by Dean King
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Product Description
Some stories are so enthralling they deserve to be retold generation after generation. The wreck in 1815 of the Connecticut merchant ship, Commerce, and the subsequent ordeal of its crew in the Sahara Desert, is one such story. With Skeletons on the Zahara: A True Story of Survival, Dean King refreshes the popular nineteenth-century narrative once read and admired by Henry David Thoreau, James Fenimore Cooper, and Abraham Lincoln. King's version, which actually draws from two separate first person accounts of the Commerce's crew, offers a page-turning blend of science, history, and classic adventure. The book begins with a seeming false start: tracing the lives of two merchants from North Africa, Seid and Sidi Hamet, who lose their fortunes—and almost their lives—when their massive camel caravan arrives at a desiccated oasis. King then jumps to the voyage of the Commerce under Captain Riley and his 11-man crew. After stops in New Orleans and Gibraltar, the ship falls off course en route to the Canary Islands and ultimately wrecks at the infamous Cape Bojador. After the men survive the first predations of the nomads on the shore, they meander along the coast looking for a way inland as their supplies dwindle. They subsist for days by drinking their own urine. Eventually, to their horror, they discover that they have come aground on the edge of the Sahara Desert. They submit themselves, with hopes of getting food and water, as slaves to the Oulad Bou Sbaa. After days of abuse, they are bought by Hamet, who, after his own experiences with his failed caravan (described at the novels opening), sympathizes with the plight of the crew. Together, they set off on a hellish journey across the desert to collect a bounty for Hamet in Swearah.King embellishes this compelling narrative throughout with scientific and historical material explaining the origins of the camel, the market for English and American slaves, and the stages of dehydration. He also humanizes the Sahrawi with background on the tribes and on the lives of Hamet and Seid. This material, doled out in sufficient amounts to enrich the story without derailing it makes Skeletons on the Zahara a perfectly entertaining bit of history that feels like a guilty pleasure.--Patrick O'Kelley
Amazon.com
Some stories are so enthralling they deserve to be retold generation after generation. The wreck in 1815 of the Connecticut merchant ship, Commerce, and the subsequent ordeal of its crew in the Sahara Desert, is one such story. With Skeletons on the Zahara: A True Story of Survival, Dean King refreshes the popular nineteenth-century narrative once read and admired by Henry David Thoreau, James Fenimore Cooper, and Abraham Lincoln. King’s version, which actually draws from two separate first person accounts of the Commerce's crew, offers a page-turning blend of science, history, and classic adventure. The book begins with a seeming false start: tracing the lives of two merchants from North Africa, Seid and Sidi Hamet, who lose their fortunes—and almost their lives—when their massive camel caravan arrives at a desiccated oasis. King then jumps to the voyage of the Commerce under Captain Riley and his 11-man crew. After stops in New Orleans and Gibraltar, the ship falls off course en route to the Canary Islands and ultimately wrecks at the infamous Cape Bojador. After the men survive the first predations of the nomads on the shore, they meander along the coast looking for a way inland as their supplies dwindle. They subsist for days by drinking their own urine. Eventually, to their horror, they discover that they have come aground on the edge of the Sahara Desert. They submit themselves, with hopes of getting food and water, as slaves to the Oulad Bou Sbaa. After days of abuse, they are bought by Hamet, who, after his own experiences with his failed caravan (described at the novels opening), sympathizes with the plight of the crew. Together, they set off on a hellish journey across the desert to collect a bounty for Hamet in Swearah. King embellishes this compelling narrative throughout with scientific and historical material explaining the origins of the camel, the market for English and American slaves, and the stages of dehydration. He also humanizes the Sahrawi with background on the tribes and on the lives of Hamet and Seid. This material, doled out in sufficient amounts to enrich the story without derailing it makes Skeletons on the Zahara a perfectly entertaining bit of history that feels like a guilty pleasure. --Patrick O'Kelley
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Average Customer Review:
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
Terrifying True Story of Survival, 2008-07-17
Skeletons on the Zahara was one of the most amazing survival stories I have ever read. What an awesome account of living as a slave amongst the Arab nomads in the early 1800's. Camel spiders, sand storms, dehydration, starvation, abuse, incredible heat...how could anyone live through all that? Yikes! If you are looking for a great read, this is it!
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
Skeltons On The Zahara, 2008-07-06
Hollywood couldn't create a movie with as much intensity as this true tale of suffering. Follow a group of shipwrecked sailors as they trek across the Zahara, mere chattel of their cruel captors. If you enjoy a tale of overcoming adversity tenfold, then this book will fit the bill nicely. Keep a tall, cold drink handy.
0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
amazing tale of survival, 2008-04-04
This story of survival of members of a shipwrecked crew in the mid-1800s is truly astounding, sold into slavery they are forced to survive in the incredibly harsh environment of the western Sahara. An interesting account of the daily lives of the people who scratch a living out of this barren landscape
0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
A fiction-reader's review, 2008-02-25
This review is intended for people who, like me, typically avoid non-fiction. It's a character flaw, I know, but I couldn't even point you to the non-fiction sections of my local bookstores.
However, the subject matter of Skeletons--desert survival--intrigued me. The gorgeous cover with the elongated shadows of a caravan plodding over the dunes didn't hurt either.
The book was well worth leaving my comfort zone. I pestered my wife with mind-boggling factoids and stranger-than-fiction events drawn from nearly every chapter as I read, but the real beauty of the experience was that I was enthralled by the sensual descriptions of the captives' plight; I gained a vast appreciation for the water bottle I nursed while reading.
Perhaps the greatest draw for the fiction-reader, however, was the suspense the author managed to generate regarding a deal brokered between the captain and one would-be savior. Naturally, I knew at least two characters would survive the ordeal, and admittedly, I never came to care as much for most of the other sailors as I might have in a fictionalized version of the story. However, the outcome of Captain Riley's bargain of faith kept me guessing, and I felt every pang of guilt and uncertainty right along with him.
I have to admit overcoming an interest-curve (if such a thing exists) in the text preceding the shipwreck. A lot of names, dates, and locations flew right by me: I was in this for the adventure, and the first 50-or-so pages plodded a bit for me. I now view that portion of the experience like the gradual exposition in many great novels and films; the non-fiction approach to setting and character development.
I really did love this book, and recommend it to those who feel intimidated by any stacks but Fiction. Maybe we'll bump into each other making those first tentative steps into the other aisles of the bookstore!
3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
Barbarism, cruelty and sand, lots of sand. , 2008-02-09
This is an extraordinarily depressing, horrific account of severe hardship suffered by a few American seamen shipwrecked on the Western African coast in 1815, and subsequently enslaved by an Arab tribe. It's apparently a true account, pieced together from diaries and simple recollections of the crew, held as slaves over several months during a sojourn through the desert amounting to a few hundred miles. Although at times revolting, the book provides a very detailed account of the living conditions and customs of these simple Arab tribes who literally scratch out an existence in the harsh, unforgiving climate of the Western Sahara.
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