This is the story of a small packet sailing ship, the John Rutledge, which set off across the Atlantic from Liverpool to New York in the winter of 1856. The ship, carrying cargo and Irish emigrants, struck an iceberg in the north Atlantic, and only one soul would live to tell the tale.

There are quite a few best-selling narrative non-fiction books about famous shipwrecks, such as Erik Larson’s Dead Wake, Nathaniel Philbrick’s Heart of the Sea, and numerous books about the sinking of the Titanic. These ships have become legend, and the stories have a great deal of primary information and research behind them.

In Adrift, Murphy has given us a smaller tragedy. The sinking of the John Rutledge is one of many tragic stories lost on the shoals of history, and the careful research needed to bring it back into the light should be commended. Murphy has delved into private journals, newspaper clippings, family lore, and shipping records. What is more, he has compiled this information into a gripping, narrative story.

Fans of narrative nonfiction and tales of maritime derring-do will find a lot to admire in Murphy’s careful research and close attention to detail. History buffs cannot help but rejoice when another largely unknown story is pulled from the depths of the historical record.

An advance copy of this book was provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

On January 16, 1856, the American ship, John Rutledge, left for New York from Liverpool, with 16 crew men and 120 migrant passengers packed into steerage. On February 19, the ship knocked against an iceberg, causing catastrophic damage. As the ship foundered, passengers and crew raced to the lifeboats - not everyone reached the safety of the 5 lifeboats.

Those souls finding a place in a lifeboat found them " the simplest of craft. [E]ach lifeboat was about twenty-five feet long and without any kind of cabin or nook for shelter." There was no mast to hoist a sail, only oars. There were no provisions (only a handful of hard tack and a small container of water). There was no way to flag the boat to standout against the vastness of the sea. There was no way to communicate with the other lifeboats or to send a signal of their location to rescuers; these were the days before transatlantic communication, satellite phones or weather planes.

As the five lifeboats pulled away from the stricken ship, the question in everyone's mind had to be - Have I just delayed my death? Am I really better off than those doomed and unable to reach the lifeboats?

Feb 29, 1856, day nine after the loss of the Rutledge, one of the lifeboats was spotted in the rough icy waters. Seaman Thomas W. Nye, frozen and nearly incoherent, was pulled from the sea by the packet ship, Germania. He proved to be the sole survivor from the Rutledge. After a desperate search for the other four lifeboats from the Rutledge; none were ever found.

Here's the rub that keeps the book a three star in my view. Well, actually the first part is a two star and Nye's story is a four star so I decided on the middle ranking.

Thomas W. Nye's story is remarkable. Interviews with him reveal a harrowing and horrifying nine days spent drifting in the dead of winter with twelve other people; one by one the others die from exposure and starvation. Most died painfully quick after ignoring Nye's pleas to avoid drinking seawater. I'll admit I never really understood what it was the seawater did to the body and how it killed in such a short period of time. It is heartbreaking.

The demise of the Rutledge and its passengers was but one of hundreds of big and small ships and nearly 1000 souls lost to rough seas and extreme ice flows during the three winter months of 1856. The author's research of that time in world history and coverage of that devastating winter of 1856 is admirable; and he felt the need to share every tidbit and trace. Intermingled with the horrors of Nye's story are the history of maritime commerce, ship designs, history and ownership of specific vessels, biographies of sea captains and their families, and the mass migration from famine starved countries in the mid 1800's.

The choice to research the "mundane" John Rutledge and its crew and passengers highlights the disparity of books that cover renowned disasters like the Hindenburg, Titanic or the Lusitania. The Rutledge was a significant ship in international commercial trade at the time, but insignificant to the world-at-large when placed against the great passenger ships ferrying the rich and famous back and forth across the Atlantic. The foundering of several of these high-class ships was covered much more extensively and of much more interest to the general public than a small transport filled with destitute immigrants.

To his credit, the author, in selecting the Rutledge, shows the humanity of the average seaman and the steerage passengers; those now lost souls with ambitions and hopes every bit as important as the high society victims on the opulent passenger liners.

The interjection of lengthy footnotes and history lessons felt like the interruptions in the flow of a good suspense movie by commercials. I understand that Murphy needed to add perspective and background, but in my opinion, a little less coverage would have been sufficient. Perhaps, if the footnotes were placed in a separate addendum, the story would have flowed more smoothly.

I will say this, I learned a lot. Judging from the wide range of reviews on this book, there is something for everyone to like and I would say if you are interested in sea disasters, you will find it an interesting read.

I want to thank NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

While everyone knows the story of the Titanic, few know the story of the ill-fated John Rutledge.
A true story of the ship's demise and the struggle for survival on a lifeboat.

