The Sea Shall Embrace Them: The Tragic Story of the Steamship Arctic

The Sea Shall Embrace Them: The Tragic Story of the Steamship Arctic
by David W. Shaw

The Sea Shall Embrace Them: The Tragic Story of the Steamship Arctic
List Price: $15.95
Our Price: $3.80
You Save: $12.15 (76%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $1.11 (click here)
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions


(Click here)
Buy this book at online book store in your country
Canada | UK | Germany | France

Book Summary Information

Author: David W. Shaw
Edition: Paperback
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown); English (Published)
Published: 2003-04-29
ISBN: 0743235037
Number of pages: 256
Publisher: Free Press

Book Reviews of The Sea Shall Embrace Them: The Tragic Story of the Steamship Arctic

Book Review: Quick, easy read - good info on mid 19th century at sea
Summary: 4 Stars

Bought the book to learn more about immigration in the 1850s. My great great grandfather brought his family from Germany to USA in 1853 on the USM Atlantic, a sister ship of the Arctic.
Enjoyed this book very much!

Summary of The Sea Shall Embrace Them: The Tragic Story of the Steamship Arctic

The 1854 collision at sea between the American ship Arctic and the Vesta, a much smaller French steamship, set in motion one of the most harrowing events in maritime history. David W. Shaw has based this fascinating account on the firsthand testimony of the few who survived the wreck, including the Arctic's heroic captain, James C. Luce, who was forced to fight his mutinous crew as they took the lifeboats and left hundreds of passengers to suffer a cruel and painful death. Not only did 400 people -- including Luce's own frail son -- die by daybreak, but the wreck also ended the domination of the seas by the American maritime fleet for the rest of the nineteenth century.

Utterly compelling, The Sea Shall Embrace Them is a stirring slice of heretofore little-known American history. Beautifully written, it puts the reader on deck as a ship full of men, women, and children do battle both with a mighty ocean and with their own baser instincts.


By the mid-19th century, steamships were eclipsing traditional sailing ships in the lucrative transatlantic trade. The largest of these, the American Arctic, collided with a smaller vessel in 1854 with a frightful, and unnecessary, loss of life. David W. Shaw's The Sea Shall Embrace Them tells the story of this disaster, eerily similar in many ways to the later sinking of the Titanic. Shaw lays out the immediate and secondary causes of the disaster: bad weather, no established shipping lanes, the ship's owners' preference for speed rather than prudence, and an appalling lack of safety precautions. As well, he describes the suffering and grotesque deaths of many aboard and dozens of acts of pure cowardice on the part of the crew. The writing for the most part is vivid and effective, though the physical layout of the ship is somewhat murky. The story of the Arctic is not only sad and the tragedy avoidable, but one that, as Shaw points out, would be repeated many times in the decades to follow. --H. O'Billovitch

General Books

Book Subjects
Most talked about in General Books
Desperate Passage: The Donner Party's Perilous Journey West ImageDesperate Passage: The Donner Party's Perilous Journey West
by Ethan Rarick
Oxford University Press, USA; Published: 2008-02-04; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $15.77
Price in other shops: $28.00
American Sphinx: The Character of Thomas Jefferson ImageAmerican Sphinx: The Character of Thomas Jefferson
by Joseph J. Ellis
Vintage; Published: 1998-04-07; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.89
Price in other shops: $15.95
Blood and Thunder: The Epic Story of Kit Carson and the Conquest of the American West ImageBlood and Thunder: The Epic Story of Kit Carson and the Conquest of the American West
by Hampton Sides
Anchor; Published: 2007-10-09; Paperback; Book
Best price: $9.51
Price in other shops: $15.95
Undaunted Courage : Meriwether Lewis, Thomas Jefferson, and the Opening of the American West ImageUndaunted Courage : Meriwether Lewis, Thomas Jefferson, and the Opening of the American West
by Stephen Ambrose
Simon & Schuster; Published: 1997-06-02; Paperback; Book
Best price: $2.61
Price in other shops: $17.00
The Johnstown Flood ImageThe Johnstown Flood
by David McCullough
Simon & Schuster; Published: 1987-01-15; Paperback; Book
Best price: $9.86
Price in other shops: $16.00
Crazy Good: The True Story of Dan Patch, the Most Famous Horse in America ImageCrazy Good: The True Story of Dan Patch, the Most Famous Horse in America
by Charles Leerhsen
Simon & Schuster; Published: 2008-05-20; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $14.29
Price in other shops: $26.00
What Hath God Wrought: The Transformation of America, 1815-1848 (Oxford History of the United States) ImageWhat Hath God Wrought: The Transformation of America, 1815-1848 (Oxford History of the United States)
by Daniel Walker Howe
Oxford University Press, USA; Published: 2007-10-29; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $18.99
Price in other shops: $35.00
John Adams ImageJohn Adams
by David McCullough
Simon & Schuster; Published: 2008-01-29; Paperback; Book
Best price: $10.49
Price in other shops: $20.00
The Devil in the White City:  Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America ImageThe Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America
by Erik Larson
Vintage; Published: 2004-02-10; Paperback; Book
Best price: $5.49
Price in other shops: $14.95
Slavery by Another Name: The Re-Enslavement of Black Americans from the Civil War to World War II ImageSlavery by Another Name: The Re-Enslavement of Black Americans from the Civil War to World War II
by Douglas A. Blackmon
Doubleday; Published: 2008-03-25; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $17.99
Price in other shops: $29.95
Similar Books and other products
Ship Ablaze : The Tragedy of the Steamboat General Slocum ImageShip Ablaze : The Tragedy of the Steamboat General Slocum
by Edward T. O'Donnell
Published: 2003-05-31; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $21.18
Price in other shops: $24.95
The Ghost ImageThe Ghost
by Robert Harris
Pocket Star; Published: 2008-08-19; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.09
Price in other shops: $7.99
Ghosts of Cape Sabine: The Harrowing True Story of the Greely Expedition ImageGhosts of Cape Sabine: The Harrowing True Story of the Greely Expedition
by Leonard F. Guttridge
Published: 2000-11-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.50
Price in other shops: $13.95
Curse of the Narrows: The Halifax Disaster of 1917 ImageCurse of the Narrows: The Halifax Disaster of 1917
by Laura M. Mac Donald
Walker & Company; Published: 2006-11-14; Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.15
Price in other shops: $15.95
Can't Wait to Get to Heaven: A Novel (Ballantine Reader's Circle) ImageCan't Wait to Get to Heaven: A Novel (Ballantine Reader's Circle)
by Fannie Flagg
Ballantine Books; Published: 2007-06-19; Paperback; Book
Best price: $5.96
Price in other shops: $13.95
Book store. Illustrated catalog of books on different categories