Adrift Lib/E: A True Story of Tragedy on the Icy Atlantic and the One Who Lived to Tell about It

by Brian Murphy, Toula Vlahou (Contributor)

In the tradition of bestsellers such as Dead Wake and In the Heart of the Sea , Adrift tells of thirteen victims and a tragedy at sea where every desperate act could mean life or death.

The small ship making the Liverpool-New York trip in the early months of 1856 carried mail, crates of dry goods, and more than one hundred passengers, mostly Irish emigrants. Suddenly an iceberg tore the ship asunder and five lifeboats were lowered. As four lifeboats drifted into the fog and icy water, never to be heard from again, the last boat wrenched away from the sinking ship with a few blankets, some water and biscuits, and thirteen souls. Only one would survive. This is his story.

As they started their nine days adrift more than four hundred miles off Newfoundland, the castaways-an Irish couple and their two boys, an English woman and her daughter, newlyweds from Ireland, and several crewmen, including Thomas W. Nye from Bedford, Massachusetts-began fighting over food and water. One by one, though, day by day, they died. Some from exposure, others from madness and panic. In the end, only Nye and his journal survived.

Using Nye's journal and his later newspaper accounts, ship's logs, assorted diaries, and family archives, Brian Murphy chronicles the horrific nine days that thirteen people suffered adrift on the cold gray Atlantic. In the tradition of bestsellers such as Into Thin Air and In the Heart of the Sea, Adrift brings readers to the edge of human limits, where every frantic decision and every desperate act is a potential life saver or life taker.

Genres: Nonfiction, History, Survival, Adventure, Historical, Audiobook, Biography

Audio CD

First published September 1, 2018

About the author

Brian Murphy is a Baby Boomer advocate and the founder and editor of BONZA (Baby Boomers of NZ and Australia) a Baby Boomer information website: www.bonza.com.au

He strongly believes that governments and industries are failing to adequately address the needs of the Boomer generation and the impact their impending retirement from the workforce will have on the economy and society by not having mature age policies. Since 1998 he has addressed these issues with thousands of Baby Boomers across New Zealand through his organisation, Grey Skills, and Australia through BONZA, by presenting well-balanced information sessions to the community on the pitfalls of an ageing population and advising how Boomers can plan for the future by acquiring the knowledge and skills to do so meaningfully.

Brian works to equip Boomers with the skills necessary to tackle the extension of their careers, re-entry into the workforce and to prepare financially and mentally for a longer than predicted retirement. He has had great success with thousands of Boomers, from general managers to drug addicts, assisting them to move forward with their lives no matter what their history is.

“It’s all about the future,” he states, “and never giving up!” He wants Baby Boomers to participate economically and socially if nothing else and have a BONZA life.

Reviews

[Billie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have a weird fascination with books about terrible things happening to people in harsh, icy conditions. I consider it a bonus when there is a shipwreck involved. (Extra bonus for cannibalism.) Bearing this is mind, I may be rating this book higher than it rightfully deserves, though I did read it all in one sitting. There were, however, some grammatical errors that caused that record-scratch sound to play in my head. ("Sexton" instead of "sextant," for example.) Overall, though, this was very readable and ticked a lot of my boxes, so there you go.

[Julie · Rating 5 out of 5]

January, 1856. Captain Alexander Kelley is sailing the packet ship John Rutledge from Liverpool to New York, completing his first transatlantic voyage as a captain. He leaves his wife behind in Liverpool as the voyage will be rough given the time of year, and promises to pick her up in the spring when they can return to New York together. It is a promise he will break. After 35 days at sea on February 20th, 1856, The John Rutledge struck an iceberg in the Atlantic and sank. 13 survivors boarded life boats. Nine days later, the only survivors were one crew member and the ship's log book.

A disaster tale such as this one is even more emotional when it's a true story. Murphy weaves the story of the fate of the John Rutledge with great skill. It chilled me to the bone thinking about the few survivors floating in open boats in the freezing cold elements, only to die. And the many emigrants from Ireland -- men, women and children seeking a better life -- who never made it off the ship. I had to watch two Disney movies after I finished this book to get the sad, emotional thoughts out of my head. Those poor people....and what a horrible, lonely way to die.

In his introduction to the book, the author says: "Scores of ships -- carrying tens of thousands of passengers and crew -- met a similar fate in the Atlantic before twentieth-century advances in communications technology enabled better advance notice on looming ice fields and approaching storms. The names of some lost ships are remembered. So are a few of the prominent figures that perished at sea. But almost totally forgotten are the others who went down with them: emigrants, seamen, travelers, merchants and envoys. Entire families. Young men and women striking out for a new life. Children too young to grasp the dangers of an Atlantic crossing. They are the anonymous dead. The sea is good at swallowing lives without a trace." It happened that way for so many.....dreams of a new life over so quickly...and now nobody even remembers their names or anything about them. I thought about each and every one of them as I read this book.

