The Lost Hero of Cape Cod: Captain Asa Eldridge and the Maritime Trade That Shaped America
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | 4.57 (656 Votes) |
| Asin | : | 0962506885 |
| Format Type | : | paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 200 Pages |
| Publish Date | : | 2017-12-31 |
| Language | : | English |
DESCRIPTION:
"An excellent read for anyone and a must for American history" according to Amazon Customer. An excellent read for anyone and a must for American history buffs. Not many other books on this era that address the huge change that occurred in communications/transportation across the Atlantic.. SteveG said Would make a good movie.. Very interesting story about a less-than-well-known Cape Cod sailor. I live on Cape Cod and had never heard of him. Would make a good movie.. "Well researched & thoroughly entertaining about an important bygone era" according to Jonathan MacQuitty. This is a well researched thoroughly entertaining book about a stunning period in American maritime history when sailing ships reached their peak and just as dramatically were replaced by steam. Captain Eldridge was the epitome of a sailing captain able to get the absolute best out of his ship and crew. He broke a number of records for racing across the Atlantic. At the same time he could tell that the change to steam was inevitable. And to top it
But this record is only part of his story, which includes voyages to numerous countries, command of Cornelius Vanderbilt’s private yacht, an early move into steamships, and a mysterious end that eerily foreshadowed the Titanic disaster half a century later. Born in a small village on Cape Cod in 1809, Asa Eldridge grew up to become one of the world’s greatest shipmasters. The Lost Hero of Cape Cod tells the story of an extraordinary nineteenth-century mariner… and of a morale-boosting victory for the young United States over Britain in the commercial battle that broke out on the Atlantic after the War of 1812. Even today, he still holds the record for the fastest crossing of the Atlantic by a sailing ship, which he set on a run from New York to Liverpool in 1854. In recounting Eldridge’s fascinating career, Vincent Miles also tells a much broader story—of the rise of America’s merchant navy to a dominant position over Britain’s in the decades following the War of 1812, and of the government-subsidized British response that created the legendary Cunard Line. And along the way, Miles offers a guided tour of the maritime trade that shaped America, and a memorial to the courageous men who made it poss
(Tragically, the RMS Titanic was not the first case in which a sinking ship carried far too few lifeboats to save the majority of its passengers and crew; just one of the most notorious.) Highly recommended, especially for public library nautical and biography collections."Midwest Book Review. "The Lost Hero of Cape Cod is both a fascinating true-life history and a glimpse into the all-too-perilous world of the 1800's mariner. Of particular interest is the recounting of notable nautical disasters of the time. Meticulously pieced together from exhaustive research, Eldridge's story is a tale of war, peace, extraordinary heroism, and heartbreaking tragedy