Miracles on the Water

Starred review from January 2, 2006
Nagorski, a senior producer at ABC's World News Tonight
and winner of three Emmy Awards, scores a bull's-eye in his print debut with this riveting account of the sinking of a British passenger liner by a German submarine in World War II. Much of the power of the story—then and now—derives from the 90 children on board who were being carried to safety in Canada. The S.S. City of Benares
, with 406 crew and passengers aboard, was 630 miles out in the North Atlantic on September 17, 1940, when it was torpedoed by a German U-boat. As the Benares
sank, passengers and crew abandoned ship in the stormy waters. Those who made it into lifeboats faced gale-force winds and icy waters—a "recipe for hypothermia." With the nearest help 300 miles away, the survivors faced long odds. Despite frequent heroism, many drowned or died of overexposure before the HMS Hurricane
arrived and rescued 108 survivors. In its search, the Hurricane
missed Lifeboat 12, and its passengers endured eight more harrowing days on the open sea before being rescued. In all, only 13 of the 90 children survived. Nagorski, whose great-uncle was among the survivors, bases his narrative largely on eyewitness accounts.