Books about getting shipwrecked?

"In The Heart of The Sea - The Tragedy Of The Whaleship Essex" by Nathaniel Philbrick is a fantastic book. it recounts the true story of twenty whalemen who were shipwrecked about 1000 miles off the coast of South America when a bull Sperm Whale rammed the ship and stove in the hull. The survivors took to the whaleboats and spent 93 days at sea. Philbrick is a brilliant author and a great guy - I met him more than once and if you really and truly love stories about shipwrecks and the sea - this is a must read for you. Let's put it this way: the story of the Essex is what inspired Herman Melville to write "Moby Dick" - the most quintessential tale of the sea and the greatest American novel of all time.

You might also enjoy "Adrift: 76 Days Lost At Sea" by Steven Callahan. Callahan built a 19-foot sloop by hand at his home in Maine and decided that he would sail around the world. Not far from the Canary Islands off the western coast of Africa, he was awakened one night to the sea pouring in through a breach in the hull. He never knew what happened, he deduced that he might have hit an uncharted rock or possibly collided with a whale, but luckily he was prepared. He took to a small life raft with his survival pack which contained nothing more than a solar still and a fishing harpoon (both of which malfunctioned and he had to constantly jerry-rig them) But he spent 76 days in the raft until he was finally rescued by fishermen off the coast of Antigua in the Caribbean. Another great read.

One of my favourites when I was a boy was "The Iceberg Hermit" by Arthur Roth. It recounts the true story of Allan Gordon, a 17-year-old Scot who becomes shipwrecked off the coast of Greenland when his whaleship sinks after striking an iceberg. Allan is thrown onto the berg by the force of the collision and he spends the next 7 years in the Arctic. He rescues an orphaned polar bear cub and trains it to catch fish for him. He eventually meets an Inuit tribe that takes him in and he lives with them until he's able to hitch a ride back to Scotland aboard a Dutch ship heading back to Europe. I loved this book and I think you will too.

The Joseph Conrad novel "Lord Jim" is one of my favourite novels of all time and the plot centers around a shipwreck. Another very underrated but brilliant Conrad novel is "Victory" - probably his most obscure work, but a classic nonetheless and should definitely make the reading list of anyone obsessed with tales of the sea.

I hope these suggestions help. Enjoy!!!

I can think of two:

The Island of the Blue Dolphins (not shipwrecked; it's about a girl who is left behind when her tribe leaves for the mainland and has to learn to survive by herself)

The Blue Lagoon (typical shipwreck story...little risque in places).

Neither of these have your stereotypical happy ending, but if you've read Lord of the Flies, you've probably experienced that kind of book already ;)

The Island by Richard Laymon.

Actually there are a LOT of good ones. Start here -- it's a review site for that specific topic.

http://www.goodreads.com/shelf/show/stranded-on-an...