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)
