...The best historical
nonfiction you'll read this year."
--New Bedford Standard-Times
"The dramatic story of Thomas W. Nye, the sole survivor of the John
Rutledge's tragic encounter with an iceberg in 1856, is beautifully
rendered, gripping, and emotionally engaging from beginning to end.
Murphy and Vlahou perform a literary magic trick of sorts,
transporting readers into another era and enabling them to see and
feel what it was like to travel across the ice-choked north
Atlantic in the depths of winter, and confront the ultimate
nightmare scenario--a sinking ship in the middle of the ocean with
no help in sight. Adrift is a chilling and searingly memorable tale
of unimaginable suffering and one man's bittersweet triumph over
the odds."--Eric Jay Dolin, author of Black Flags, Blue Waters and
Leviathan
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