caribbean

A journalistic look at a cruise shipwreck caused by Hurricane Mitch, Carrier's book delves into the history of the Fantome, an old tall ship that sank with 30 men aboard due to bad luck and, in hindsight, a misplaced desire to save property at the expense of human life. Larded with too much inane chatter saved off the Internet while the drama played out, the book is further flawed by excess padding about the storm's aftermath on the obscure western Caribbean islands where the Fantome sailed. Too long by a third, the tale needed a sharper editor. Still, what Carrier conveys about the ship and its Miami-based company is compelling enough to make up for his reporter's tendancy to include too much unnecessary flotsam about what survivors dreamed as their loved ones died, what the dead men left as their last requests, and what the howling storm sounded like to the many British and American expats who dug holes in the ground to wait out Mitch on islands devastated by the Category 5 storm. What the book makes clear is how stupid the management of Windjammer Cruises was for not canceling the boat's final cruise before the storm got out of control. Evidently, there were many opportunities for the crew to anchor and let the storm possibly damage the ornate boat, but at least their lives would have been saved. Comparisons with "The Perfect Storm" are silly. Both books are interesting reads. So what if this one followed the bigger bestseller? It is overlooked, but should not be.

Jim Carrier's detailed description of the events leading to the tragic sinking of the Fantome and his insight into the lives of her crew, make this book a memorial to those sailors that were lost at sea when the Fantome disappeared during the 1998 hurricane named Mitch. This interesting and fact based account is a must for those that sailed on the Fantome for the pleasure of the sea and island adventures, and to all those interested in weather and it's effect on our lives.

This book was unique in that in went into detail on what went on in the minds and decisions of forecasters at the National Hurricane Center, as well as specific details on the meteorological events of Hurricane Mitch. I enjoyed the book's arrangement of detailed events aboard Fantome, with an intermittent change to events with Mitch, and events at the NHC and Windjammer management. Very suspenseful and detailed. Good sea adventure.