E-grāmata: Sea of Misadventures: Shipwreck and Survival in Early America

This book could be subtitled "A Cultural History of Shipwrecks." It looks at many documented shipwreck narratives from the early modernity to the nineteenth century and examines the ways in which these stories--widely distributed and read at the time--affected the development of the early American society, its values and behavior in religious and racial context. Interesting subjects discussed here include the sometimes counterintuitive survival rates, affected by gender, social class and race; the effects these narratives had on the legal issues of loss and ruin; the role religion played in both survival and the attitudes concomitant with it, including moral judgments and interpretations of the outcomes. Stories of cannibalism are discussed, together with their impact on the general, public morality of the contemporary society. Finally, a comparison with the Portuguese narratives of similar events is provided, contrasting it with the English-language ones and providing interesting starting points for further, cross-cultural research. Annotation ©2014 Ringgold, Inc., Portland, OR (protoview.com)

A Sea of Misadventures examines more than one hundred documented shipwreck narratives from the seventeenth to the nineteenth century as a means to understanding gender, status, and religion in the history of early America. Though it includes all the drama and intrigue afforded by maritime disasters, the book's significance lies in its investigation of how the trauma of shipwreck affected American values and behavior. Through stories of death and devastation, Amy Mitchell-Cook examines issues of hierarchy, race, and gender when the sphere of social action is shrunken to the dimensions of a lifeboat or deserted shore.
Rather than debate the veracity of shipwreck tales, Mitchell-Cook provides a cultural and social analysis that places maritime disasters within the broader context of North American society. She answers questions that include who survived and why, how did gender or status affect survival rates, and how did survivors relate their stories to interested but unaffected audiences?
Mitchell-Cook observes that, in creating a sense of order out of chaotic events, the narratives reassured audiences that anarchy did not rule the waves, even when desperate survivors resorted to cannibalism. Some of the accounts she studies are legal documents required by insurance companies, while others have been a form of prescriptive literature--guides that taught survivors how to act and be remembered with honor. In essence, shipwreck revealed some of the traits that defined what it meant to be Anglo-American. In an elaboration of some of the themes, Mitchell-Cook compares American narratives with Portuguese narratives to reveal the power of divergent cultural norms to shape so basic an event as a shipwreck.