Skeletons on the Zahara: A True Story of Survival
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- ISBN13: 9780316159357
- Condition: NEW
- Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
Product Description
Everywhere hailed as a masterpiece of past adventure, this enchanting narrative recounts the experiences of twelve American sailors who were shipwrecked off the coast of Africa in 1815, captured by desert nomads, sold into slavery, and subjected to a hellish two-month journey through the bone-dry heart of the Sahara. The suffering of these men – who establish themselves tested by barbarism, murder, starvation, death, dehydration, and hostile tribes that roamed the desert on camelback – is made indelibly plain in this gripping account of courage, brotherhood, and survival.Amazon.com Review
Some tales are so enchanting they deserve to be retold generation after generation. The wreck in 1815 of the Connecticut merchant ship, Commerce, and the subsequent suffering of its crew in the Sahara Desert, is one such tale. With Skeletons on the Zahara: A Right Tale of Survival, Dean King refreshes the well loved nineteenth-century narrative once read and admired by Henry David Thoreau, James Fenimore Cooper, and Abraham Lincoln. King’s version, which really draws from two separate first person accounts of the Commerce’s crew, offers a page-turning blend of science, history, and classic adventure. The book starts with a seeming fake start: tracing the lives of two merchants from North Africa, Seid and Sidi Hamet, who lose their fortunes—and nearly their lives—when their massive camel caravan arrives at a desiccated oasis. King then jumps to the voyage of the Commerce under Captain Riley and his 11-man crew. After stops in New Orleans and Gibraltar, the ship falls off course en route to the Canary Islands and ultimately wrecks at the infamous Cape Bojador. After the men survive the first predations of the nomads on the shore, they meander along the coast looking for a way inland as their supplies dwindle. They subsist for days by drinking their own urine. Eventually, to their horror, they learn that they have come aground on the edge of the Sahara Desert. They submit themselves, with hopes of getting food and water, as slaves to the Oulad Bou Sbaa. After days of abuse, they are bought by Hamet, who, after his own experiences with his failed caravan (described at the novels opening), sympathizes with the plight of the crew. Together, they set off on a hellish journey across the desert to collect a gift for Hamet in Swearah. King embellishes this compelling narrative throughout with scientific and past material explaining the origins of the camel, the market for English and American slaves, and the stages of dehydration. He also humanizes the Sahrawi with background on the tribes and on the lives of Hamet and Seid. This material, doled out in sufficient amounts to enrich the tale lacking derailing it makes Skeletons on the Zahara a perfectly entertaining bit of history that feels like a guilty pleasure. –Patrick O’Kelley
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Having read reviews on Amazon and seen the book in Philadelphia I bought a copy last week. It isn’t published in the UK for another couple of months.
I’m worried I establish the book honestly poor. A reviewer compares the feat to that of Shakleton. Shakleton’s greatest aver to fame is that he never lost a single man on any exploration – plus sailing to South Georgia from Elephant Island and crossing the South Georgia’s mountainous interior.
Captain Riley does not compare. His list of near misses on one trip really is remarkable. He narrowly saves his ship on a reef off the Florida coast, nearly drowns himself and some crew from a sinking longboat in Gibraltar, misses the Canary Islands and hits the coast of Africa, gets one of his crew taken off to slavery to save his own neck, and then sets sail in a poorly maintained longboat with his remaining crew heading south to a French colony but inexplicably decides to return to the site of the shipwreck (notwithstanding the destruction of the ship and the treacherous local population). Needless to say the longboat is beached 200 miles from the wreck – navigation was clearly not the Captain’s strongpoint. If they had travelled further south rather than returning to the ship they would establish civilisation in a day or so.
I’m worried I was not impressed with the leader’s style. He does provide smatterings of information along the way but I felt this was trying simply to stretch the text. His choice of sources is eclectic. On dehydration he sites ‘WJ McGee, a notable amateur thirst-researcher and director of St Louis Public Museum’. While appealing there must surely be more authoritative sources.
Overall I can’t recommend this book.
Reader’s Rating: 2 / 5
King has taken two first-hand accounts of this 1815 ship wreck tale — Robbin’s journal (1817)and Riley’s well-known Sufferings in Africa (1817)–and combined them into his own day-by-day account of this survival adventure. And, although his book is nicely written, it adds small to the record. Riley’s book was in its time read by over a million readers. It was a favorite of Abe Lincoln. It appeared in copious editions from 1817 through the Civil War years. It was, and, is called “one of the best adventure books ever written,” and is now available in a paperback edition of 316 pages (published in 2000)by Lyons Press. With 195,000 books published last year, in my opinion, King’s rehash is one we could have done lacking. If you want authenticy, immediacy and the real tale; read Riley’s own first-hand account not this on-looker’s composited version.
Reader’s Rating: 2 / 5
This is an incredible tale, retold by a man who is obviously a levelheaded historian and researcher . . . but not a fantastic writer. I establish the book appealing, but far from a page turner. The tale itself is worth a read though.
Reader’s Rating: 3 / 5
Skeletons is entertaining most of the time. I thought it was well-written and researched, and I loved most of it. My only complaint would be that I establish it monotonous at times, but since these people were enslaved and wandering through the desert I guess every moment probably wasn’t a thrill ride, and therefore the book has the air of realism about it. Check it out at the library, I wouldn’t buy it.
Reader’s Rating: 3 / 5
I agree with the additional reviewer who said that this tale cannot compare with Shackleton’s tale, but this is still a tale worth reading. Too terrible it is written by a mediocre writer. Dean King tries to enliven the tale by pretending to know what Riley and his shipmates must have said or thought. At one point, he says that Riley selected up a piece of fruit that he must have thought was a date. The fruit was bitter, and King says that Riley made a tie between the looks-excellent-tastes-bitter fruit and Africa. Except that this small metaphor is fiction and I doubt that Riley ever thought Africa looked excellent. King’s attempts to turn this into a spiritual journey or to find the wisdom hidden in the misery…you’d find better in high school essays. The dialog King makes up is dreadful. Terrible writing. That said, it is still a excellent tale. Borrow it from the library, though.
Reader’s Rating: 3 / 5