A book that can elicit a profound emotional response in a reader is well written. This book sucked me into the story of this doomed ship and kept my total attention from start to finish. I felt an emotional tie to the people I knew were going to die. Brian Murphy is a skilled story-teller. Excellent book. Heart-breaking story. Anyone who enjoys adventure stories, historical tales or the sea will love this book. It's hard to read -- the outcome is bleak. But I'm glad a skilled writer told their story. Those who crossed the ocean before the age of modern communications and safety precautions were taking a huge risk. So many were lost. I'm glad that some are still remembered.

I have a son in the Navy and even though I am not really a religious person, I thought of this naval hymn while reading this story:

For Those In Peril On The Sea

Eternal Father, strong to save,
Whose arm doth bind the restless wave,
Who bidd’st the mighty ocean deep
Its own appointed limits keep;
O hear us when we cry to Thee,
For those in peril on the sea!

O Saviour, Whose almighty word
The winds and waves submissive heard,
Who walkedst on the foaming deep,
And calm amid its rage didst sleep:
O hear us when we cry to Thee
For those in peril on the sea!

O Sacred Spirit, who didst brood
Upon the chaos dark and rude,
Who bad’st its angry tumult cease,
And gavest light, and life, and peace:
O hear us when we cry to Thee
For those in peril on the sea!

O Trinity of love and power,
Our brethren shield in danger’s hour;
From rock and tempest, fire and foe,
Protect them wheresoe’er they go;
And ever let there rise to Thee
Glad hymns of praise from land and sea.

**I voluntarily read a review copy of this book from Perseus Books/DeCapo Press via NetGalley. All opinions expressed are entirely my own.**

[Nancy · Rating 4 out of 5]

In Adrift, Brian Murphy recounts the journey of the packet ship John Rutledge from its navigation down the Mersey River to the ice fields that sank four ships in 1856. Nearly 1,000 souls died in three months, with commercial losses in the millions of dollars. The Irish immigrants and crew on board the Rutledge were all lost, save one man. This is his story.

I love a good adventure story, and if there are ships and ice involved, I'm all in. I was also interested in reading Brian Murphy's Adrift because it is about Irish immigrants, who in 1856 had scrimped and saved for their passage, hopeful they would find a better life in America. My own Irish ancestors left their homeland for England, a much shorter sea journey. But the reasons for leaving their homeland would have been the same, as well as their poverty.

The book is based on the story of Thomas Nye, a New Bedford maritime sailor who was twenty-two when he shipped on the packet ship John Rutledge out of Liverpool. The ship carried over 100 Irish passengers, bound for New York.

In 1903, just two years before his death, a journalist interviewed Nye who told the story of the sinking of the Rutledge, his nine days asea watching the other survivors succumb to the elements and dehydration, and his providential rescue.

Murphy takes us on Nye's journey, recreating the events, drawing from Nye's writings, ships logs, and newspaper accounts. We are there when the ship strikes a berg and during the launching of the lifeboats. We experience Nye watching as his fellow passengers in an open board are driven to desperate measures and die until only he is left.

It is a tale of harrowing adventure, but also a study of human nature in desperate circumstances when conventional morality and social norms are washed away. There is no cannibalism involved, thankfully, for as Murphy shares, sometimes that did happen.

Reforms to improve maritime safety did not advance until the 1912 sinking of the Titanic. (Some things never change: the lives of impoverished immigrant families did not spur safety advances, but the deaths of some of the richest men in the world did.)

As climate change accelerates the calving of Greenland's ice sheet, more icebergs will clog shipping lanes. Today we have communication between ships and ship and shore, and knowledge of where the ice fields are.

Murphy is a journalist with the Washington Post and the author of three books.

I received a free ebook from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.

[Lobstergirl · Rating 2 out of 5]

This never really grabbed me and I'm not sure if it was the tale, or the telling. Maybe disaster stories are losing their grip on me. The author also chose to make much of the story embellishment, since there is no way to know in any detail what happened on this packet ship that struck ice on its Atlantic crossing in 1856, and who said what to whom. So he makes the decision that every quote he knows for certain, will be in quotes, and every statement he puts in someone's mouth with no verification, will not be. Thus 99% of the dialogue is without quote marks and the tale is novelization. The only things we know for certain, coming from the single survivor's mouth years after he spent nine days at sea in the winter in a lifeboat, are: "Just imagine yourself in a small boat in mid-ocean with eleven lunatics and you have some idea of my situation." Now that is more lively and filled with personality than anything else said on these pages. And after one unlikable woman perishes and he pushes her overboard, "Mrs. Atkinson's body did not sink like the others. It floated a long while beside the boat," the author writes. Survivor Thomas Nye snarks, "As if determined to keep us company out of spite."

