The 50 Greatest Shipwrecks
With at least three million known shipwrecks to choose from, a list of the 50 greatest is impossible. What we have here is a selection of ‘shipwrecks’, all but four from the 20th and 21st centuries, to illustrate different types of sea-faring disaster. Some scarcely qualify as shipwrecks. HMS Scylla, for instance, was deliberately scuttled in 2004 to form an artificial reef. A lot of the chosen ‘shipwrecks’ are acts of war. I would not myself describe the sinking of the Bismarck as a shipwreck.
But why cavil? Each of these 50 stories is a maritime tragedy (except perhaps the Scylla) with its own interest. I would have liked to have seen the Great Eastern included, although this was a stranding rather than a wreck. It was the largest ship in the world at the time. Where possible Jones gives the after-story of the wreck, its location and salvage. This is a good update on maritime archaeology, but as the items are necessarily short, we need guides to further reading which this book unfortunately lacks.
