"The Wreck of the William Brown.....A True Tale of Overcrowded Lifeboats and
Murder at Sea." By Tom Koch

Not read it yet, but the press teaser that McGraw Hill sent with the book
sounds fascinating.

Begins:

Seventy-one years before the loss of the Titanic, another ship sank in almost
the same spot after striking an iceberg at maximum speed. Three-quarters of the
passengers- poor, mostly Irish immigrants- were lost, including at least
fourteen who were thrown from a lifeboat to lighten it. Not a single sailor
died.

In "The Wreck of the William Brown (March 2004; Hardcover, $22.95) what begins
as a simple story of hard choices in the wake of a maritime disaster soon
becomes a narrative of politics and greed.

Its hull puncured, the William Bronw was abandoned over a period of two hours.
The longboat and jollyboat, the ship's only two lifesaving craft, could hold
when overfull perhaps half the ship's passengers and crew. The rest were left
to drown.

The day after the wreck, Captain George Harris sailed his jollyboat, with a
crew of eight, to Newfoundland. The longboat, with nine crewmen and 32
passengers under the direction of first mate Francis Rhodes, was left behind.
Its rudder was damaged and it could not follow.

That night, fearing the boat would be swamped it was so full, Rhodes ordered
his men to "lighten the boat" by throwing over fourteen persons. The sailors,
including Alexander William Holmes, a 26-year-old Swedish seaman, followed
orders. The next morning, two more were dispatched. Only one sailor, John
Messer, demurred.

When the survivors finally made their way to the United States (after resuce by
a passing ship bound for Le Havre, France) Alexander William Holmes was
arrested on charges of murder, later amended to manslaughter. He was tried and
convicted the following spring after spending nine months in jail. The
attendant press over the incidents following the sinking, and the subsequent
trial of Holmes in Philadelphia in 1842 twisted the horrific events into that
of heroism and bravery, of the complex duties of sailors following orders to
save passengers from a cold and watery grave. Writes Koch "The moral of the
William Brown, and the Titanic, should be that we can make sure there are
enough lifeboats for all, and perhpas, that we can avoid the necessity of their
use. In this way, the metaphor of the lifeboat stands not as an excuse but as
an indictment of the constructions that assure the scarcity that appears to
pervade our world."

Tom Koch is a widely published writer and the author of eleven books. A
lifelong sailor, he skippers a 35-foot Beneteau sloop, the James Boswell,
throughout the Pacific Northwest. A longtime journalist, Tom Koch has worked
for or written for a range of newspapers, magazines, and broadcasters including
the CBC, UPI, and the Toronto Globe and Mail. His current appointments include
positions at the University of British Columbia and Simon Fraser University in
Vancouver, where he is also associated with the David Lam Centre for
International Communications. He divides his time between popular writing,
academic writing on medical ethics and bioethics, and client care

Press teaser ends.