S.O.S. Men Against the Sea

SOS MEN AGAINST THE SEA is a superbly dramatized chronicle of 29 ships the loss of which history, by and large, passed by. Few have ever heard of the Cospatrick, a fully rigged ship destroyed by fire off the Cape of Good Hope in 1874 with the loss of 400 lives, or the steamer Utopia which skewered itself on the ram-bow of a warship in Gibraltar Bay and sank in five minutes taking 500 souls with it. A similar loss of life occurred when the Russian cruise liner Admiral Nakimov collided with a bulk carrier in the Black Sea in 1986.

There was no loss of life when the cruise liner Oceanis sank off the coast of Transkei, thanks to the actions of a few non-seamen who displayed the true spirit of the Birkenhead. A total of 5,683 lives were lost when these ships went down. This book is their epitaph.

With 37 years at sea under his belt, Captain Bernard Edwards has over ten titles in print including SOS-MEN AGAINST THE SEA, BLOOD & BUSHIDO, RETURN OF THE COFFIN SHIPS, AND SALVO! A resident of Wales, Captain Edwards is close to the sea he writes about. His lifetime experience at sea enables him to add authentic touches and bring official reports to life.