The John Rutledge wasn't even the most famous ship to disappear in the Atlantic this particularly icebergy winter - that was the steamer Pacific, with no survivors and many wealthy passengers, including one of the owners of the John Rutledge. It was interesting to note that after both these ships vanished, many called for water tight compartments below decks, which could have possibly prevented the ships from sinking. European ships were much more likely than American ships to be so outfitted. But no action was taken, and we know where that led - the Titanic in 1912.

[Jennifer · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a meticulously researched book about a shipwreck I'd never heard of that occurred during a season of horrible shipwrecks in the Atlantic that I'd also never heard of. Both pieces of history are worth knowing about, so for that reason I am glad I read this book. However, I must confess that for me, the act of doing so was a bit of a slog.

Have you ever talked to someone who is telling you a story, but then goes off on a ton of tangents (ostensibly to give you background history and context to make the story come alive) but instead it results in you not even really remembering the purpose of the story, or (if you can remember it) it's ultimately kind of a let down when they get done because the climax of the story could never live up to that endless build up ? That's kind of what reading this book is like.

In other words, this book is perhaps TOO meticulously researched. Because the author (admirably) sticks to the known facts (and there aren't many) the actual story of the shipwreck and aftermath isn't a very long tale. Instead the book is largely fleshed out by related details, which means the book is at times struggling to find forward momentum. For example, when a person who will board the ship walks down the street, you hear about the history of the street, the history of people who work in that area, the family history of the walker, etc. It's so much information that by the end of the passage you're left wondering, "What were we talking about? Oh yeah A GUY WALKED DOWN A STREET."

Not surprisingly, I liked the middle section of the book the best because it focuses on the events in question. While the factual details were light, the story itself is still compelling. However, for me beginning of the book (context, context and more context) and the ending (I didn't really care or need to know the family history of the woman who bandaged the legs of the lone shipwreck survivor) both dragged.

Thanks to the author and NetGalley for granting me the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

[Lydia · Rating 1 out of 5]

I'm thrilled by non-fiction survival literature (it was my senior thesis in college), so this should've been exactly my kind of book. Guys, I'm sorry, but I hated this. The pacing is terrible and keeps breaking you out of the action to give you footnotes about history, and there's WAY too much backstory and end story and far too little of the critical event that is supposed to be central to the book. As a bonus, the editing and formatting were also awful - far beyond what I consider reasonable even for a NetGalley advance copy.

If you're looking for a book that really captures the limits of human endurance and the capacity for the survival spirit, may I recommend the following:
Adrift: Seventy-Six Days Lost at Sea by Steven Callahan
And I Alone Survived by Lauren Elder
Touching the Void: The True Story of One Man's Miraculous Survival by Joe Simpson
Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mount Everest Disaster by Jon Krakauer
Deep Survival: Who Lives, Who Dies, and Why by Laurence Gonzales

[Karyl · Rating 4 out of 5]

On February 20th (which just happens to be my birthday), 1856, a packet ship carrying mail, goods, and immigrants to America sank in the cold North Atlantic, after an iceberg stove in the hull. Most of the passengers and crew managed to climb into lifeboats, although about 30 were left on board, yet only one person, a crewman named Thomas W. Nye, survived 9 days on the frigid water with little food and less fresh water.

Murphy hasn’t got a lot to go on; we have only Nye’s account given to a newspaper reporter in his 70s, though the first mate flung the log at Nye as he entered the lifeboat. I appreciated that Murphy fictionalized a little of the events experienced by the members of Nye’s lifeboat; it didn’t bother me that he put words in their mouths because it made the urgency of surviving that much more vivid.

I learned a lot in this book. I had heard the term “packet ship” before, but never really knew what it was. Thanks to Murphy, I now know what it is, and how many of them plied the waters from England and France to America and back, until they were replaced by steamships. It was such a dangerous route; I had no idea that about a thousand people lost their lives to the sea in the early months of 1856. The John Rutledge was just one of many that succumbed to the ice. It’s also mind-blowing to think of deciding to undertake this dangerous voyage with absolutely none of the modern communication we have now. I remember watching “The Deadliest Catch” and seeing the Coast Guard respond to distress calls; Nye’s lifeboat had no ability to summon rescue. They simply had to trust to sheer luck that another ship might possibly intercept them on the wide water.

I enjoyed hearing about New Bedford and Fairhaven, living in Rhode Island myself. We often go to the Whaling Museum in New Bedford, and I’m fairly certain I’ve seen the name Nye there. I’m eager now to go to Fairhaven and pay my respects at Nye’s grave.

Unfortunately, the lessons that we learned from the loss of the John Rutledge and even the Pacific, a steamship lost at the same time, were ignored for quite a few more years. Had these ships had watertight compartments, a technology well known and tested by the French, much fewer ships, and therefore the souls aboard, would have been lost. Even the disaster of the Titanic, nearly 60 years later, would have had a different outcome had watertight compartments been installed. Such a shame.

