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

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

<DIV> </DIV><DIV><B><I>“Riveting."</I> -<I>The New York Times Book Review</I></B><DIV> </DIV><DIV><B>Hundreds of miles from civilization, two ships wreck on opposite ends of the same deserted island in this true story of human nature at its best-and at its worst.</B><BR /><BR /> It is 1864, and Captain Thomas Musgrave's schooner, the <I>Grafton</I>, has just wrecked on Auckland Island, a forbidding piece of land 285 miles south of New Zealand. Battered by year-round freezing rain and constant winds, it is one of the most inhospitable places on earth. To be shipwrecked there means almost certain death.<BR /><BR /> Incredibly, at the same time on the opposite end of the island, another ship runs aground during a storm. Separated by only twenty miles and the island's treacherous, impassable cliffs, the crews of the <I>Grafton</I> and the <I>Invercauld</I> face the same fate. And yet where the <I>Invercauld</I>'s crew turns inward on itself, fighting, starving, and even turning to cannibalism, Musgrave's crew bands together to build a cabin and a forge-and eventually, to find a way to escape. <BR /><BR /> Using the survivors' journals and historical records, award-winning maritime historian Joan Druett brings to life this extraordinary untold story about leadership and the fine line between order and chaos.</DIV></DIV>