Author: | Brian Callison | ISBN: | 1230000034401 |
Publisher: | Steamship eBooks | Publication: | November 8, 2012 |
Imprint: | Language: | English |
Author: | Brian Callison |
ISBN: | 1230000034401 |
Publisher: | Steamship eBooks |
Publication: | November 8, 2012 |
Imprint: | |
Language: | English |
A heart-stopping drama based on fact - the realisation of every sea traveller's worst nightmare.
The passengers boarding the Orion Venturer have no idea that the seemingly sturdy-looking ferry that is to transport them overnight across the North Sea is a disaster waiting to happen. That all it needed would be one act of folly to initiate a tragedy too terrible to imagine.
Hastily converted from her previous role as a Florida-based cruise ship, although safety regulations have been met in theory, all too many vital corners have been cut. Equally ominously, her multinational crew has been recruited with matching urgency. The majority of the Orion Venturer's hotel staff have no previous experience of seagoing and, in common with many of her seamen and engineers, little understanding of English. Speaking nine different languages they can barely communicate with each other, never mind with their passengers who must depend on them in a crisis. Worse, few of the vessel's new officers have been afforded time to get to know the ship well enough to cope effectively should a major emergency arise …
An improbable scenario? Yes. Yet in recent times a similar event did occur aboard a Western European ro-ro ferry nevertheless. It claimed 158 victims. Although a work of fiction this, Brian Callison's terrifying novel of innocents in peril, is drawn from the findings of the Official Norwegian Inquiry into that appalling incident. If you ever intend to travel by sea, then reading FERRY DOWN might well save your life.
Tempestuously exciting. Times Literary Supplement
From stunned bewilderment to desperate panic to the acknowledgement of death - a narrative of profound emotion handled in masterly style. Birmingham Post
A heart-stopping drama based on fact - the realisation of every sea traveller's worst nightmare.
The passengers boarding the Orion Venturer have no idea that the seemingly sturdy-looking ferry that is to transport them overnight across the North Sea is a disaster waiting to happen. That all it needed would be one act of folly to initiate a tragedy too terrible to imagine.
Hastily converted from her previous role as a Florida-based cruise ship, although safety regulations have been met in theory, all too many vital corners have been cut. Equally ominously, her multinational crew has been recruited with matching urgency. The majority of the Orion Venturer's hotel staff have no previous experience of seagoing and, in common with many of her seamen and engineers, little understanding of English. Speaking nine different languages they can barely communicate with each other, never mind with their passengers who must depend on them in a crisis. Worse, few of the vessel's new officers have been afforded time to get to know the ship well enough to cope effectively should a major emergency arise …
An improbable scenario? Yes. Yet in recent times a similar event did occur aboard a Western European ro-ro ferry nevertheless. It claimed 158 victims. Although a work of fiction this, Brian Callison's terrifying novel of innocents in peril, is drawn from the findings of the Official Norwegian Inquiry into that appalling incident. If you ever intend to travel by sea, then reading FERRY DOWN might well save your life.
Tempestuously exciting. Times Literary Supplement
From stunned bewilderment to desperate panic to the acknowledgement of death - a narrative of profound emotion handled in masterly style. Birmingham Post