This is a great book for anyone wanting to learn more about the shipping industry in the 19th century, and the dangers encountered by both ship’s crew and those wanting to come to America for a better life.

[Kimberly · Rating 4 out of 5]

Incredible story, and one I certainly hadn't heard before. I really enjoyed the history and background of the packet ships that sailed between Liverpool and the East Coast of the United States and the trials they faced, along with the stories of the immigrant travelers and the sailors that populated the ships. Would definitely recommend as a Young Adult crossover for summer reading as well.

[Bonnye Reed · Rating 5 out of 5]

GNab Brian Murphy brings us not just the history of the last sailing of the John Rutledge, a packet ship out of New England, but details of the horrendous weather and many loses felt that winter of 1856. From the first of January until the end of March, nearly 830 passengers and crew were lost in just four of the lost ships making their way from Europe to the U.S.

The mid-nineteenth century is a period of our human history that I love. And I do what research I can before I ask for a book from Netgalley or Goodreads, picking books I really want to read. Adrift was one of those intriguing books with a few five star reviews on Goodreads, and a couple of one or two stars. I loved this story for the very reason those one or two star reviewers didn't - Brian Murphy researched this time in history, the problems and perks involved in the seafaring life at that time, and this year of monstrous weather that cost so much in in lives and ships and goods. He shares all of that incredible research with us. This was a book I read cover to cover without a break, and one I will keep in my research shelf. These are facts I will want to visit again.

I received a free electronic copy of this history of the January 16th, 1856 sailing of the John Rutledge packet ship carrying one cabin passenger, a full measure of officers and crew and over a hundred and twenty, mostly Irish, immigrants in steerage from the River Mersey in Liverpool to New York from Netgalley, Brian Murphy, and Perseus Books, Da Capo Press in exchange for an honest review. Thank you all for sharing your hard work with me.

pub date Sept 4, 2018
Perseus Books, Da Capo Press

[Carlos · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very factual book but not the most exciting one. If you search for an exciting telling of a shipwreck or the telling of a heroic survival you won’t get it . Instead you will get a very detached history of nautical history and about 20-25 pages of the actual accident and it’s aftermath. Good book for factuality but not the most exciting retelling of a shipwreck (I have read a lot of those) .

[Angela · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked the part where he was adrift. I also liked learning about how the packet ship system worked, and the vividly miserable facts of travel in the 1800's! I was less interested in details about extended the families of people involved in the wreck, big chunks of which didn't feel particularly relevant.

[Ericka Seidemann · Rating 4 out of 5]

I highly recommend Adrift to anyone who enjoys survival tales. I’ve read many books in this genre and this one is a stand-out.

Murphy spends part of the book reviewing the major news stories of the mid-nineteenth century, including the history and economy of packet and luxury ships. This approach gave the book a well-rounded background with some substance. He also includes anecdotes, some relevant biographical information, and an overview of the situation of immigrants in Ireland. It may have seemed tangential, but the stories were relevant to the ship, the John Rutledge, and afforded the reader a clearer picture of what the passengers were facing, both at home and abroad. Murphy describes the appalling conditions aboard the John Rutledge for the immigrant passengers in steerage – the sea-sickness, the overpowering smells, the turbulent seas, the terror.

The actual ordeal of the sinking of the John Rutledge and subsequent fight for life for those who made it to lifeboats was riveting. There was only one survivor from the shipwreck, and the book follows the story of his lifeboat, in which there were originally 13 aboard, including some children. The gripping horrors that these castaways endured is heart-wrenching.

Overall, Adrift presents a fascinating perspective on the shipping industry of the 1850s and the danger aboard these ships as they navigated the icy Atlantic. Highly recommended.

Many thanks to Netgalley and Perseus Books / DeCapo Press for the advance copy in exchange for my honest review.

[Casey · Rating 3 out of 5]

I received a free Kindle copy of Adrift by Brian Murphy courtesy of Net Galley  and Perseus Books -De Capo Press, the publisher. It was with the understanding that I would post a review on Net Galley, Goodreads, Amazon, Barnes and Noble and my fiction book review blog. I also posted it to my Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Google Plus pages.

I requested this book as the description made it sound interesting.  This is the first book by Brian Murphy that I have read (and the last).

This book was well researched, but the author's writing style was a challenge. He tends to drift off of the main story line frequently and then comes back to it. It is interesting when he is focused on the main story, but not so much when he drifts to other topics.

I had high hopes for this book, but it was a disappointment. Others found it much more fascinating than I did, so I will not tell you to give it a pass. But you may want to check it out of your local library before deciding to purchase a copy.

