Dag Pike draws on his experience as merchant navy captain, fast boatnavigator and boat safety tester for RNLI lifeboats to focus on a widerange of disasters at sea. He compiles a wide range of accounts ofyachts, motorboats and commercial vessels running into difficulty as aresult of poor navigation, fog, miscalculation, human error, weatherconditions etc and analyses in a readable and entertaining fashion whatcaused the disaster, what went wrong, how it was dealt with and thelessons learned from it. Examplesrange from the Fastnet disaster, powerboat races, boats run down in theChannel, to trawlers pulled under by submarines, ferry accidents andtanker and cargo ship disasters. The incidents include grounding,collision, fire, sinking, ice and storms, and each chapter has anexample from the Marine Accident Investigation Bureau who monitorincidents at sea. This book is a fascinating read for all who go afloat either forbusiness or pleasure, and for anyone interested in just why disastershappen at sea.