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Type of bind: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 910.91631
EAN num: 9781585742875
ISBN number: 1585742872
Label: The Lyons Press
Manufacturer: The Lyons Press
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 192
Printing Date: April 01, 2001
Publishing house: The Lyons Press
Sale Popularity Level: 121943
Studio: The Lyons Press
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Product Description:
Here is one of the great storytellers of our time reporting the hair-raising rescue missions of a deep-sea salvage tug that saved hundreds of lives during two decades of service.
In Grey Seas Under, Farley Mowat writes passionately of the courage of men and of a small, ocean-going salvage tug, Foundation Franklin. From 1930 until her final voyage in 1948, the stalwart tug's dangerous mission was to rescue sinking ships, very first searching for them in perilous waters and then bringing them back to shore. Battered by towering waves, dwarfed by the great ships she towed, blasted by gale-force winds and frozen by squalls of snow and rain, Foundation Franklin and her brave crew saved hundreds of vessels and thousands of lives as they patrolled the North Atlantic, including waters patrolled by U-boats in wartime.
Mowat spent two years gathering this material and sailed on some of the missions he describes. The result is a modern epic-a vigorous, dramatic picture of the eternal battle between men and the cruel sea.
User popularity level:
Rated by buyers -
i was given this book in 1964 and started reading it at about 9pm and didn`t finish until 5am. i`ve never forgotten it and thought i would see if it was still in print and wow! they are still printing it. (in 2001) i reread it and it is still one of the most exciting books and timeless..both men and women will like it. read it and enjoy, marti
Rated by buyers 
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What a story! The ads on the back state this to be the predecessor of the Perfect Storm. I don't think that is the case but the story is great. The Leicester leaves London, and rides out two hurricanes. At the end of the second hurricane-the ballast shifts and the ship takes on a terrible list. The crew rides out the hurricane on her, and then hails two other freighters and abandons ship. The ship then travels on a southerly direction until spotted by a salvage tug. This and another salvage tug take Leicester to Bermuda where she endures another hurricane and is beached with the salvage tug. The last chapter details the salvage of both the ship and tug. This was indeed the ship that wouldn't sink.
This is a nice little story that will keep the reader's interest.
A Perfect Storm is so much more dramatic that I wouldn't rate this book as highly as that. It is an interesting read.
Rated by buyers -
Farley Mowat had already written a book titled "The Boat Who Wouldn't Float," so he could very easily have called this volume, "The Ship Who Wouldn't Sink."
"The Serpent's Coil" is a companion book to "Grey Seas Under" and continues the story of ocean-going salvage tug operations in the Atlantic. "Grey Seas Under" chronicled the adventures of the tugboat `Foundation Franklin' before and during World War II. "The Serpent's Coil" takes place after the war and tells the tale of ships battered by the consuming fury of not one but three hurricanes (the "serpent's coil" of the title) in the autumn of 1948.
The author blends mystery, life-and-death adventure, and humour in his tale of rescue and salvage operations on `the Great Western Ocean.' The mystery centers around the disappearance of so many ex-wartime Liberty freighters in mid-ocean. Most of them were in ballast when they vanished, and it was assumed but never proven that shifting ballast caused the freighters to turn turtle and sink so quickly that no message could be transmitted on the `how' or `why' of their plight.
`Leicester' was an ex-Liberty freighter fitted out in peace-time rig, newly under the command of Captain Hamish Lawson. He met his ship for the very first time while she was taking ballast---"a sludge of sand and gravel dredged from the bottom of the [Thames]"---in preparation for a voyage to New York. Lawson had originally been scheduled to take command of another ex-Liberty freighter (called Sam-ships by the sailors, because they were built for the wartime Lend Lease program by `Uncle Sam'), but the `Samkey' had disappeared on route to Cuba. "'Leicester' was the twin sister to `Samkey'; built in the same yards, to the identical design. The only difference was that she was younger by a year..."
Captain Lawson's freighter was halfway between Ireland and Nova Scotia on the Great Circle route to New York when the very first storm struck. `Leicester' rolled more than her Master liked, but she weathered the gale easily enough. His main worry was the ship's malfunctioning radio, without which he couldn't receive weather reports or transmit his own position. The Atlantic was not a good place to be in the middle of the hurricane season, without a radio.
Sure enough on the morning of September 14th, the crew of the `Leicester' found themselves sailing under another threatening sky:
"Lawson watched the ominous grey arch [of the hurricane bar] for a quarter of an hour, and even during this short interval it seemed to grow, humping up from the horizon, spreading east and west. Above it, and around the hemisphere of sky, the high clouds were thickening, growing more opaque. A light, aimless breeze that seemed to come erratically from every point of the compass had begun to play about the ship. Lawson noticed that there were no gulls or other seabirds anywhere in sight."
The Sam-ship tried to dodge the hurricane, but it was much too late for such maneuvers. Within the hour, `Leicester' found herself enmeshed in the roaring hell of "The Serpent's Coil."
Mowat certainly knows how to tell a suspenseful sea story! The rest of his book describes the travails of `Leicester' as she founders but does not sink amidst the coils of the very first hurricane. Her adventures afterward are entwined with those of the salvage and rescue tugs, `Foundation Lillian' and `Foundation Josephine,' plus another, even more savage hurricane that struck while the Sam-ship lay helplessly at what was supposed to be a safe mooring.
"The Serpent's Coil" and its even more exciting companion, "Grey Seas Under" are gripping testaments to the daring and skill of Canada's master seamen. Even the sections of these books that were strictly concerned with salvage operations kept me reading ahead at full steam.
Rated by buyers -
Farley Mowat ,The Dean of the Canadian outdoor Writers, at the top of his form. If you've ever wondered what it was like to work on an Ocean going Tug Boat this is the book for you. Mr. Mowat uses his wartime experience and makes the men and vessels seem to have a life of their own. It's all done in a style that make putting this book down subsequent to impossible. Be sure to have a turtleneck sweater and a steaming mug of Grog available because as you read this account of Maritime Tug's out of Canada you'll be chilled to the bone but kept warm by quickly turning pages.
Rated by buyers -
True account of North Atlantic deep sea salvage.Men and equipment routinely battle impossible odds and harrowing conditions to save stricken ships. Reads like fiction.
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