Adrift tells the story of the packet ship John Rutledge, which in 1856 crossed the North Atlantic from Liverpool to New York with a cargo mostly of mail and around 100 passengers, many of them emigrating from Ireland. The ship navigated turbulent winter conditions before ultimately hitting an iceberg, and quickly sinking despite the crew's best efforts to save it. Four of its five lifeboats were lost in the foggy, often stormy weather conditions after drifting apart from each other after launching. The fate of their passengers remains unknown. All we know of the rest of the ship's fate comes from the sole survivor from the fifth lifeboat's thirteen passengers. 

The book's sources are primarily records related to this survivor, Thomas Nye, like his personal journals and accounts given later to newspapers, as well as from the ship's logbook which he'd managed to save. An experienced sailor from the Bedford, Massachusetts whaling community, Nye may have been able to survive by resisting the common urge to drink seawater when suffering extreme thirst, which many others onboard the lifeboat fell victim to. Nye had been adrift in the icy, stormy waters for nine days before rescue came in the form of a passing ship. He wouldn't have lasted long beyond this point.

I was interested because I was surprised how much I loved reading In the Heart of the Sea and I've been open to shipwreck narratives, not my usual go-to, since then. This book isn't quite such a comprehensive narrative of that special combination of event at hand, the world at the time it happened, and elements of science and psychology as that book, but it makes a good effort and has some very high points.

Its strongest sections are those depicting the course of events as they played out on Nye's lifeboat. They're devastating too, as one by one the twelve passengers aside from Nye succumb to the elements, starvation, dehydration, and the maddening, dangerous aftereffects of drinking seawater in desperation. One of the hardest parts of this is that an almost-rabid type of insanity settled in in several of the cases, leading the sufferers to lash out against their loved ones and others in the boat. This in addition to squabbles over the extremely limited water supply and the dry biscuit that were their only provisions.

I'll never forget some of these stories, it's one of the most horrible ends I could imagine. And to think that this was no uncommon story either - we know what happened only because Nye survived to tell it. There were four more lifeboats from this ship alone, and how many countless other times did the same thing transpire. Murphy and Vlahou certainly have a strength for portraying the tensions that must have plagued the shipwreck's survivors in their last days.

It also has some excellent contextual history, about the economics of ship ownership (very readable and not as dry as it might sound) and the culture of emigration that led so many to brave the often-dangerous ocean crossings in search of a better life in America.

My problem with the structure was imagined dialogue inserted throughout, particularly as the story covers the days on the lifeboat. Murphy takes care to clarify that he extensively researched the speech patterns and vocabulary as well as basing it on what's known of events from Nye's stories but it didn't sit right with me. It was bland (out of necessity, obviously). And I just dislike this kind of fictionalization in what's supposed to be nonfiction. The dialogue wasn't inaccurate or unlikely by any means, in fact it was so generic that it couldn't have been far off from the gist of what was said, but the generalization of it just ended up being dull to read and distracting.

Harrowing narrative account of the harsh conditions and harsher ends met by the passengers of the sunken John Rutledge, and some interesting background of the logistics and economics of ocean travel in the 1800s, along with the quiet dignity of the tragedy's only survivor.

I highly recommend Adrift to anyone who enjoys survival tales. I’ve read many books in this genre and this one is a stand-out.

Murphy spends part of the book reviewing the major news stories of the mid-nineteenth century, including the history and economy of packet and luxury ships. This approach gave the book a well-rounded background with some substance. He also includes anecdotes, some relevant biographical information, and an overview of the situation of immigrants in Ireland. It may have seemed tangential, but the stories were relevant to the ship, the John Rutledge, and afforded the reader a clearer picture of what the passengers were facing, both at home and abroad. Murphy describes the appalling conditions aboard the John Rutledge for the immigrant passengers in steerage – the sea-sickness, the overpowering smells, the turbulent seas, the terror.

The actual ordeal of the sinking of the John Rutledge and subsequent fight for life for those who made it to lifeboats was riveting. There was only one survivor from the shipwreck, and the book follows the story of his lifeboat, in which there were originally 13 aboard, including some children. The gripping horrors that these castaways endured is heart-wrenching.

Overall, Adrift presents a fascinating perspective on the shipping industry of the 1850s and the danger aboard these ships as they navigated the icy Atlantic. Highly recommended.

Many thanks to Netgalley and Perseus Books / DeCapo Press for the advance copy in exchange for my honest review.

In Adrift, Brian Murphy recounts the journey of the packet ship John Rutledge from its navigation down the Mersey River to the ice fields that sank four ships in 1856. Nearly 1,000 souls died in three months, with commercial losses in the millions of dollars. The Irish immigrants and crew on board the Rutledge were all lost, save one man. This is his story.

