New Jersey Shipwrecks: 350 years in the Graveyard of the Atlantic

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Summary: HHP Book Reviews - New Jersey Shipwrecks
Review: Shipwrecks are a conundrum. The sight of one easily sets the mind adrift into the carnal, squalid recesses of tragedy. At the same time, however, it stimulates the curious and romantic parts of the mind as well. Although shipwrecks, in reality, are often devastating, life-robbing events, the sight of a tall-masted ship sitting unnaturally along a lonely beach can be equally bizarre and quixotic. Centuries ago, shipwrecks became headlines in newspapers and brief tourist attractions for shore visitors. But, those days are over. Shipwrecks today are more often than not economic and natural disasters that play out for the masses on videos and television. But there was a time when the stories of shipwrecks involved heroism, courage, and a passion to triumph over death, when the odds were staggeringly against the human beings on board. Now, beating time and tide, a new book brings back those stories and images and combines them in a startlingly vivid way.

When you pick up New Jersey Shipwrecks, the latest book from Jersey Shore author Margaret Thomas Buchholz (who, along with Larry Savadove, penned Great Storms of the Jersey Shore), it is immediately recognizable as one from Down the Shore publishing. New Jersey history buffs will surely notice the similarity in the design of this cover and the set of popular historical hardbound by John Bailey Lloyd, Six Miles at Sea and Eighteen Miles of History. If the book was forgettable, at the very least it would look great next to the other two on a shelf. Fortunately, the book is anything but forgettable. It is a spellbinding mix of text and visual texture that will surely please both the casual and serious reader alike.

History abounds between the covers of this exceptional collection of stories past, from the time of Henry Hudson to the Revolutionary war (including a brief recount of a gun battle between a British frigate and a brig held fast but not defenseless in the shallows along Wildwood Crest), sifting through the years to the modern day. The history certainly brings boatloads of color and intrigue from the depths of New Jersey history. It's wonderful that, through this book, the hardship, tragedy, and triumph that has since been paved and pile-driven out of memory has been given a voice once again.

Even the most die-hard shipwreck fans would be impressed with the research Buchholz pours into every page. The first chapter is a veritable history book of old newspaper reports of shipwrecks, which themselves are primary sources, transporting the reader to the event itself. The best part is all of the towns that get mentioned. It seems that everyone from Raritan Bay to Cape May will be able to connect to a story from this book. The scope of the research is so thorough that you can find out the date and time of a shipwreck to what a long-lost survivor had been doing just moments before fate would turn the tide on unsuspecting passengers and crew. It's not just captain's accounts here. Thankfully Buchholz lets the secondary cast members of life's extreme coastal dramas take the center stage. Through the eyes of immigrants, pirates, mothers, wives, and lower-level crewmen, the reader is treated to the grittier side of shipwreck stories. You truly get a taste of the sense of dread these people faced as their every day transportation quickly turned into a watery grave. You're invited to imagine their desperate attempts to survive and witness how their rock solid reliance on their faith gets them through. The survivors were truly exceptional, hearty people who just wouldn't surrender themselves to the monster that was the sea. Some of the recounts, however brave at times, are also absolutely chilling.

While the shipwrecks are the main act, the Lifesaving Service and the "Wreckers" get fair billing as well. Long before GPS navigation and the Coast Guard was a fledgling cadre of a few brave men who dedicated their time, and sometimes their lives, to the preservation of life. It was the battle between the men of the Lifesaving Stations and Mother Nature herself. The Wreckers, on the other hand, weren't quite so glamorous but they are part of the story and Buchholz finds space for these souls who benefited from a shipwreck full of loot. Downtrodden themselves, some of these "wreckers" - people who supplemented their meager income by selling the cargo and parts of wrecked ships - would hope and pray for a wreck to come their way. While some shipwreck-themed books offer facts as scattered as the wrecks themselves, New Jersey Shipwrecks brings together the complete story.

After reading this book, the next time you put your beach chair and your flips flops down on a sun-drenched beach, you just might take a minute or two to wonder what stories lay deep in the sand beneath your feet.

The imagination, of course, doesn't need too much triggering because this book is chock full of lithographs and pictures of some less-than-fortunate ships. Each picture in the book sets loose the imagination, allowing the reader to wonder how each ship wound up in such a precarious situation. One begins to think of the myriad of stories that must lie behind the images themselves. It's great fun just sifting through the illustrations on page after page. From the simple stranding of a Quebecker's sailboat to the truly horrifying images of the charred wreckage of the luxury liner Morro Castle sitting just yards off of an Asbury Park beach, each picture captivates.

For shipwreck fans, casual or fanatical, this book is a must for your collection. But even if you're just a fan of the Jersey Shore looking for an intriguing, quality read, this book offers a treasure-trove of satisfaction. And, if you're still wondering if this book is for you, just ask yourself - have you ever walked on a foggy Jersey beach, late at night, far away from streetlights and people, and just feel a little tingle of apprehension? Perhaps you felt like you were not alone? Me too...and after reading this book the feeling seems justified considering the amount of untimely death that had plagued our treacherous shoals just feet from where the waves mingle with our toes. To appreciate all of the good that comes with today's Jersey Shore, it's important to understand the other life it once lead - as the Graveyard of the Atlantic.


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Summary: POWERFUL
Review: "Knowing Margaret Thomas Buchholz and her talent, as a fan of her earlier books, I was prepared for NEW JERSEY SHIPWRECKS to be a treat, but it's more than that: it's a treasure. Both its pictures and narrative wallop the reader with a typhoon's power. (One wreck survivor describes wind hard enough "to blow one's hair out by the roots") The photographs and prose of NEW JERSEY SHIPWRECKS grab hold of our imagination and emotions, bringing us back in time to witness dozens of shipwrecks, their victims and heroes. NEW JERSEY SHIPWRECKS also provides us with mysteries to ponder, including the source of the 1934 fire that engulfed the Morro Castle Luxury Liner, claming 134 lives, or the true cargo of John P. Rockerfeller's SINDIA, rumored to be smuggled Chinese national treasures. Though I've already bought two additional copies to give to relatives with homes on the Jersey Shore, this book deserves a much wider audience: it's for everyone who loves the sea or fears it, or, like most of us, do both."

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Summary: Wonderful tales of the sea!
Review: If you've never stood on deck and smelled fresh salt, if you haven't felt the surf break around your feet at the shore, get this book and you'll be hooked! Great illustrations and photographs are surrounded by scintillating writing from an author who obviously has had a long love affair with the ocean. This book may be non-fiction but it will grip your interest as much as any of the great classic sea novels.

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Summary: Gripping true tales of life, death, survival, and rescue
Review: New Jersey Shipwrecks: 350 Years In The Graveyard Of The Atlantic is an extensively researched chronicle of shipwrecks in the New Jersey area from 1642 to the modern day. Illustrated throughout in black-and-white with numerous vintage photographs and artworks, New Jersey Shipwrecks commands the browser's attention with its gripping true tales of life, death, survival, and rescue. A welcome contribution to modern nautical history, analyzing individual disasters throughout history in depth and vivid detail.


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Summary: A Hundred Perfect Storms
Review: What an adventure! Here are true stories of bravery and harrowing danger, stories that will call up all the courage and daring-do of real men and women, many lost at sea, some saved. Story after story is captivating, even haunting. The art work, the research, the authentic story-telling make this a book for anyone who has ever dreamed of life on the very high and very treacherous seas. Better than "Mutiny," better than "The Perfect Storm." Here are a hundred perfect storms, with photos and all the characters are real. No names have been changed. What a magnificent book!