Access Lost At Sea: The Truth Behind Eight Of Historys Most Mysterious Ship Disasters Executed By A.A. Hoehling Provided As Digital

re read of some of the best of the ships that went down with no idea as to the why An excellent read, I never realized how many ships of all kinds and their occupants had been lost at sea, some never to be seen again, Technical in parts but very easy to read, If Walter Lord's name is inevitably linked by at least two books dealing with the sinking of RMS Tiganic, that of A, A. Hoehling is similarly linked to one classic account of the sinking of RMS Lusitania, "The Last Voyage of the Lusitania", written with his wife Mary Hoehling in the lates shortly after Lord's "A Night to Remember".
Hoehling unlike Lord never wrote a second book on it's own returning to the Lusitania, but it reappears in the books Hoehling wrote about the war at sea in World War I, in his book "The Sailed into Oblivion", and this volume.
It's obvious that he never could stop discussing the tragedy of the Old Head at Kinsale, Ireland of May,, anymore than Lord could stop thinking of the events of April.
But like Lord's second Titanic Book "The Night Lives On", which I have reviewed here Hoehling did try to retell the tragedy of the sinking of the Cunard liner differently or slightly differently each time.
Of course he was not trying to change his comments from the original book, but he might see some aspect that needed further probing,

"Lost at Sea" is a collection of eight essays by Hoehling this time without Mary on ship tragedies that required some comment because of lingering questions about them.
In this volume the "Lusitania" is looked at from the point of view of the seeming failure of it's well trained Captain, William Turner, in following Admiralty instructions, As the "Lusitania" was reaching the coast of Ireland, it received word from the Admiralty not to sail straight along the coast of Ireland, Reports of submarine activities in the Irish Sea had been reaching London for nearly three days, and these included attacks on several vessels, and the sinking of two steamers, All of this proved to be the work of Kapitanlieutenant Walther Schweiger of U, who was showing exactly why he was one of the Kaiser's best sub commanders, The Admiralty telegram to Turner told him to sail a zigzag course in mid channel, away from the Irish coast, and to continue doing so until he reached the port of Liverpool.
While one can never be fully sure of whether or not a suggested alternative course of action would have worked, somehow this seems to have been quite promising in guaranteeing that the "Lucy" would arrive safely.
Instead however of following this, Turner brought the ship closer to the Irish coast to take a bearing his explanation in the court of inquiry before following the instructions, Of course, as he slowed down the ship to do this, it enabled the everwatchful Schweiger to get his torpedo course ready and to send one into the British liner.
Perhaps to us this seems quite a technical point, but it helped cost the loss of,lives and later would help propel the U, S. into World War I. Hoehling ends the discussion wondering what was going on inside of Captain Turner, As mentioned he was an experienced man of the sea, and not given to stupid blunders, But what happened on that fatal afternoon of Mayth In the end Hoehling points out that reading the transcript of the court of inquiry, Turner appears to contradict himself several times.
He admitted he actually did not have any excuse, and Hoehling if he had some physical problem like high blood pressure or a minor stroke that may have caused him to "lose his bearings" quite literally.
We shall never know, but Hoehling's suggestion is quite provocative,

The other seven ships that Hoehling deals with are the "Mary Celeste", the "Warahtah", the HMS Hampshire, the USS Cyclops, the SS Morro Castle, the USS Scorpiion, and the USS Poet.
All of these ships have been subject to serious book study most notably the "Mary Celeste" and the "Morro Castle", but all are well known ship disasters possibly the loss of the container ship USS Poet inis least known today.
Several disappeared without any traces ever being found most notably the Waratah, the Cyclops, and the Poet, Wreckage of the Scorpion was located, but the reason for the submarine's sinking with all hands is still a matter of debate not as simple as that of USS Thresher induring test dives off Massachusetts.
. The Morro Castle is the subject of a classic account by Gordon Thomas and Max Gordon Witt, "Fire at Sea", and is really what caused the fire, and who set it.
As for the Hampshire, it is the British cruiser that was heading for Tsarist Russia on a mission involving the British Secretary of War Lord Kitchener, and it hit a mine and sank taking most of herplus crew down with her off the Orkney Islands Kitchener included in June, a couple of days after the battle of Jutland.
Was she a really accidental victim of the war at sea, that just happened to have a national figure on board, or was she actually targeted by the German Navy in an effort to kill an important enemy figure

