Sunday, September 18, 2005

The Wreck Of The Medusa

Sub category, book review.

I'm interested in hearing what the rest of you consider worth reading, and I hope that book recommendations will become a fairly regular feature here.

The The Wreck of the Medusa , by Alexander McKee, describes the disaster that befell the crew and passengers of the French warship Medusa when it ran aground off the coast of Africa in 1816. Due to incompetence on the part of those in leadership positions, 150 men and one woman were placed on a raft which was then set adrift. Two weeks later, fifteen of them were rescued, after going through what might be called indescribable suffering, except that McKee describes it in painstaking detail.

For the first day or two those on the raft maintained a degree of unity, but after that civilization crumbled quickly, and murder, cannibalism and mass insanity broke out.

The book closes with an examination of similar disasters, examines the psychological affects on those involved, and discusses the different ways groups of people react to high stress situations. Although he does not spend a great deal of time on the topic, McKee suggests that group cohesion is an important factor in surviving a disaster.

6 comments:

Rick Ballard said...

I spent the summer alternating between developing a strong distaste for Strauss and despairing at Oakeshott's prolixity. Now I'm taking a break with the Radosh's "Red Star Over Hollywood" and Sowell's "Black Rednecks and White Liberals".

It's interesting to tie the Medusa book into the behavior at the Superdome. I happened to hear a pastor speak last week who had actually been in the Superdome - he had gone to NO on the Saturday prior to Katrina to act as a chaplain and wound up inside until Thursday morning. He confirmed the tales of molestation, rape and murder. He said the predators would mark out the location of their prey during the day and then wait for nightfall to strike.

Does the Medusa book refer to the Chilean soccer team's survival tale at all?

MeaninglessHotAir said...

flenser,
For the first day or two those on the raft maintained a degree of unity, but after that civilization crumbled quickly, and murder, cannibalism and mass insanity broke out.

Is that what happens to a joint blog after a while?

flenser said...

Rick

I also read "Black Rednecks" this summer. I'm embarrassed to say it was the first Sowell I had read, other than newspaper articles.

I think the Superdome is what brought the Medusa book to my mind. Although I've been taking an interest in this kind of thing ever since 9/11.

McKee spends about half a dozen pages on a rugby team which crashed in the Andes in 1972. I think that is the same incident you are referring to.

He attributes their high survival rate (sixteen of twenty six survived in the Andes in winter for ten weeks) to the fact that they were a close knit group, being a sports team and its supporters. They were also highly educated - several were medical students.

Rick Ballard said...

That's the one. It shows the steel like resilience of civilization within a tight group closely sharing the same values. The exigencies of the situation forced the breaking of a very strong taboo but individuals actually gave the group permission to sustain survivors in the event of death. A remarkable story.

flenser said...
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flenser said...

Here is a description of the sinking of the ferry Estonia.

The events are too compressed in time to be an ideal example of what we are studying, but the elements are still there. And Langewiesche is always a great storyteller


Here is a snippet to whet your appitite.

"One man in particular comes to mind. He stood on the promenade looking completely composed, reassuring passengers around him that they would survive, patiently instructing people on how to don the life vests, and setting up an efficient system for the vests' distribution. Others played equally powerful roles. It was as if human society, having been torn apart, was starting to remake itself already—as if with time there could have been kings and queens on that drifting hull, and maybe even priests. But then the ocean washed them all away."