Children of the SS Atlantic: The Lives Lost to One of History's Worst Maritime Disasters

by Danielle Metcalfe-Chenail

104 pages, Paperback

Published March 24, 2026

About the author

I’m a history-obsessed author who lives by the sea in Nova Scotia/Mi’kma’ki (Canada). I spend my days writing, researching, and going on adventures with my family – and my evenings devouring books and movies. My readers range from 2 to 102 and I love connecting with them.

I am constantly challenging myself creatively and finding new outlets for my varied interests. Currently, I have a forthcoming nonfiction picture book, Freddie the Flyer (Tundra Books, October 2023), as well as two projects out on submission: a novel called The 500 Year Flood, and a time-slip paranormal chapter book for 7-9 year olds called Fever on the Forgotten Coast.

My main project at the moment is revising a creative nonfiction book based on my former Ghosts of Camsell blog about trauma, memory, and reconciliation.

Reviews

[ATLANTIC BOOK REVIEWS · Rating 5 out of 5]

The perils of sea travel in the late 1800's were very real. This account of the disaster and aftermath make this perfectly evident. Take into account the margins for human error and the ever changing mood of the sea and you find yourself in the history of this all but forgotten maritime disaster. Keep in mind this happened 40 years before the Titanic.
The author has given us a view into the lives of the youngest people on board, from the teenage crew members to the children travelling with their families. While more than 500 souls were lost in the wreck, 400 passengers were rescued and taken care of by caring and compassionate Nova Scotians on shore.
Within these pages I met John Hanley, a twelve year old steerage passenger whose family was lost to the sea on that night and learned of his tragically short life after the disaster.
I also met Tom Hamm, a nine-year old Nova Scotian who helped with the rescue efforts and learned of his recollections of that fateful night and the life long effects the disaster had on him and his family.
What I found particularly interesting was the information in this book which dealt with the aftermath of the tragedy. The insatiable need to determine blame and cast shame and how the possibility for human error is always present.
This author proves again and again her aptitude for meticulous research, compassionate telling and evocative language.

[Joey-Susan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thank you so much to Nimbus Publishing Limited and Netgalley for the ebook read and review.

Wow I’d heard about the SS Atlantic before, but honestly didn’t know much about it at all. What a sad story full of so much tragedy, I’m sad this isn’t given as much notices as it clearly deserves. You always hear about The Titanic but I feel this should be getting way more attention than it has been, it was devastating and full of such loss.

I loved having so much information laid out about what happened, and sharing about the people involved from some of the passengers to some of the saviours. And those willing to take all the glory but did very little, It was so fascinating. I loved that this book provided so much extra within it, including photographs, drawings and maps giving us some extra visuals. I do always appreciate being able to see what we are being told about.

I’m so heavily interested in this piece of history now, I wish I’d found a book like this sooner to inform me about the SS Atlantic. So much happened, so much grief came from it and what seemed like so little care after, it became a big show for a while then a place to pilpher from which is utterly heartbreaking and then left to nothing forgotten and unimportant.

The local people that night cared so much about all these stranger and I loved seeing such a community doing everything they possibly could to help save and protect them. It was just sad that they didn’t get enough recognition for all the hard work that they actually did.

This is such a fanatic book written so wonderfully with so much detail, it’s gripping to learn so much on something I didn’t know much about before hand. This would be a wonderful book to study with children, to share with them this other large ship disaster that occurred and is rarely spoken of.

[FaithfulReviewer (Jacqueline) · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thanks to Nimbus Publishing, the author and NetGalley for a DRC in exchange for an honest review.

The latest addition to the full-colour Compass series for young readers, Children of the SS Atlantic by Danielle Metcalfe-Chenail, tells the horrific story of one of the worst maritime disasters ever recorded.

In 1873 - forty years before the sinking of the Titanic - another of the White Star Line steamships, the SS Atlantic, sank off the coast of Nova Scotia, with the loss of at least 530 lives. Tragically, all women (156) and children (189) perished, with the sole exception of twelve-year-old John Hindley.

This is an engaging and highly informative account, written with clarity and care. The writing is superb, striking a balance between accessibility and historical detail.