I love a good adventure story, and if there are ships and ice involved, I'm all in. I was also interested in reading Brian Murphy's Adrift because it is about Irish immigrants, who in 1856 had scrimped and saved for their passage, hopeful they would find a better life in America. My own Irish ancestors left their homeland for England, a much shorter sea journey. But the reasons for leaving their homeland would have been the same, as well as their poverty.

The book is based on the story of Thomas Nye, a New Bedford maritime sailor who was twenty-two when he shipped on the packet ship John Rutledge out of Liverpool. The ship carried over 100 Irish passengers, bound for New York.

In 1903, just two years before his death, a journalist interviewed Nye who told the story of the sinking of the Rutledge, his nine days asea watching the other survivors succumb to the elements and dehydration, and his providential rescue.

Murphy takes us on ye's journey, recreating the events, drawing from Nye's writings, ships logs, and newspaper accounts. We are there when the ship strikes a berg and during the launching of the lifeboats. We experience Nye watching as his fellow passengers in an open board are driven to desperate measures and die until only he is left.

It is a tale of harrowing adventure, but also a study of human nature in desperate circumstances when conventional morality and social norms are washed away. There is no cannibalism involved, thankfully, for as Murphy shares, sometimes that did happen.

Reforms to improve maritime safety did not advance until the 1912 sinking of the Titanic. (Some things never change: the lives of impoverished immigrant families did not spur safety advances, but the deaths of some of the richest men in the world did.)

As climate change accelerates the calving of Greenland's ice sheet, more icebergs will clog shipping lanes. Today we have communication between ships and ship and shore, and knowledge of where the ice fields are.

Murphy is a journalist with the Washington Post and the author of three books.

I received a free ebook from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.

A harrowing account of a winter sailing trip across the Atlantic in 1856, a year the North Atlantic was crowded with ice bergs and swept by many storms. Makes one very glad for the pleasant journeys that are todays norm. Will be especially interesting for Massachusetts communities along the coast and those with a whaling history

This well researched book about a lone survivor of a packet ship traveling from Liverpool to New York in the 1800’s certainly extended my knowledge base of the time frame and perils of sea travel. Parts were very interesting to read, particularly the chapters about the travails of those on the lifeboat. I also enjoyed the background on icebergs. The information at the end giving details about the different kinds of ships was interesting as well.
Unfortunately, the story line is lost throughout much of the book when the author goes into too much detail about things that are not germane to the plot of the story. It makes the reading very choppy and confusing.
Thank you to Brian Murphy, Perseus oks, and NetGalley for affording me the opportunity to read this book.

Monday, June 11, 2018
Adrift: A True Story of Tragedy on the Icy Atlantic and the One Who Lived to Tell about It
This book is great if you are interested in the history of Liverpool shipping, castaways, or (like me) pretty much anything to do with man's interaction with the sea. But I would not necessarily suggest it if you are not already into this kind of thing.

Brian Murphy has written an easily readable, detailed book about the sole survivor of a packet ship's collision with an iceberg, but it is not exactly action-packed or thrilling. I'm afraid that is what some folks would look for when picking up this kind of book. Personally, I enjoyed it quite a bit.

My nautical reading is usually centered around whaling or arctic exploration, so this is the first book I've read that focuses heavily on commercial shipping in the 1800s and I learned quite a bit. I also don't remember running into the prominent Nye family before. But now when that name pops up among a list of well-known captains or citizens in New England, I will recognize some old friends. I also found the information about Irish immigrants coming to America by way of Liverpool quite interesting.

I received this book as an advance copy from NetGalley. As soon as I read the description, I knew this was a book I wanted to read.

Publication date: September 4, 2018

Incredible story, and one I certainly hadn't heard before. I really enjoyed the history and background of the packet ships that sailed between Liverpool and the East Coast of the United States and the trials they faced, along with the stories of the immigrant travelers and the sailors that populated the ships. Would definitely recommend as a Young Adult crossover for summer reading as well.

This was a meticulously researched book about a shipwreck I'd never heard of that occurred during a season of horrible shipwrecks in the Atlantic that I'd also never heard of. Both pieces of history are worth knowing about, so for that reason I am glad I read this book. However, I must confess that for me, the act of doing so was a bit of a slog.

Have you ever talked to someone who is telling you a story, but then goes off on a ton of tangents (ostensibly to give you background history and context to make the story come alive) but instead it results in you not even really remembering the purpose of the story, or (if you can remember it) it's ultimately kind of a let down when they get done because the climax of the story could never live up to that endless build up ? That's kind of what reading this book is like.