[Melissa Dee · Rating 3 out of 5]

Brian Murphy writes a well-researched tale of shipwreck in “Ice Alley” in the North Atlantic between Greenland and Canada.
He details the seafaring culture of the Northeastern seaboard, the economics of packet ships, and the grim plight of steerage passengers on the packet ships. I have a personal interest in this subject, so even though the first part of the book was slow, I still found it interesting. The pace and the excitement level pick up substantially when the ship hits the iceberg.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

[Jessica Echterling · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's so much more than one man's story

The organization of this book and how the story is interwoven with the history of immigrants, women, and shipping logistics is so neat. The puzzle pieces of history are so expertly connected and placed into context. The book also does a great job of honoring the lives of all those who were lost at sea during this time period. The characters bring specific people to life, but also remind us just how dangerous the trip across the Atlantic really was for so many people. It's astonishing that people survived the trip and made their way afterwards!

[Fran · Rating 4 out of 5]

While reading like fiction in many parts, this is a well-researched account of the sinking of the John Rutledge in 1856. Based on the first hand account of the only survivor, this was a grueling look at survival at sea. The author fleshed out the story with historical information regarding other losses at sea, and the subsequent changes made to increase ship safety. Very interesting!

[John Shedd · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fantastic tale of survival after shipwreck, and reminder of what lengths the human body is capable of if driven to survive. Also a good reflection on how dangerous long-distance travel was not too long ago (in historical terms), and the life altering choices that were faced during those times.

[Cia Mcalarney · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quick read that tells a tale of a tragic shipwreck at the hands of an iceberg in 1856. Along the way it humanizes the vast waves of immigration in the early to mid nineteenth century, particularly those fleeing the Irish potato famine. Very well written

[Kimberlee Truitt · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was an interesting book about a shipwreck from long ago and the one person who survived it. I cannot even imagine going through that!

[The Irregular Reader · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the story of a small packet sailing ship, the John Rutledge, which set off across the Atlantic from Liverpool to New York in the winter of 1856. The ship, carrying cargo and Irish emigrants, struck an iceberg in the north Atlantic, and only one soul would live to tell the tale.

There are quite a few best-selling narrative non-fiction books about famous shipwrecks, such as Erik Larson’s Dead Wake, Nathaniel Philbrick’s Heart of the Sea, and numerous books about the sinking of the Titanic. These ships have become legend, and the stories have a great deal of primary information and research behind them.

In Adrift, Murphy has given us a smaller tragedy. The sinking of the John Rutledge is one of many tragic stories lost on the shoals of history, and the careful research needed to bring it back into the light should be commended. Murphy has delved into private journals, newspaper clippings, family lore, and shipping records. What is more, he has compiled this information into a gripping, narrative story.

Fans of narrative nonfiction and tales of maritime derring-do will find a lot to admire in Murphy’s careful research and close attention to detail. History buffs cannot help but rejoice when another largely unknown story is pulled from the depths of the historical record.

An advance copy of this book was provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

[Samantha · Rating 5 out of 5]

An outstanding tale of tragedy and salvation at sea.

In Adrift, Murphy gives us a riveting account of the tragic fate of the packet ship John Rutledge during a harrowing Atlantic crossing in 1856. The book is rife with sociocontextual detail and reads beautifully, about as close to prose as nonfiction can get.

The shipwreck itself will keep readers on the edge of their proverbial seats, though it's the time recounted in the lifeboat where the story really hits its stride. The scene is at once atmospherically eerie to the point of almost feeling surreal and also brutally raw.

The "Lifeboat as Moral Dilemma" is always a fascinating topic, and this iteration doesn't disappoint. It actually comes off as more gripping that almost every fictional account I've read of a similar situation.

Beautifully, intensely written from start to finish, Adrift is that rare nonfiction offering that never drags (even for a paragraph). For added atmosphere, I recommend listening to the Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl score while reading.

*I received an ARC of this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.*

[Marcia Meakim · Rating 2 out of 5]

This well researched book about a lone survivor of a packet ship traveling from Liverpool to New York in the 1800’s certainly extended my knowledge base of the time frame and perils of sea travel. Parts were very interesting to read, particularly the chapters about the travails of those on the lifeboat. I also enjoyed the background on icebergs. The information at the end giving details about the different kinds of ships was interesting as well.
Unfortunately, the story line is lost throughout much of the book when the author goes into too much detail about things that are not germane to the plot of the story. It makes the reading very choppy and confusing.
Thank you to Brian Murphy, Perseus oks, and NetGalley for affording me the opportunity to read this book.

[Shari · Rating 1 out of 5]

7 degrees of nonsense

This is 7 degrees of separation in useless information form. For example, it talks about the main character, then the life history of his father, then his father's uncle, then his father's uncles boss, then his maid, etc. etc. It got to where I wondered why I was reading about this person how did it get so far removed from the main character and subject.

