Overview

As long as man had dared deep waters, we have waited on shores around the world for ships that never would come home. Lost at Sea is the story of 8 such ships and crews that have vanished with scarcely a trace--or no trace at all. What became of these ships? Why did they and their crews disappear? Where did they go? Circumstances surrounding the stories of these ships left some gaping holes in general logic. These unexplained mysteries begged to be solved and veteran history/mystery writer A. A. Hoehling has taken up the challenge. He has taken up the challenge. He has turned up some interesting leads, in some cases even after 100 years. Through solid, precise investigation, he has been able to piece together chains of events leading to the disappearances. His original research is based on interviews with relatives of crew members and a reconstruction of events surrounding each case. Fascinating photos of places and personalities in the ships' histories provide further documentation. The new evidence and conclusions in Lost at Sea are firmly based in fact. The book's very credibility makes it unique among historical mysteries and engrossing reading as well. What happened to them? Were they really Lost at Sea? A. A. Hoehling has uncovered the answers to many of the puzzling questions surrounding these cases. He offers some startling, plausible conclusions to these international sea incidents that have been baffling experts for a century and more. 1.Mary Celeste, the 280-ton brig out of New York, was found adrift on December 4, 1872 off the Azores and empty of the 10 souls who had been aboard. 2.Waratah, a new, handsome, British 10,000-ton liner, disappeared with 244 passengers and crew in 1909 somewhere off Duban, South Africa, 3.Lusitania, the luxurious 32,000-ton vessel torpedoed in May 1915, left a legacy of unanswered questions about cargo and course. 4.HMS Hampshire sank one wild, stormy night in June 1916 in the Orkneys. The fact that the ship carried Lord Kitchener, Secretary of State of War, on a secret mission to Czarist Russia shrouds this case in a mystery not easily unraveled. 5.Cyclops, the big U.S. Navy collier displacing 20,000 tons with her load of manganese, disappeared en route from Barbados to Baltimore. She remains the largest U.S. naval vessel to vanish with no fully plausible explanation. 6.Morro Castle, advertised in 1934 as the most beautiful cruise ship on the Havana run, burst into flames off the New Jersey coast; 134 died. The seemingly obvious causes were challenged years later. Was the hero in the disaster really a hero? The sudden death of the captain just before the fire adds more mystery to this haunting enigma. 7.Scorpion, the nuclear attack submarine, disappeared in may 1968 in waters not far from where the Mary Celeste was found adrift. Deep water photographs offered no hint as to what caused the loss of the 99 souls aboard. 8.Poet began a voyage in 1980 that would lead her and her crew of 34 into oblivious. Disappearing into the vastness of the North Atlantic, she left in her wake a flotsam of questions.

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9780811737463

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A. A. Hoehling is editor of the Congressional Research Service for the Library of Congress. He has worked as a reporter for newspapers in Washington, D. C. and Portland, Maine, and for ten years he was editor of the book program for the Army Times Publishing Company. He is the author of 20 books, all related to history, among them, Last Train to Atlanta, The Week Before Pearl Harbor, Who Destroyed the Hindedburg, The Great War at Sea, The Lexington Goes Down, and The Last Voyage of the Lusitania.

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