Last Voyage of the Hornet

In 1866 the clipper ship Hornet caught fire and sank, leaving the passengers and crew—thirty-one men in all—adrift in three small boats in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.  This is the tale of those men as they struggled for survival for an astonishing forty-three days on only three days of rations. The survivors drifted for thousands of miles before reaching shore.     


It was an incredible tale, and one that the down-on-his-luck newspaper reporter Samuel Clemens (a.k.a. Mark Twain) wanted to tell.  The story made him famous, launching his writing career.  It is a story of the determination of men to survive against all odds.


Last Voyage of the Hornet is based on a true event.