[Sue · Rating 3 out of 5]

On January 16, 1856, the American ship, John Rutledge, left for New York from Liverpool, with 16 crew men and 120 migrant passengers packed into steerage. On February 19, the ship knocked against an iceberg, causing catastrophic damage.

As the ship foundered, passengers and crew raced to the lifeboats - not everyone reached the safety of the 5 lifeboats.

Those souls finding a place in a lifeboat found them " the simplest of craft. [E]ach lifeboat was about twenty-five feet long and without any kind of cabin or nook for shelter." There was no mast to hoist a sail, only oars. There were no provisions (only a handful of hard tack and a small container of water). There was no way to flag the boat to standout against the vastness of the sea. There was no way to communicate with the other lifeboats or to send a signal of their location to rescuers; these were the days before transatlantic communication, satellite phones or weather planes.

As the five lifeboats pulled away from the stricken ship, the question in everyone's mind had to be - Have I just delayed my death? Am I really better off than those doomed and unable to reach the lifeboats?

Feb 29, 1856, day nine after the loss of the Rutledge, one of the lifeboats was spotted in the rough icy waters. Seaman Thomas W. Nye, frozen and nearly incoherent, was pulled from the sea by the packet ship, Germania. He proved to be the sole survivor from the Rutledge. After a desperate search for the other four lifeboats from the Rutledge; none were ever found.

Here's the rub that keeps the book a three star in my view. Well, actually the first part is a two star and Nye's story is a four star so I decided on the middle ranking.

Thomas W. Nye's story is remarkable. Interviews with him reveal a harrowing and horrifying nine days spent drifting in the dead of winter with twelve other people; one by one the others die from exposure and starvation. Most died painfully quick after ignoring Nye's pleas to avoid drinking seawater. I'll admit I never really understood what it was the seawater did to the body and how it killed in such a short period of time. It is heartbreaking.

The demise of the Rutledge and its passengers was but one of hundreds of big and small ships and nearly 1000 souls lost to rough seas and extreme ice flows during the three winter months of 1856. The author's research of that time in world history and coverage of that devastating winter of 1856 is admirable; and he felt the need to share every tidbit and trace. Intermingled with the horrors of Nye's story are the history of maritime commerce, ship designs, history and ownership of specific vessels, biographies of sea captains and their families, and the mass migration from famine starved countries in the mid 1800's.

The choice to research the "mundane" John Rutledge and its crew and passengers highlights the disparity of books that cover renowned disasters like the Hindenburg, Titanic or the Lusitania. The Rutledge was a significant ship in international commercial trade at the time, but insignificant to the world-at-large when placed against the great passenger ships ferrying the rich and famous back and forth across the Atlantic. The foundering of several of these high-class ships was covered much more extensively and of much more interest to the general public than a small transport filled with destitute immigrants.

To his credit, the author, in selecting the Rutledge, shows the humanity of the average seaman and the steerage passengers; those now lost souls with ambitions and hopes every bit as important as the high society victims on the opulent passenger liners.

The interjection of lengthy footnotes and history lessons felt like the interruptions in the flow of a good suspense movie by commercials. I understand that Murphy needed to add perspective and background, but in my opinion, a little less coverage would have been sufficient. Perhaps, if the footnotes were placed in a separate addendum, the story would have flowed more smoothly.
I will say this, I learned a lot. Judging from the wide range of reviews on this book, there is something for everyone to like and I would say if you are interested in sea disasters, you will find it an interesting read.

I want to thank NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

[Cindy Vallar · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ice in the North Atlantic in winter is normal, but when ships put into ports along the east coast of North America in 1856, those aboard reported alarming sightings. Not only were icebergs and ice slabs far more numerous and farther south than usually found, they were huge. Some were described as being wider that New York’s Central Park and taller than the clock tower of London’s Westminster Palace once these were completed. They proved equally dangerous. Between January and March, some 830 men, women, and children perished and their ships vanished. And from the four largest of these vessels, only one man survived.

The 1850s was a decade of turbulence – the Crimean War and conflicts between those favoring slavery and those who did not – and change. The heyday of sail had ebbed, giving rise to steamships that were faster and more luxurious and not dependent on the wind to propel them from one location to another. But few emigrants could afford these new vessels, so they travelled aboard wooden sailing ships to arrive at their destinations. One such vessel was the John Rutledge, a packet ship christened in Baltimore, Maryland just five years before she left Liverpool, England for New York City on 16 January 1856.

