Island of the Lost: An Extraordinary Story of Survival at the Edge of the World

This is an incredibly well composed book about tragedy, brotherhood, respect, survival, and the ingenuity of humans and their will to survive. It also clearly illustrates the difference between the power of unity versus every man for himself. In the beginning, the book does start off as cumbersome to read. Once you get past the initial couple of chapters, oh, you're in for a smooth ride that will have you turning pages. The story itself is incredible, two sets of sailors from different ships getting shipwrecked on the same island! Both facing starkly different outcomes. You are going to absolutely fall in love with these characters, the author does an amazing job of characterization here. Every character is expertly built from historical accounts and the author's own ability to breathe life into their long since passed lives. She's not just going to tell you the story of something that happened one hundreds years ago from a distance. This story is told to you on an almost day-by-day basis where you feel like you are there. You are going through this with these characters. Every setback that they have, every triumph that they have, you are a part of that. She does an incredible job of building character relationships, were you can almost see the reactions they would have had toward one another based on a particular action before you even read the authors explanation of their actual reactions. Every character's personality is cleanly portrayed. The captain, a man with a hard exterior with a vulnerable side that cares enormously about his ethics and morality. The jack-of-all-trades Frenchman... Although it is a common belief that Sailors, Wailers in particular, where a group of hard, rough individuals, there is a tenderness to the story that brings to life the side of these men most people weren't privy to. I read a review here that an engineer wrote in appreciation for the author's ability to explain how they manufactured survival tools and invented new ways to survive. That is true. There is a lot of technical explanation and nautical knowledge here that seafaring people will really be able to enjoy. Engineers will love the, well... the ingenuity. Survivalists, long distance families who know what it's like to be so far from a loved one, those partial to bromances. There's something for everyone in this book. Just buy it, read it. Having read an account like this will undoubtedly make your life seem just a little bit better, just knowing that you read the best portrayal of this historical event possible. The only portrayal that can put the reader right there in the thick of it. This being said, I am glad I read this Joan Druett book first! Why? Because I'm also now reading one of her other books, in the wake of Madness. I can tell you for a fact that if I had read the ladder book first oh, I would have never considered by another one of her books. I don't know what the difference was between the time she wrote in the wake of Madness and the time she wrote island of the Lost, but whatever was going on with her when she wrote island of the Lost she needs to continue cloning that same energy.

In the 1800s the sub-Antarctic islands called The Aucklands were a shipwreck story being written again and again and again. Eventually the New Zealand government would even install a provisioned castaway hut on the main island due to the number of shipwrecks occurring. Being shipwrecked on these islands was not your sandy beach, blue sky and coconuts story. This was a very inhospitable place (weather and terrain) that took extraordinary strength and will to survive. The castaway hut would come in handy, however, not for the main shipwreck stories of this book. The castaway hut would be, in part, a response to these. This is the story of near simultaneous shipwreck group 1 of the ship Grafton, and shipwreck 2 of the ship Ivercauld. These two groups of castaways would never see each other or know each other were there. History would show them to be a contrast of one group working together to stave off hunger,depression and exposure (Grafton) while the other group being largely aimless, poorly led, where some turned sub human in their actions(Ivercauld). These are their true stories to the best of first hand account, history and recollection provide. It’s amazingly fascinating. The author did great work in picking the subject and researching the topic. In that regards it is 5 stars. Unfortunately the presentation of the stories and/or the cohesiveness of the writing just didn’t fully capture me. At points it felt like I was reading a chopped and dry repost. On this front I gave it 3 stars. I’ll definitely read this author again (again I was wowed by the story itself) but I hope her writing better captures my attention.

An epic tale of survival under the most extreme conditions. The book is well written and difficult to put down. There are also some interesting lessons of how a small group with differing backgrounds can either get along and succeed, or on the other hand fail in the most disastrous way.

Great story

Very good book, you feel like you are a fly on the wall and privy to all the details. What a wretched place to be shipwrecked! All the dreary cold weather, lack of nutritious food, and no rescue party, and yet the crew kept going. This book shows what strong leadership can do - make your own lifeboat and sail back to civilization. It also shows what weak leadership leads to - lots of the northern crew died and were eaten by their mates. Its amazing to me how shipwrecked sailors in the late 1800's and early 1900's knew how do so many things. Everything from making shoes to a blacksmith shop and even making their own soap.

