Matt Lewis (3)

The best part of this book are the details about life aboard a tramp fishing boat in the Antarctic ocean ca. late 1990s. Most of the book is a memoir of a young man who shipped aboard to act as an observer of wildlife by-catch, he is outsider on the inside. Since you already know a disaster of some sort is going to happen, everything feels a bit sinister. The ship is poorly maintained, the people responsible behave with no care for anyone but themselves. You can feel it coming. When the disaster happens it reaches a pitch of horror when Lewis feels something biting his toe under the water. This is a first class disaster survival memoir but also fascinating look at the sketchy toothfish industry (never buy Chilean sea-bass) and hard lessons on leadership and empathy.… (more)

This book started out slowly, setting up the background details of what looked to be a fairly typical commercial fishing voyage as seen through the eyes of the outsider, the obligatory marine biologist/observer. Once the scene is set the author does a good job of bringing the reader along on his journey through the sinking of the South African fishing vessel Sudur Havid. Not everyone makes it, and not everyone (including the author) behaves admirably, but the author's story comes across as honestly told. The uncertainty of real life, without storybook endings, kept me engrossed in this book once the author realized that the ship was going down and they were abandoning ship wanting to see what happened to the crew. I received a free copy of this book through Goodreads First reads giveaways.
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