Howland & Ridgway owned the Rutledge and hired Alexander Kelley to captain the her. Although he had served on packet ships before, this was his first time in command on a transatlantic crossing. The passage to London went smoothly and among those who sailed with him were half-owner James Lawrence Ridgway, Alexander’s wife Irene, first mate Samuel Atkinson and his wife, boatswain William Ryan, and able seaman Thomas W. Nye. The last was not yet twenty-two, but came from a long line of New Bedford sailors, some of whom were well-known among the merchant trade. When it came time to return to New York, Kelley persuaded Irene to remain in Liverpool until spring, and Ridgway chose to sail home to his family aboard the Pacific, a luxury steamship that would leave later, but arrive earlier, in New York. Several new sailors joined the crew, among them John Daley from Scotland. Aside from her cargo, the Rutledge carried steerage passengers, including William Henderson and his family: a wife, two sons and two daughters (ranging in age from five to sixteen), as well as his sister and niece who was one year old.

When the Rutledge set sail, Captain Kelley was aware of the ice reports, but not having the advantage of today’s technology, the information they contained was outdated. A month later, he realized that navigating the North Atlantic would take much longer than anticipated because of the proliferation of ice and the frequent storms the ship encountered. Four days later, on the 20th of February, the packet ship hit an iceberg and began taking on water. Unable to stop the flow, everyone was ordered to abandon ship. Not everyone got off, although many did. For those in the lifeboats they hoped and prayed that another ship would soon come to their rescue.

This book is a heartrending and compelling account of shipwreck and survival. Maps, illustrations, occasional footnotes, an explanation of types of vessels, a family tree, bibliography, and index further enhance the reading experience. Murphy, a journalist for The Washington Post, pieced together the story of what happened and the people involved from family archives, civil and church documents, shipping ledgers, interviews, and published material found in collections in Europe and the United States. Much of the dialogue is skillfully imagined –fully explained in his introduction – and, when combined with the personal histories and period details, vividly recreates life and sailing in the middle of the 19th century. His 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 where the only other occupants are the dead.

[Emilio III · Rating 4 out of 5]

Having just read The Graves Are Walking about the Irish potato famine, I was intrigued by this survival story set ten years later. Many of the people described in this story were likely impacted by the famine. The immigration from Ireland to the United States, which had begun due to the potato blight, was still going strong ten years later. And for the sorry folks who boarded the John Rutledge, which struck an iceberg and sunk, their quest for a new beginning didn't end any better than those who stayed behind.

Author Brian Murphy does an excellent job of compiling a mountain of research into a readable narrative. The story of the thirteen people who find themselves adrift at sea in a lifeboat and how only one survives is compelling, but it takes up only a small portion of the story. The rest of the book is a history lesson about the boat, the people, and the harsh realities of life in the mid-nineteenth century.

The author describes many other vessels, besides the John Rutledge, that also met an uncertain fate in the same three-month period. One such vessel was the steamship the SS Pacific. With ship-to-ship communication not yet available, ship captains did not have up-to-the-minute information about weather, sea conditions, and ice warnings. Those who were made aware of the dire conditions during this period, from boats arriving at port, altered their trek across the Atlantic to a more southerly course. Unfortunately for the survivors of the John Rutledge, who managed to board three lifeboats, it meant there was less chance of being spotted by a passing boat on the same route.

Besides the lack of food and water, the survivors had no protection from the elements. The sinking had occurred so unexpectedly that many were dressed inappropriately for the conditions. Being adrift at sea in a lifeboat in 1856 was not a desirable place to be.

Of all the stories of what transpired before, during, and after the sinking, one story stuck with me. The lone survivor was Thomas Nye. He was rescued by the boat HMS Germania. At one point after the rescue, while the ship's captain sets out to look for the survivors on the other two lifeboats, one sailor tells the captain about hearing voices he could not identify coming from the water a few days earlier. It was foggy at the time, and he didn't tell anyone, unsure of what he had heard. Once they picked up Nye, and learned that there were two other lifeboats out there, he realized that what he heard may have been pleas from the survivors from one of the other boats.

Once Thomas Nye is rescued, the author follows the characters in the story until Nye's death. One of the last anecdotes he tells is about a message found in a bottle many years after the Pacific disappeared. The message, supposedly written by a crewmember aboard the boat, describes the sinking of the ship after colliding with an iceberg.

[Sharon · Rating 3 out of 5]

Da Capo Press and NetGalley provided me with an electronic copy of Adrift. I was under no obligation to review this book and my opinion is freely given.

Adrift is a nonfiction account of the John Rutledge, a three mast packet ship that went down in the winter of 1856, and the surviving passengers that huddled in an open lifeboat on the Atlantic. Travel in the "ice alley" off the coast of Newfoundland was dangerous in the 1800's because of a lack of information regarding ice in the area. Ship captains had to rely on weeks old information from those who crossed that area of the Atlantic. When the ice claimed the John Rutledge as its sacrifice, the 120 immigrants and the crew bound from Liverpool to New York offloaded the ship into lifeboats. By the time that another ship came around, the only survivor was a young seaman named Thomas W. Nye.

