Subtitled "Hurricane Mitch and the Loss of the Fantome," I borrowed this book for my husband, since he actually sailed on the Fantome, a four-masted schooner that cruised in the western Caribbean, shortly before Hurricane Mitch (the second deadliest Atlantic hurricane to date) destroyed her and 31 crew members in October 1998.
Author Jim Carrier, a journalist and sailor, provides a detailed account of the ship and the hurricane primarily through interviews with crew members (pre-storm) and their families, Windjammer Barefoot Cruises staff, Hurricane Mitch victims in the western Caribbean, and National Hurricane Center personnel. The Fantome attempted to avoid the ultimately Cat-5 storm that took an unexpected turn southward, directly into the ship’s path (most hurricanes tend to track northwest).
Author Jim Carrier, a journalist and sailor, provides a detailed account of the ship and the hurricane primarily through interviews with crew members (pre-storm) and their families, Windjammer Barefoot Cruises staff, Hurricane Mitch victims in the western Caribbean, and National Hurricane Center personnel. The Fantome attempted to avoid the ultimately Cat-5 storm that took an unexpected turn southward, directly into the ship’s path (most hurricanes tend to track northwest).
Carrier describes the remarkable history of the Fantome, which spent 14 years in Seattle. Even more fascinating were the descriptions of the experiences of “hurricane hunters” who flew into the storm, and of people on the island of Guanaja and the country of Honduras, which suffered the worst destruction (particularly from the torrential rains, flooding, and mudslides as the storm went ashore). This book makes me want to read Isaac’s Storm, about the 1900 Galveston hurricane, as a comparison.
Carrier is at times a little bit too detailed – he said in interviews he used “forensic journalism” to write the book. But like a good journalist, he avoids laying “blame” for the loss of life and ship, presenting all sides of the story so readers can draw their own conclusions. The book includes maps with the ship’s and the storm’s tracks inside the covers, more detailed maps of the areas showing towns and villages named in the book, drawings comparing the forecasted and actual track of the storm, diagrams of the layout of the ship, and photographs of the ship, crew, and storm.
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