It helps to have a background in these disasters which is why the last, about the loss of USS Poet, is possibly the weakest of the ships chosen.
All still regularly are found to be discussed by ship experts and panels even to having videos on YouTube done on them, Mary Celeste is usually considered the greatest mystery of the sea, Just what happened to Captain Benjamin Spooner Briggs, his wife and infant daughter, and the crew of the hermaphrodite brig, which was found sailing abandoned off the Azores in December, ironically by the ship "Dei Gratia", whose Captain Moorhouse knew Briggs in New York City.
Was this a case of accident, as many believe, or of murder and piracy at sea as was suspected by the British Government's chief investigator at Gibraltar, the Hon, Solly Flood. Nothing was ever really established, and Hoehling points out something here not in the other accounts I've read that the ship's log was supposedly sent after being used by Flood at Gibraltar in the inquest to the U.
S. representative at Genoa, but that it's final fate is still a matter of question,

The loss of SS Warahtah off the coast of South Africa inhas been termed the "Titanic of the South Seas" or of Australia where it came from.
A recent medium sized steamer between Australia and Britain, it was on it's third voyage inwhen it left Durban, but entered a severe storm and never was seen again.
It's total crew and passengers oversouls were lost, Yet earlier travelers mentioned serious problems of buoyancy experienced on board, and one passenger had a recurring nightmare three days in a row before having had enough and disembarking at Durban, to continue travelling by train to Cape Town this gentleman was one of the few passengers who left Australia who survived! Attempts were being made until aboutby sea explorers like Clive Custler to look for wreck of the Waratah.
. None have ever succeeded.

Cyclops was an American naval collier, one of four built about, Ironically it and two of it's sister ships all eventually disappeared the other two in World War II, and the fourth was transformed into the U, S. Navy's first aircraft carrier, the USS Langley sunk in, Cyclops is a bit like Warahtah in that it's design was a bit top heavy due to equitment used when loading and unloading the ship if you don't know, a "collier" is used as a naval supply vessel, that either transports material needed by our naval craft supplies, coal, etc.
that is unloaded onto those ships, or transports some needed supplies to the U, S. from foreign ports. In Februaryit was in Rio de Janairo loaded with manganese for delivery in the U, S. , as well as our counsul general who was returning home, Mr, Louis Gottschalk the grandson of theth Century composer and pianist, It's captain Worley was something of an eccentric, who was of German birth, Later it was hinted that the ship was handed over to the Germans but after the war recofds were combed and there was no report of it's final fate, As it was sailing past Bermuda in Marchbefore it vanished it has become listed as another vessel that was a victim of the Bermuda Triangle, It's more likely it sank in a sudden storm or was torpedoed but if the

latter, why no record,

The Morro Castle was a successful cruise ship between Cuba and New York City, that caught fire on a return voyage in September, it's captain died suddenly the night before the fire, and his body never was found after the burned out hulk drifted to the Jersey Coast, Was the Captain's death natural and just that, or was he poisoned, and by whom, There had been labor problems by the crew on the voyage, and Communists were suspected, Finally the surviving officers did such a lousy job in the panic and fire that overpeople died, The one outstanding piece of service was by the telegraph operator George Rogers who became the sole hero of the tragedy, But in later years something was shown to be wrong with Rogers, who used explosive and incendiary devices to injure enemies of his, and who ended in prison for life where he died for a double homicide.
To this day many wonder if Rogers, far from being the hero ofnewspapers was actually one of the most lethal mass killers in world history,

The USS Scorpion disappeared in the middle of the Atlantic, apparently when following some Russian naval craft, As mentioned earlier her wreckage was eventually found in, but she had been blown apart under water and it looked like one of her own torpedoes caused the disaster, Nothing has ever been fully explained what happened, but it appears that she may have been destroyed in the course of shooting off the torpedoe which for some reason turned back on her.
A government wall of silence has followed the tragical discovery and examination of the wreckage, Hoehling in his notes on the chapter shows that he has also faced opposition from the families of the crew in getting any information on the incident out of them

As for the Poet, it got lost in some natural disaster, but it's details are as buried in it's way as the Scorpion, the Cyclops, or Waratah.
Again it is the least interesting of the ships dealt with which is unfair to it's dead crew, Possibly another ship maybe the USS Maine, perhaps could have been substituted for it, But Hoehling chose his own material, for better or worse,

On the whole the book is well researched and written, and seven of the choices remain major sea mysteries, I have no problem recommending this volume to readers who love mysteries, the sea, and the ships that are part of it's lore, A good brief of the eight, but asks more questions than it answers, I still enjoyed it. Well researched, straightforward. "Lost at Sea" features the incredible stories of eight ships and their passengers, some of which vanished with hardly a trace or no trace at all, Veteran history and mystery writer A, A. Hoehling explores these previously unexplained maritime mishaps with the skill of a detective seeking to uncover a murderer, .