216 pages : 29 cm

This is the story of shipwrecks, and of the human dramas played out in the throes of howling winter nor'easters, frozen rigging, tremendous seas, wrenching collisions, burning oil and exploding torpedoes. It is a story fraught with pathos and heroism, death and survival. It is also the story of the evolution of ships and shipping, for in the approaches to New York lie the sunken hulks of hundreds of ships of every era and type, providing time capsules of the world's maritime history for the last two centuries. Wooden warships from the days of the Revolution, coastal schooners, once majestic ships from the great days of sail, tramp steamers, passenger liners like the Blue Riband winner SS Oregon (1886) and the luxurious Andrea Doria (1954), U-boats and their victims in World War I and II, armored cruisers and revenue cutters, rumrunners, and modern victims of collisions all share a haunting grave beneath the cold Atlantic

Includes bibliographical references (pages 206-207) and index

Preface: Ghosts from the Past -- 1. Oak Timbers and Iron Shot: The Wooden Warship. A Nation is Born. The British Fleet and the Loss of the Hussar. Lost in a Snowstorm: HMS Culloden. A New Nation in Need of a Navy -- 2. The Sailing Merchant Ship: A Forgotten Fleet of Flying Dutchmen. Disappearances at Sea. The Flying Dutchman. A Forgotten Fleet of Sunken Ghost Ships -- 3. The Ascendancy of the Steamship. The Black Warrior. The Steam Revolution. The Loss of the Hylton Castle. Sunk by a Schooner: The Cunard Liner Oregon. The End of the Tramp Steamer Iberia. Steamships Were Made of Wood, Too: Kenosha. Ripe for Fire: Long Island Sound Steamboats -- Lexington, General Slocum and Glen Island -- 4. Aground on the Beach. The United States Life-Saving Service. The Stations. The Wreck of the Bark Elizabeth. The Steamship Franklin. The Bitter Cold Fate of the Ship John Milton. The Amsterdam. Ten Lost Indians: The Salvage of the Circassian. Frozen in the Rigging: The Louis V. Place. The First Modern Tanker: Gluckauf. Destined for Disaster: SS Gate City. The "Tea Wreck" Long Distance Rescue: Drumelzier. Wreck of the Roda: "The Captain Refused to Leave" The United States Coast Guard -- 5. The World Goes to War: 1914-1918. Clash of the Titans. The Sinking of the Revenue Cutter Mohawk. U-boats Arrive on America's Doorstep. The Mine-Laying Campaign: Sinking of the USS San Diego. The U-boat War Continues. The Strange Saga of Rene Henry Bastin. Exploits of the U-117. The War Draws to a Close. A Dance in the Fog: USS Tarantula -- 6. Between the Wars: Collisions and Rumrunners. The Argentina and the Yankee. The "Noble Experiment": Prohibition and "Rumrunners" Collision in Reverse: Grecian and City of Chattanooga. Converted Steamship: Lillian -- 7. World War II: The U-boats Return. U-boat Development: Types I through IX. The Flames of War Return to Europe. The Return of Submarine Warfare. Operation Paukenschlag. The Beginning: Norness and Coimbra. A Dangerous Cargo: RP Resor and Gulftrade. Freighters Too: SS Arundo and MV Bidevind. Spies and a Torpedoed Freighter. A Feeble Response Grows Stronger. Last Dance: Blackpoint and U-853. Epilogue: The U-boat That Shouldn't Be -- 8. The Era of Modern Navigation. Collision in the Fog: Andrea Doria and Stockholm. Sitting Duck: The Relief Lightship. Goliath Slays David: The Motorship Pinta. "Shalom" to the Stolt Dagali. Sunk by Design: A Handful of "Artificial Reefs" The Future -- App. Maritime and Naval Museums