The Miracle of the Kent: A Tale of Courage, Faith, and Fire - Hardcover

Tracy, Nicholas

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1594160724 ISBN 13: 9781594160721

Publisher: Westholme Publishing, 2008

Synopsis

An Extraordinary Rescue and One of the Greatest Human Interest Stories of All Time

“A naturally gripping adventure tale.”—Publishers Weekly 
“Powerful and intensely focused.”—Booklist 
“Tracy's satisfying narrative constitutes the first modern account. A finely detailed maritime history.”—Kirkus Reviews

In 1825, the Kent, an East Indiaman, set sail from England for India with a crew and nearly 600 men, women, and children on board. North of Spain, the ship was slammed by a ferocious gale, and while a sailor was inspecting the hold for damage, his lantern ignited a cask of spirits. A fire quickly erupted, and even with the desperate expedient of opening hatches and flooding the ship, the fire burned out of control. As night wore on, the ship became an inferno, with the flames moving toward stores of gunpowder. At this point, everyone on board knew that they would perish, and they began preparing for their ghastly deaths. Despite the raging tempest a sailor climbed one last time to the top of the Kent’s mainmast and—miraculously—a sail was sighted on the horizon. It was the Cambria, a small brig on its way to Mexico. The Cambriaspied the burning Kentand through determination and dogged seamanship in towering seas, the little brig closed the doomed vessel. Launching their boats, the Kent’s and Cambria’s crews were able to transfer nearly all of the children, women, and men to the brig and pull away before the Kent exploded. Dangerously overloaded, the Cambriamade the Cornish coast three days later.
In The Miracle of the Kent: A Tale of Courage, Faith, and Fire, award-winning historian Nicholas Tracy reconstructs this extraordinary tale through records left by the participants, revealing how those aboard the Kent faced their deaths, and their reactions to being offered a second chance. The story of the Kentis both a page-turning adventure and an inspirational homage to the capacity of the human spirit.

About this title

About the Author

Nicholas Tracy is adjunct professor of history and associate of the Gregg Centre for the Study of War and Society at the University of New Brunswick, Canada. He has written numerous books, including Nelson’s Battles, The Art of Victory in the Age of Sail and A Two-Edged Sword: The Navy as an Instrument of Canadian Foreign Policy, winner of the 2012 John Lyman Book Award for excellence in Canadian naval and maritime history.

Reviews

If the sinking of the Titanic had occurred in the midst of a raging storm and with a fire creeping inexorably toward a gunpowder magazine, it would have approximated the plight faced by the 700-odd passengers and crew of the foundering British East Indiaman Kent in 1825. Even the appearance of a rescue ship hardly lessened the peril, so great were the hazards of transferring passengers on tiny lifeboats through mountainous seas. Historian Tracy (Nelson's Battles: The Art of Victory in the Age of Sail) fills in his telling of the story, based on firsthand accounts, especially the famous narrative of survivor Duncan MacGregor, with reams of occasionally obscure nautical lore and procedure. (The absence of a glossary for readers unfamiliar with sailing jargon is sorely felt.) He also makes the crisis an X-ray of early Victorian society in extremis; panic and the instinct for self-preservation clash with the period's elaborate codes of propriety and authority and its fierce evangelical piety as the victims struggle to maintain order and discipline in the face of near-certain death. The result is a naturally gripping adventure tale that sets its heroics in an insightful historical context. Photos. (Oct. 22)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

On March 1, 1825, the British vessel Kent sailed for India with almost 600 passengers, many of them soldiers of the Thirty-first Regiment and their families. In the Bay of Biscay, the ship was hit by a violent gale. As a sailor was inspecting the hold for damage, his lantern ignited a cask of liquor; a fire erupted and quickly burned out of control. A small vessel, Cambria, carrying a crew and 20 Cornish miners on their way to Mexico, saw the burning Kent and closed in on the ship. The crews of the two vessels transferred most of the passengers before Kent exploded; Cambria reached land three days later. The rescue was viewed by many as proof of divine intervention, but Tracy sees that the tragedy showed more of courage and generous humanity by the officers and men of the ships and the regiment, and by their families, than it did of human weakness. The story of Kent is both powerful and intensely focused. --George Cohen

Edition details

• Publisher: Westholme Publishing
• Publication date: 2008
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1594160724
• ISBN 13: 9781594160721
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 240