MAYDAY: 99 Disasters and Tragedies on the High Seas

Even before the "Divine Winds" destroyed Kublai Khan’s mighty invasion fleet in 1274 (and right up to the present)the relentless sea has claimed the lives of many thousands of human beings and the ships on which they sailed.
Powerful storms have ravaged passenger liners, oil tankers, cargo vessels, and other craft of every description. Human error has led to collisions that resulted in disaster. Warfare on the high seas has sent hundreds of ships to the bottom of the ocean. Shipboard fires and explosions have taken their toll as well.
This book presents ninety-nine brief descriptions of disasters that occurred at sea from early times up to the year 2013. Some of the descriptions describe the fates of such well-known ships as Titanic, Lusitania, or Costa Concordia. Other descriptions tell of lesser-known vessels like Birkenhead, Guardian, or Toya Maru.
Included in the collection are stories of heroism, cowardice, and survival against all odds.
These descriptions are not meant to be definitive. Rather, they are brief summaries of events that hopefully will encourage readers to find out more about the events that interest them the most.
To this end, a selected bibliography is included at the conclusion to the work. Readers may also wish to mine the wealth of information provided on the Internet.