Friday, August 14, 2009

Destiny's Voyage SS Atlantic the Titanic of 1873

by Bob Love. Author House 2006. $22.99. ISBN 1425930409. Soft cover. 357 pages.
This book covers one of history’s least well known nautical tragedies, the SS Atlantic disaster of 1873.
April Fools Day 1873 SS Atlantic ran hard aground on the Nova Scotia coast causing the loss of a higher percentage of her souls than her descendent, RMS Titanic of 1912 did. The unique factor being only the fittest survived leaving the souls of all the women and all but one child buried with her at the bottom of the sea.
Mr Love has made an effort to rectify this situation as well as to raise funds for the SS Atlantic Memorial Foundation via sales of this book.
Unfortunately the book is from a self-publishing project and suffers from poor quality layout and editing. Every second page has the word "Header" instead of the book title. The writer also shows little knowledge of nautical history by referring to Titanic as HMS instead of the correct RMS (Royal Mail Ship.)
The narrative draws heavily on transcripts of official inquiries and may be of interest to some on the mechanics of 19th century Admiralty Law. Sadly this is still not enough to recommend the book.

1 comment:

  1. It doesn't take a thick skin to accept the truth about ones work, it takes acceptence and a desire to make it right. I was surprised to see this post as it was about two years ago we talked by phone about the HMS reference.
    My wife worsened in her battle with cancer so I have done nothing to market the book since 2006. She lost that battle and I have now gotten back to my writing. I put the book on suspension until these corrections are made. The HMS, the editor agreed, was their mistake as there both RMS and HMS were used in the book. They thought they may have misread the H & R. I did know the difference. I found other errors but now that those staff people are gone the new breed is unsympathetic with my concerns so I pay through the nose to have it corrected. This being done. I have also been working with an agent and publisher to do a rewrite and publishing with a traditional publisher. I attened my first Writers Workshop this weekend and it was exceptionally informative.
    Coincidentally the book has been picked up, through a friend, by a producer and it is now being considered for a documentary by a major Hollywood studio.
    I again thank you for your input. I have operated and owned maritime surveying and loss adjustment firms for over 40 years and I tolerated nothing less than excellence in what I provided. It does not go well to have let my readers down now. RWL

    ReplyDelete