A “thrilling . . . captivating” account of the most famous shipwreck before the Titanic—a tragedy that inspired an unforgettable masterpiece of Western art (The Boston Globe). In June 1816, the Medusa set sail. Commanded by an incompetent captain, the frigate ran aground off the desolate West African coast. During the chaotic evacuation a privileged few claimed the lifeboats, while 147 men and one woman were herded aboard a makeshift raft that was soon cut loose by the boats that had pledged to tow it to safety. Those on the boats made it ashore and undertook a two-hundred-mile trek through the sweltering Sahara, but conditions were far worse on the drifting raft. Crazed, parched, and starving, the diminishing band fell into mayhem. When rescue arrived thirteen days later, only fifteen were alive. Among the handful of survivors were two men whose bestselling account of the maritime disaster scandalized Europe and inspired promising artist Théodore Géricault, who threw himself into a study of the Medusa tragedy, turning it into a vast canvas in his painting, The Raft of the Medusa. Drawing on contemporaneously published accounts and journals of survivors, The Wreck of the Medusa is “a captivating gem about art’s relation to history” (Booklist) and ultimately “a thrilling read” (The Guardian).

In horrifying detail, this book tells the gruesome true story of the shipwreck of the French frigate "Medusa" off the coast of Senegal in 1816. Forced to abandon ship, 150 men and women embarked on an overloaded makeshift raft. After 12 days of riots, mutiny, murder, and cannibalism, only 15 survived. Back in print after 20 years, this book was originally published as "Death Raft".

Narrative of a Voyage to Senegal in 1816 tells a story of the shipwreck of the Medusa frigate, its aftermath, and the tales of its survivors. Later in the book the author, Jean Baptiste Henri Savigny, describes the area where the shipwreck took place as well as his thoughts about colonization and about the practice of slavery.

Includes chapters on similar disasters.

THE STORY: In an opening scene, a man dies an agonizing death from AIDS. The play itself is an explosive AIDS support group session, where the members discover the disease they share can divide as effectively as it conquers. The members of the grou