Survive the Savage Sea
By Dougal Robertson
224 pp. 36 line drawings, 3 photos. 1994. Paperback. $14.95
ISBN 0 924486 73 2
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In June 1972, killer whales attacked the 43-foot schooner LUCETTE. It sank within 60 seconds; what followed constitutes a staggering tale of survival. In an inflatable rubber raft towed by a 9-foot fiberglass dinghy, Dougal Robertson and his family floated miles from any shipping lanes. They had only three days' worth of emergency rations and no map, compass, or instruments of any kind. Eventually, they even lost their raft, and had to cram into the tiny dinghy.
For weeks on end they battled against 20-foot waves, marauding sharks, thirst, starvation, and exhaustion as they drifted through the vast reaches of the Pacific. Their determination shines through the pages of this extraordinary tale, which movingly describes their daily hopes and fears, their crises and triumphs.
“For stark excitement, marine natural history, practical lessons, and human love and stresses, few records, if any, of hazard and survival have ever bettered it.” —Washington Post
“…[a] well-written account…an unexpectedly personal view of a man's physical and a woman's emotional courage that, when bonded, produced the strength to survive.” —Sailing
“[The Robertsons] survived and their tale is a triumph of human resource and determination against terrible odds.” —Cruising World
“Unique, fascinating, magnificent!” —Samuel Eliot Morison
About the Author:
Dougal Robertson was born in Scotland in 1924 and spent World War II in the Merchant Marine. He and his wife Lyn lived on a farm in England for a number of years before deciding to go on a circumnavigation with their children.