Author Brian Murphy, using recollections from the young man, as well as credible sources from the time, has painted a grim portrait of the harrowing journey for Nye and the tragedy for the others. Because of holes in the information regarding the John Rutledge, the author has filled in details where necessary and spent a great deal of time on periphery information regarding the time period. The compelling story of the crossing and the sinking of the ship gets lost, which is a disappointment. The author feeds little details about the inhabitants of the ship, but then goes off in different directions without any hint of a transition. The absence of sufficient lifeboats and the relative lack of preparation for a possible catastrophe led to the deaths, but the author almost glossed over those details. The straightforward telling of the story does not allow readers to form an emotional connection, despite Nye's harrowing tale of nine days adrift in the Atlantic, losing passenger after passenger to the elements. For readers who are interested in early transcontinental travel and at-sea tragedies, Adrift might be to their liking. I did learn something from the book, but I felt that it lacked the details and structure that it needed to make Adrift a compelling read.

[Kathy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Adrift is a captivating look at nautical life in the mid-1800s. Brian Murphy obviously did exhaustive (and sometimes exhausting) research in writing this book, but in doing so, puts the reader fully in the time period. His descriptive powers are well-developed; I still feel as if I'm shivering in the life-boat waiting to be rescued!

The book is about the ship the John Rutledge, which sailed from London on January 16, 1856, with a full crew, 1 cabin passenger and over 120 steerage passengers (mostly Irish emigrants), and sank on February 19th after hitting an iceberg en route to New York City. The story is told to us in third person, and in the point of view of Thomas Nye, a 21-year old seaman on the Rutledge who was the sole survivor.

Adrift gives me new appreciation for the dangers and hardships of sailing the seas in earlier times. Nearly 830 passengers and crew were lost in the first three months of 1856 in the North Atlantic's four main wrecks; the John Rutledge, the Pacific, Driver and Ocean Queen. More than 300 ships were lost globally during the first half of 1856, equating to the loss of thousands of lives and a financial loss of 16 million dollars (half a billion dollars in today's money).

While the book is very informative, I did find it a bit difficult and disconnecting to try to follow the many tangents Murphy took as he explained something/gave background to the reader. It's as if you're trying to follow a conversation where someone says something that makes them think of something else that they want to explain, which then branches to another topic and so on until the reader is saying "wait a minute, how did we get here from there? What were we talking about?"

Nevertheless, this is a good read.

Favorite quote: " Morality is elastic when it comes to our own fate. It bends and stretches to fit the circumstance."

Many thanks to NetGalley and Da Capo Press for allowing me to read a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

[Nancy · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you're going to read this, you first need to grab a bottle of water because this book will make you very thirsty. This book is about the remarkable survival at sea of Thomas W. Nye, a seaman who was onboard the John Rutledge packet ship on it's doomed voyage from Liverpool to New York. It obviously didn't quite make it to NYC as it sunk shortly after encountering an iceberg in the North Atlantic. The book details the life of sailors in the 19th century and people traveling to America via wooden ships. There are a lot of little details in this book and it is definitely an interesting tale.

I can only give this book three stars because it just didn't have the 'staying power' that kept my attention for more than 30 minutes at a time. It does have a lot of details, like a two page, succinct explanation of the Irish potato famine which was good, but I think overall they bogged the story down. The most interesting part of the story was the sinking until the rescue, a total of about 90 pages. Long after the main character has returned to America the story just keeps going, including one section which went on for several pages just to tell the reader that the main character was once in the same room with Mark Twain. That's it. They weren't buddies or anything, they were just in the same place at the same time. I felt like the author was really reaching, stretching to get Mark Twain in or maybe to increase the page numbers. And this book does make you thirsty, as those 90 pages are full of characters who are very thirsty. There is no mention of sex or adult language. There is one bottle of alcohol in the entire book. This is an interesting book, if a little long-winded.

[alphonse p guardino · Rating 4 out of 5]

The first half of this book was slow reading for me. That was primarily because of other things going on besides sitting back and reading! Once I was at about the halfway mark I had difficulty putting the book down.

A couple of other Goodreads reviews slam the book over layout and editing. One in particular seemed to want a book solely about humanity against the cold and went of to recommend several other books - not a one of which addressed the sinking of the sailing vessel John Rutledge and the rescue of its sole survivor, Thomas Nye. If the author had stuck to a straight forward account of that, a 240 page book would have been a 50 page pamphlet.

Instead, the author gives background information on that lone survivor, and for others who were on the Rutledge but did not survive (including an immigrant family that wound up in a lifeboat with the survivor). The loss of three other large ships and several smaller vessels, all likely a result of an unusually bad and early ice season, is discussed. To put it in perspective, the losses were close to one thousand people. Also discussed is how lack of watertight compartments likely contributed to he losses.

Not mentioned? Open lifeboats, exposing their occupants to the elements, were also a factor in low survival rates. That's something I've picked up from other sources such as accounts of more recent sinkings, including many during WW-1 and WW-2.