A Crown of Stars by Shana Abe

May 19, 2026

A Crown of Stars by Shana Abe

English actress Rita Jolivet is starring in one of the new motion pictures, but after she appears at the movie's New York premiere, a family emergency calls her home to England. She hurries to book passage on the first ship leaving New York and considers herself extremely lucky to be able to book one of the last available cabins on the Lusitania, especially when she finds both her brother-in-law and her agent are also aboard.

Almost everyone knows about the Titanic, but most people would be hard pressed to tell you anything about the Lusitania, Cunard's flagship liner. While Titanic sank due to a series of poor decisions and an unstoppable force of nature, the sinking of the Lusitania was a war crime. The ship was torpedoed by a German u-boat about a mile off the coast of Ireland in the middle of the afternoon. They were supposed to receive an escort of British destroyers to see them safely into harbor, but for some reason, the escort never materialized. Some historians maintain that the British prime minister knew that the Germans had threatened to sink the Lusitania but did nothing about it because he felt that was the only way to draw the United States into the war, due to the high number of Americans traveling aboard the Lusitania. There were British war ships in the area after the ship was torpedoed, but they did not go to the assistance of the survivors in the water because they feared that there were still German submarines in the area trying to draw them out to be torpedoed. Instead, the Irish fishing fleet as well as other private citizens went to the aid of the survivors, pulling as many as they could from the icy Atlantic waters, offering them shelter and basic necessities, and later collecting as many bodies as they could find.

The main character Rita Jolivet was a real person, as were many of the characters in the book. She was a rising actress in the new moving picture industry, and she survived the ship's sinking. The descriptions of the aftermath are horrendous. Highly recommended for readers of historical fiction.

The Lusitania

Rita Jolivet

The Wager: a Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder by David Grann

January 4, 2024

The Wager: a Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder by David Grann

HMS Wager sailed from England in 1740, part of a convoy that was sailing for Cape Horn at the southern tip of South America. The ship wrecked off the coast of South America, and the surviving crew members were marooned on a barren island that came to be known as Wager Island. But dissension rose among the survivors, and the crew split into two parts, both groups with a plan to escape the island and return to England. In 1742, the remnants of one group washed up in Brazil. They were hailed as brave heroes and returned to England in 1747. But then three officers from the Wager arrived in England in 1747. They told a much different story, insisting that the other crew members were not heroes but mutineers. And there began a story of they-said, they-said.

There is a saying that there are no atheists in a foxhole, and I'm pretty sure the same is true for a lifeboat. The Wager seems like it was a particularly unlucky, plagued by death, illness, superstition, constant storms, and strange accidents (maybe it was the name? Even though the Wager was named after a person, a wager is a bet). The survivors' saga reminded me of The Lord of the Flies. John (Jack) Byron, who eventually rose to vice admiral and was the grandfather of the poet Lord Byron, was a 15 year old midshipman on the Wager. Patrick O'Brian based his novel The Unknown Shore on Byron's journal from his time on the Wager. Recommended for history fans. (FYI, Cape Horn is at the tip of South America where the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans converge, and the seas in this area are said to be like a giant washing machine).

Cape Horn, Chile

The Lost Boys of Montauk by Amanda M. Fairbanks

March 22, 2021

The Lost Boys of Montauk: the True Story of the Wind Blown, Four Men who Vanished at Sea, and the Survivors They Left Behind by Amanda M. Fairbanks

In 1984, the fishing vessel Wind Blown sank in a storm off the coast of Long Island. The boat and the crewmembers were never found. The author researched the crew's backgrounds and interviewed their survivors.

This is a well-researched account of the tragedy as well as an examination of the shift of Montauk from working-class town to vacation spot for the wealthy. Although similar circumstances, there have been unfair comparison to Sebastian Junger's The Perfect Storm. This is the story of a tragedy in its own right, and the story has been largely overlooked. 

Montauk lighthouse

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing an eARC.