Additional features - including discussion questions, a glossary, and an index - make this particularly well-suited for younger readers. The glossary terms are printed in bold throughout the text, a simple but effective tool that supports learning and comprehension.

The book is also richly illustrated, with photographs, maps and drawings that enhance and deepen the narrative.

Overall, this is a compelling and thoughtfully presented account, covering both the lead-up to the disaster and its aftermath, including the subsequent inquiries.

Highly recommended for all those interested in Maritime history.

#ChildrenoftheSSAtlantic #NetGalley

[Theediscerning · Rating 4 out of 5]

Unluckily for 550 souls, the SS Atlantic was off course in stormy Canadian waters when she was misguided not into Halifax harbour for refuelling and a safe finish of her trip to NYC, but onto rocks some short way away. Luckily for this book, several people – in steerage, in posher cabins, and on the roster as ship's boys – were young kids, and this takes advantage of them to show us the tragedy through their situations.

Or at least that seems to be the intent. In actual fact, the junior characters don't do much to guide us through proceedings, and we find we don't need their help accessing this drama anyway. What we really have is a decent telling of the whole tragedy – the local islanders woken up to the sound of the huge ship crashing on the rocks, and both listing and losing her stern; the passengers having to risk a swim or a swoop down some ropes onto a frozen, exposed rock that was only going to submerge by high tide; and the story of what happened afterwards.

So the hook of having this tell the children's tale, for children, doesn't fully work, but I don't think this is really needed anyway. Our text here is accessible and fluid, and the events are compelling of themselves. This was the worst maritime tragedy as regards loss of passengers until a certain other White Star Liner sank further off the Canadian coast, and I'm grateful this corrected my ignorance of it all. Nicely readable and highly pictorial, this is for junior audiences – but not exclusively, and for Nova Scotian readers, but not them alone. A strong four stars.

[Rob · Rating 5 out of 5]

With thanks to the author, publishers Nimbus Publishing, and NetGalley for providing me with a DRC of this book in exchange for my honest review.

I had never heard of the SS Atlantic and its sad demise before picking up this book. Like many others I have long been fascinated by the sinking of the Titanic so, despite having read quite extensively about that ship, I was surprised to discover that the White Star Line had suffered a similar loss of a passenger vessel in the Atlantic approximately 50 years earlier.

While there were some differences between the stories, the major similarity that jumped out at me was that the Atlantic only carried enough lifeboats for half of its passengers, which makes it all the more implausible that the Titanic would find itself in a similar position all those years later.

While this is a book aimed at younger readers I felt it did give a pretty comprehensive introduction to the tragic story of the ship, and I enjoyed the artwork and images from the time that were included to support the narrative. It was also a nice touch to include references to some further reading and online videos, which I am certainly going to avail of now that this book has piqued my interest in the story.

[Grace · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was an interesting and detailed look into the SS Atlantic sinking, an event I'd never even heard of before, and I appreciated the opportunity to learn about it.

However, given that this was supposed to be aimed at children, it was incredibly dry and dense - we had a lot of long paragraphs written in a very bland, factual tone. Even I found myself getting bored at times! I can see its uses as a reading comprehension text, but I can't see many children enjoying it as a reading book.

The premise of the book being about the children of the ship was also very bizarre, as it happens - only one survived, and therefore we only really know anything about the 'child' of the SS Atlantic. And beyond the first couple of pages, we quickly forgot about him anyway.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the eArc.

[John Corrigan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed reading Children of the SS Atlantic! I am a notoriously slow reader, but I could have finished this book in one sitting. I’ve been very busy lately but whenever I had a few minutes, I’d grab the book to read another chapter or two. I was impressed with the quality of the book! Chapter 7 offers a lot of great information! The site would be on my bucket list for a future visit to Nova Scotia. The Discussion Questions are a great idea. I love how the glossary words are in bold print so you can look them up quickly while you’re reading. And an index to boot! I can truly appreciate the amount of research it must have taken to write this book.

[Tracie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is chocked full of information about the sinking of the SS Atlantic in the late 1800's. Even though this horrible event happened before the sinking of the Titanic, there is not much information out there of this tragic maritime disaster. Photographs and additional references are provided as well as a glossary and discussion questions. Thank you to Netgalley, the author and the publisher for a chance to read and review this book in exchange for an honest review.