Surviving, again

Although the subtitle to Skeletons on the Zahara is "A True Story of Survival" I didn't realize that this would be yet another survival book. Duh. This is kind of the ultimate survivor book in which you learn that it is apparently okay to drink urine. Your own, your shipmate's, a camel's, whatever. You can also drink the green liquid in a camel's stomach, and eat the contents of the small intestine. If you are hungry, snails are delicious, as are locusts; just pull off their heads and legs first.

I can't wait to go on vacation to the Sahara!

Dean King endeavors to update Captain James Riley's 1816 memoir, introducing a story familiar to almost every 19th century American to a modern audience. Once I got past the detailed recounting of the ill-fated ocean voyage, things sped up. I was mostly interested in the gruesome horror the crew faced once the ship was dashed against rocks. As a historical narrative, Skeletons on the Zahara has a distracting number of characters, dates, and locations. I blithely ignored the maps, place names and names of many characters, preferring to focus on the action rather than get bogged down in the details.

Other than a fine Sunday's entertainment, I got two main things out of this book; one a very thought provoking look at Nomads in northwestern Africa and a lesson in heroism from James Riley.

King did plenty of his own research for this book, as shown in his extensive bibliography. He even took a trek in the Sahara on a camel, trying to recreate some of what the castaways went through. The life of the desert nomads was amazingly brutal, many of them subsisting on camel milk and small amounts of foraged food. Perhaps in reaction to the extreme climate, the culture is correspondingly wild and rough, with a strongest take all mind set. Despite the harshness of the society Captain Riley and his crew encounter admirable bravery and honor from a few of the nomads they encounter.

Captain Riley is a great character. He carefully observes the people around him and is able to judge situations cannily and modifying his behavior in turn. At times, dangerously standing up for his men, or being meek and humble as the situation requires. It seems that most Western castaways had little hope of returning home when they landed on the West Coast of Africa and Captain Riley was a rare example of a hero, getting at least half of his crew home again.

Edited to add: This book is packed full of fun extras, including a glossary, index, bibliography, suggested reading, and more!