In other words, this book is perhaps TOO meticulously researched. Because the author (admirably) sticks to the known facts (and there aren't many) the actual story of the shipwreck and aftermath isn't a very long tale. Instead the book is largely fleshed out by related details, which means the book is at times struggling to find forward momentum. For example, when a person who will board the ship walks down the street, you hear about the history of the street, the history of people who work in that area, the family history of the walker, etc. It's so much information that by the end of the passage you're left wondering, "What were we talking about? Oh yeah A GUY WALKED DOWN A STREET."

Not surprisingly, I liked the middle section of the book the best because it focuses on the events in question. While the factual details were light, the story itself is still compelling. However, for me beginning of the book (context, context and more context) and the ending (I didn't really care or need to know the family history of the woman who bandaged the legs of the lone shipwreck survivor) both dragged.

Thanks to the author and NetGalley for granting me the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

I received this ARC from NetGalley. I enjoy reading nonfiction and this book's description caught my eye. It is an account of the sinking of a small ship in 1856, as a result of hitting an iceberg. The main attraction is the first person account by the only survivor. The research Brian Murphy had to do is admirable, and the main story of the survival is what kept me reading, however I found the incredibly detailed information regarding the shipping industry at that time to be too distracting. If you're interested in learning more about that time period then this book could be one you would enjoy.

This book was very interesting! It was slow paced which I kept wanting to stop reading! But I did read the whole thing. It ended up being quite intriguing.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own

Very good read in the vein of the Heart of the Sea! Able to portray factual events in a manner that holds interest.

This non-fiction book was wonderfully written. The history through out this novel is spun almost like a work of fiction. I really enjoyed the authors tone of writing. It was fabulously done. The author did a great job of showing the Victorian era compared to the current era in which we live. The whole learning experience was well done in a way that wasn't boring or felt like it just rattled on. I stayed intrigued on the subject matter and actually ended up researching it after i finished reading this. The only small complaint i had was that it felt like it strayed a bit at times, however it wasn't bad enough to where i had to sit the book down or skim read. Overall 4 stars!

A true account of the sinking of a small ship by an iceberg. In one of the life boats are 13 passengers. One of them is Thomas Nye. Having to endure the freezing conditions without food or water, is a tragic ordeal. Of the 13 in the lifeboat only one survives. The freezing conditions and the terrible thirst, has led most of the people to drink sea water. Nye has warned them of the detriment. They would not listen.
Some died quietly in their sleep. Some out of delirium, due to drinking sea water. On February 29, Nye is rescued by the Germania. He is the only survivor.
4 Stars

_Adrift_ is several books melded together into one masterfully crafted history. It's the story of desperate Irish families suffering the hell of travelling in "steerage" for a chance at a better life in the New World. It's the story of the packet lines competing for scheduled cargo and passenger service between Europe and America in an age when steam was rendering sail obsolete. It's the story of icebergs sinking ships in the North Atlantic long before the Titanic--a manifest and proven danger rendering that later sinking even more inexcusable. And it's the story of death and unlikely survival in horrendous conditions.

_Adrift_ is well-written and, although it sounds trite, reads like a novel. A good novel. The narrative strands are woven together professionally, and we come to know the people the author focuses on as though they were sell-rounded fictional characters, although their sources are actual documents and letters. Murphy adopts a much appreciated convention of inventing dialogue to represent what the individuals might have said, and indicating such speculation by not placing such statements in quotes.

An amazing and harrowing tale of the sea and its aftermath of a lone survivor. Powerful and compelling we learn the history of this wreck and its impact not only on the survivor but on those that were left behind

I'm thrilled by non-fiction survival literature (it was my senior thesis in college), so this should've been exactly my kind of book. Guys, I'm sorry, but I hated this. The pacing is terrible and keeps breaking you out of the action to give you footnotes about history, and there's WAY too much backstory and end story and far too little of the critical event that is supposed to be central to the book. As a bonus, the editing and formatting were also awful.

If you're looking for a book that really captures the limits of human endurance and the capacity for the survival spirit, may I recommend the following:
Adrift: Seventy-Six Days Lost at Sea by Steven Callahan
And I Alone Survived by Lauren Elder
Touching the Void: The True Story of One Man's Miraculous Survival by Joe Simpson
Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mount Everest Disaster by Jon Krakauer
Deep Survival: Who Lives, Who Dies, and Why by Laurence Gonzales

While reading like fiction in many parts, this is a well-researched account of the sinking of the John Rutledge in 1856. Based on the first hand account of the only survivor, this was a grueling look at survival at sea. The author fleshed out the story with historical information regarding other losses at sea, and the subsequent changes made to increase ship safety. Very interesting!