Explores the lives of survivors who were shipwrecked, banished, or abandoned during the past several centuries.

For readers who relish the image of clinging to a sinking makeshift raft while fighting off sword wielding and delirious mutineers wrenching the last cask of water from a sailor's sun scorched hands (while sharks circle in famished anticipation), Shipwrecked! Adventures and Disasters at Sea is an irresistible read. A heady voyage through human suffering at the hands of unforgiving oceans, cruel captains, and implacable fate, this latest collection of Evan Balkan's impeccably researched true adventures details 14 major maritime disasters. Included are such legendary stories as the 1629 maiden voyage of the Batavia that ended in mutiny and murder, and the dramatic destruction of the majestic three masted barquentine Endurance in ice clogged Antarctic waters in 1912. A vast spectrum of human emotion and activity is featured in these exciting profiles, from deadly incompetence and brutish cannibalism to surprising self sacrifice and quiet heroism.

The 40 short reflections in this book address the ways in which we face the prospect of death and loss. The first 20 reflections are designed to be read by (or to) anyone living with a life-threatening illness; the other 20 are reflections on living with grief, especially bereavement. Each reflection is based on a single story drawn from one of three sources: Dr. Kellehear's professional experience with individuals living with dying or loss; his own experiences and stories from childhood; and the retelling of some of the great myths and legends about life, love, and death, selected from around the world-from Ireland to Japan, from Melanesia to China. The book is written to be accessible to a wide general audience.It can be read from beginning to end like a conventional book; each self-contained piece is also suitable for reading on a bus, train, or plane journey, or before bed at night. Each piece can be selected as a stand-alone meditation for use as a discussion topic in pastoral care, counseling, or sermons. These reflections are stories about how we can make the most of life in the shadow of death and loss. They are designed to instill hope and meaning in the difficult times that can accompany human mortality.

New Zealanders love exploring the outdoors, but when things go wrong, why do some people survive and some don't? Carl Walrond uses contemporary and historical accounts of mishaps and adventures to reveal interesting truths about survival. In doing so, he finds that the mind and the tricks it plays can be just as challenging as the wilderness itself.

The Franklin Northwest Passage Expedition of 1845 is perhaps the greatest disaster in the history of exploration--all 129 men vanished, as did the expedition's two ships, HMS Erebus and Terror. Over the next 150 years, searchers found bones, clothing and a variety of relics. Inuit narratives provided some of the details of what happened to the frozen, starving sailors after they deserted their ice-locked ships in 1848. Then, in 2014 and 2016, Canadian researchers found the sunken wrecks, not far from the bleak, windswept King William Island in the Arctic. At last, the mystery of the Franklin Expedition would be solved. Or would it? This book pulls together the various searchers' discoveries; the many recent scientific studies that shed light on when, how and why the men died (and whether, in extremis, they ate each other); and illuminates what we know, and what we don't and may never know, about the fate of the expedition.

The Cannibal Within offers an evolutionary account of the propensity of human beings, in extreme circumstances to eat other human beings, despite the strong Western taboo against such practices. What sets this volume apart from the large body of literature on cannibalism, both popular and anthropological, is the underlying premise: cannibalism as an alternative to starvation is tacitly condoned by the same biological morality that would condemn cannibalism of other sorts in non-threatening situations. Deep as the taboos may be, the survival instinct runs even deeper. The title of the book reflects the author's belief that cannibalism is not a pathology that erupts in psychotic individuals, but is a universal adaptive strategy that is evolutionarily sound. The cannibal is within all of us, and cannibals are within all cultures, should the circumstances demand cannibalism's appearance and usage. Petrinovich's work is rich in historical detail, and rises to a level of theoretical sophistication in addressing a subject too often dealt with in sensationalist terms. The major instances in which survival cannibalism has occurred convinced the author that there is a consistent pattern and a uniform regularity of order in which different kinds of individuals are consumed. In considering who eats whom, when, and under what circumstances, this regularity appears, and it is consistent with what would be expected on the basis of evolutionary or Darwinian theory. In short, he concludes that starvation cannibalism is not a manifestation of the chaotic, psychotic behavior of individuals who are driven to madness, but reveals underlying characteristics of evolved human beings. Lewis Petrinovich is professor emeritus in the Department of Psychology of the University of California, Riverside and is currently a resident of Berkeley, California.

The Donner Party is almost inextricably linked with cannibalism. In truth, we know remarkably little about what actually happened to the starving travelers stranded in the Sierra Nevada in the winter of 1846–47. Combining the approaches of history, ethnohistory, archaeology, bioarchaeology, and social anthropology, this innovative look at the Donner Party’s experience at the Alder Creek Camp offers insights into many long-unsolved mysteries. Centered on archaeological investigations in the summers of 2003 and 2004 near Truckee, California, the book includes detailed analyses of artifacts and bones that suggest what life was like in this survival camp. Microscopic investigations of tiny bone fragments reveal butchery scars and microstructure that illuminate what the Donner families may have eaten before the final days of desperation, how they prepared what served as food, and whether they actually butchered and ate their deceased companions. The contributors reassess old data with new analytic techniques and, by examining both physical evidence and oral testimony from observers and survivors, add new dimensions to the historical narrative. The authors’ integration of a variety of approaches—including narratives of the Washoe Indians who observed the Donner Party—destroys some myths, deconstructs much of the folklore about the stranded party, and demonstrates that novel approaches can shed new light on events we thought we understood.