An amazing and harrowing tale of the sea and its aftermath of a lone survivor. Powerful and compelling we learn the history of this wreck and its impact not only on the survivor but on those that were left behind

I'm thrilled by non-fiction survival literature (it was my senior thesis in college), so this should've been exactly my kind of book. Guys, I'm sorry, but I hated this. The pacing is terrible and keeps breaking you out of the action to give you footnotes about history, and there's WAY too much backstory and end story and far too little of the critical event that is supposed to be central to the book. As a bonus, the editing and formatting were also awful. 

If you're looking for a book that really captures the limits of human endurance and the capacity for the survival spirit, may I recommend the following: 
 Adrift: Seventy-Six Days Lost at Sea by Steven Callahan
 And I Alone Survived by Lauren Elder
 Touching the Void: The True Story of One Man's Miraculous Survival by Joe Simpson
 Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mount Everest Disaster by Jon Krakauer
 Deep Survival: Who Lives, Who Dies, and Why by Laurence Gonzales

While reading like fiction in many parts, this is a well-researched account of the sinking of the John Rutledge in 1856. Based on the first hand account of the only survivor, this was a grueling look at survival at sea. The author fleshed out the story with historical information regarding other losses at sea, and the subsequent changes made to increase ship safety. Very interesting!

Brian Murphy’s Adrift is a tale of 18th-century high-seas shipwreck and survival that is exhaustingly researched, yet told with the urgency of a good thriller.  In January of 1856 the packet ship John Rutledge is scheduled to sail from Liverpool to New York City, but midway in her journey, an iceberg tears into her hull. Murphy focuses his narrative on the stories of Captain Alexander Kelley, the Hendersons, an Irish immigrant family, and sailor Thomas Nye, the lone survivor.  From embarking in Liverpool to the ice piercing the ship to the days spent stranded in the lifeboats, Murphy places us with the crew and passengers every step of the way.

The author’s research covers a virtual compendium of all things nautical in the mid-1800s. Colorful details include, among other things: the history of sea-going vessels and particularly the Rutledge herself, the commerce of trans-Atlantic shipping and passenger lines, key anecdotes of prior shipwrecks, and the life of a sailor at port and out at sea. The author takes several opportunities to make comparisons to modern times to help the reader understand the setting and the ways of Victorian era life. While tangents may stray a little too far off the main narrative focus at times, Murphy always strikes a readable tone, and his digressions are interspersed in the narrative so well that you don’t even realize that you’re learning something.

Overall, Adrift is worthy of praise and deserves to be placed next to books like Philbrick’s In the Heart of the Sea, Lansing’s Endurance, and Zuckoff’s Frozen in Time. The author’s note adds credibility and transparency to the writing process. The survivor gave us a detailed account of that perilous tragedy and Murphy added research and a careful hand to craft the story in this impressive book.

Thank you to NetGalley, Perseus Books, Da Capo Press, and Mr. Murphy for the advanced copy for review.