The constant dangers that deep-sea sailing ships and sailors of the late 19th century and early 20th centuries faced were numerous, and this book recounts the true-life dramas of their perils and misfortunes – the battles that they waged, and all too often lost – against the hazards of the sea. Life was tough for 19th century sailors in sail – shipboard work was hard and routinely dangerous. Crew members were frequently maimed or even killed by the sea, or by any number of dangers they faced while working their ships. It was the same for crews in all merchant sailing ships of that time: sailors bore the extraordinary hardships as nothing more nor less than their duty to obey their captains and drive their ships to a safe port to discharge or take on cargoes. Great disasters from around the world are featured including the Sir John Lawrence: loss of all crew and 730 pilgrims; the Oncle Joseph and the 'Damned Ship' Ortigia; the Princess Alice and Bywell Castle collision: tragedy on the Thames; the Camorta sunk in Bay of Bengal cyclone with 739 dead; the sinking of the Utopia at Gibraltar with over 500 lives lost; the Mohegan wrecked on the Manacles and the loss of the Stella in the Channel Islands when 112 people lost their lives. From remarkable voyages, mutinies, hoaxes, curiosities and disease, to Cape Horn passages, collisions and castaways, this book has a fund of amazing tales that will engross the reader.