Mutiny, shipwrecks, escaped convicts, cannibalism, lost love, and death are just some of the rich ingredients of eight real-life stories of heroic voyages in small open boats. These extraordinary survival stories include that of Captain William Bligh who, following the infamous Bounty mutiny, successfully navigated 3600 miles in an open boat from the South Pacific to Timor. Convicts Mary Broad and James Martin, with no sailing experience, escaped from the Botany Bay penal colony and sailed north along the treacherous Australian coast, also to Timor. After his ship was crushed by ice, Ernest Shackleton and five crew members battled unimaginable Antarctic storms and cold for 16 days and nights to arrive on the wild and uninviting South Georgia Island. Failed in love, Fred Rebell, said goodbye to Australia and sailed from Sydney to California in a second-hand open boat with a small canvas shelter, using navigation skills learned from books in Sydney Public Library and a pencil-drawn copy of a map from an out-of-date atlas. This collection provides a unique eye-witness record of some of the greatest feats of human endurance.