Skeletons on the Zahara A True Story of Survival

by King, Dean

• ISBN13: 9780316159357
• ISBN10: 0316159352
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2005-04-12
• Publisher: Back Bay Books

Summary

Some stories are so enthralling they deserve to be retold generation after generation. The wreck in 1815 of the Connecticut merchant ship, Commerce, and the subsequent ordeal of its crew in the Sahara Desert, is one such story. With Skeletons on the Zahara: A True Story of Survival, Dean King refreshes the popular nineteenth-century narrative once read and admired by Henry David Thoreau, James Fenimore Cooper, and Abraham Lincoln. King's version, which actually draws from two separate first person accounts of the Commerce's crew, offers a page-turning blend of science, history, and classic adventure. The book begins with a seeming false start: tracing the lives of two merchants from North Africa, Seid and Sidi Hamet, who lose their fortunes--and almost their lives--when their massive camel caravan arrives at a desiccated oasis. King then jumps to the voyage of the Commerce under Captain Riley and his 11-man crew. After stops in New Orleans and Gibraltar, the ship falls off course en route to the Canary Islands and ultimately wrecks at the infamous Cape Bojador. After the men survive the first predations of the nomads on the shore, they meander along the coast looking for a way inland as their supplies dwindle. They subsist for days by drinking their own urine. Eventually, to their horror, they discover that they have come aground on the edge of the Sahara Desert. They submit themselves, with hopes of getting food and water, as slaves to the Oulad Bou Sbaa. After days of abuse, they are bought by Hamet, who, after his own experiences with his failed caravan (described at the novels opening), sympathizes with the plight of the crew. Together, they set off on a hellish journey across the desert to collect a bounty for Hamet in Swearah.King embellishes this compelling narrative throughout with scientific and historical material explaining the origins of the camel, the market for English and American slaves, and the stages of dehydration. He also humanizes the Sahrawi with background on the tribes and on the lives of Hamet and Seid. This material, doled out in sufficient amounts to enrich the story without derailing it makes Skeletons on the Zahara a perfectly entertaining bit of history that feels like a guilty pleasure.--Patrick O'Kelley

Author Biography

Dean King is the author of the national bestseller Skeletons on the Zahara. He has written for many publications, including Men's Journal, Esquire, Garden & Gun, Granta, Outside, New York Magazine, and the New York Times. He lives in Richmond, Virginia.

Table of Contents

Preface	ix
The Officers and Crew of the Connecticut Merchant Brig Commerce, August 1815	xii
Places	xiii
Map of the Western Sahara	xiv
Prologue: 1812	3	(10)
Part One: Acts of God
1 A Good Yankee Crew	13	(14)
2 Omens	27	(13)
3 Shipwreck on Cape Bojador	40	(13)
4 A Hostile Welcome	53	(13)
5 Misery in an Open Boat	66	(19)
Part Two: Ships of the Sand
6 Purgatory	85	(13)
7 Captured	98	(11)
8 Thirst	109	(16)
9 The Sons of the Father of Lions	125	(16)
10 Sidi Hamet's Feast	141	(22)
Part Three: Journeys and Sandstorms
11 Is It Sweet?	163	(24)
12 Honor Among Thieves	187	(19)
13 Skeletons	206	(11)
14 Wednoon and the Atlas	217	(22)
15 Valley of the Locusts	239	(14)
Part Four: A Slow Rush to Swearah
16 Sheik Ali	253	(8)
17 The Captain Has Long Been Dead	261	(19)
18 From the Mouth of a Moor	280	(12)
19 The Road to Swearah	292	(12)
Epilogue: Homecomings	304	(13)
Appendix: The Publishing of Riley's Narrative	317	(3)
Glossary of Arabic Terms	320	(2)
Notes	322	(13)
Selected Bibliography	335	(6)
Acknowledgments	341	(3)
Index	344	(9)
Reading Group Guide	353