This is a non-fiction story of shipwreck and survival, set in the seas south of New Zealand in the early 1860s. A crew of five departed Sydney, Australia in a small vessel, seeking silver laden ore on uninhabited Campbell Island. In route home, they were shipwrecked on nearby Auckland Island, likewise uninhabited. This is mainly a story of how they survived their lengthy isolation. Midway through the story, however, a second ship, quite a bit larger, was likewise dashed upon the rocky shores, at a point some distance from the original crew. Nineteen people survived this wreck, however their experience on Auckland Island was far different. I can’t say that this is an outstanding read. It is quite short, and while it contains a good bit of interesting information, there just isn’t much story here. The ingenuity of both groups, especially the former, is quite impressive. Today, we just go to the story and get some nails, or buy groceries. These folks manufactured cement and soap. They constructed a forge with bellows and crafted the tools and items they needed from scrap metal salvaged from their shipwreck. They built a water tight cabin, with fireplace and survived for 18 months. Especially striking was the different experience of the two groups of shipwrecked sailors, especially as it relates to the interpersonal dynamic and the leadership skills exhibited by one and not the other. This is short read and worth the time to read, especially if you enjoy stories of this type,

This book was really interesting. It's fascinating how two crews ended up on the same island and one totally fell apart and nearly all of them died while they other pulled together and all came back home. I very much enjoyed reading this book.

An entertaining and informative read about both the physical and mental aspects of survival after two sailing vessels and their crews crash on a remote island in the South Pacific. There’s a lot said contrasting the approaches taken by the very different, but equally desperate groups of survivors. The leaders of each group, Musgrave and Holding, are depicted as practical men trying to help their crews survive the best they can. One group turns to bettering their situation, building a crude hut and scouring the area for food. The other basically gives into despair and hopelessness, each choice further dooming them. I was a bit surprised by the level of detail describing the near-constant seal hunting that made up most of the survivors diet. There’s a lot of frankly gruesome content about the most efficient way to beat a seal to death and which variety of seal was the best to eat. Apparently, hitting them in the left eye was favored, and the youngest seals had the tastiest flavor. Despite the harsh, wild environment - spoiler alert - some of each group survives to tell their tale, but not without sacrifice and suffering. The book nicely wraps up the ‘adventure’ with brief epilogues for the surviving crew members, and notes that future castaways were saved by the emergency supplies the islands were seeded with as a result of these shipwrecks.

This book is an absolute gem. Wonderful account of just how hazardous sailing in the 1800's was in the sub-antarctic waters in the Pacific. Couldn't put it down.

This was as gripping as an action novel, but with scientific input and reconstruction of scenes and social interactions that made it highly interesting too. A thoroughly well researched book from an author with a clear passion for history, pioneering/sailing, and mystery. Couldnt put it down. Highly recommended

Became a big fan of Joan Druett with this book! The smooth narration, the incredible attention to details and the events of 1800s themselves blend to form a fantastic read. The characters portrayal, especially that of Captain Musgrave and Fracois Raynard is compelling - you feel so much for both these men towards the end of the book. All in all, an inspiring story of survival and grit. Highly recommend it.

I didn't buy this book expecting to learn anything more than about shipwrecks and survival, but there are so many other intriguing pieces to it, like the sub-antarctic sealing industry, that there is no question that I will be expanding my reading to learn more about this time period. The book's synopsis is a bit misleading; yes, there were two shipwrecks on the island that overlapped much of the same time period, but the focus is on the wreck of the Grafton and its small crew. There are also very serious environmental and seasonal factors (timing) that contributed to the shipwrecks survivors; differences in leadership played a part of how well each group succeeded, but was not the only defining factor in my opinion. As well, and something that the pulled the book together for me, each wreck had at least one individual who had a level of resourcefulness that contributed greatly to each groups survival. The forge building or the coracle building as examples! The author's ability to meld two separate incidents and her writing style that is highly engaging and to the point, made for a relatively quick read and I look forward to reading more of her work on naval history. Highly recommend this book if this topic or region of the world is of interest. However, would caution that there is a great deal of emphasis on killing seals, especially pups, as a main food source and this may be a big turn off to some readers. As the author notes in the afterword, one group of survivors were mentally prepared to kill seals. This was the one area of the book that I was not mentally prepared for myself!

Fantastic true story, more realistic and more dramatic than a fictional story could be. Contains just the right amount of background information, explanations, speculation and interactions between the characters, and kept me reading and reading to find out what happened next.