First Edition. (English) Original French edition, 1959. pp. 175 illusts (shelf worn dustjacket, very acceptable signs of age). Among the ships that leave port on their lawful occasions some are destined never to return : to end their days not in the scrapyard after a long life of service, but violently, and often mysteriously. Recent catastrophes have shown that despite great technical progress in recent years, with wireless and, above all, radar, the men who go down to the sea in ships are often defeated by it, sometimes in circumstances which are never satisfactorily explained. Robert de la Croix’s exciting new book is not a history of shipwrecks, but an examination-with examples from seafaring history-of the main dangers which lie in wait for every ship, no matter how modern and no matter how skilfully sailed : storm, fire, ice, unknown reefs, man himself, and the denizens of the sea. As readers of M. de la Croix’s previous books will know already, this is no dry-as-dust investigation, but a thrilling story of a particular aspect of man’s eternal struggle with the sea, with descriptions of famous disasters, and of many strange little-known and fascinating incidents on the oceans of the world. #0121