Titanic. Exxon Valdez. Costa Concordia. Even Moby Dick. Shipwrecks are fascinating. Something about the terror of the unknown of the seas grips the mind. Steven Callahan’s memoir Adrift fulfills this natural intrigue that many have with the open ocean.
During a night time storm, Callahan is rocked awake by the sound of panic. His vessel, Napoleon Solo, was struck by what he believed to be a whale. In a frenzy, Callahan, Solo’s solo crew member deploys a life raft. After hurling as much emergency gear and safety equipment into the raft, he parts ways with the sinking sail boat that he hand crafted and intuitively designed.
While stranded adrift in the Atlantic Ocean, Callahan keeps a journal, that not only serves as the basis of his memoir but also as a guide to educate other sailors. In addition, the righting of this journal kept him sane and took is mind off the monotony of solidarity. He often reminds the reader that he is not a hero, and Adrift is an account of what not to do. Callahan uses a tone that shows he has learned a great deal from his voyage and a comparing Adrift to a self-critique is not a far stretch.
The shipwreck, shark attacks and shooting of flares to approaching ships are very intensely written and action packed. To separate these moments from the long and dull descriptions of drifting at sea, Callahan utilizes vary sentence length to excite and calm the reader. “She’s going down! My mind barks orders. Free the emergency package. My soul screams. You’ve lost her!” Every sentence used to describe the moment the ship begins to sink, is a simple sentence. The choppiness make it thrilling. The pace makes it dramatic. “The light of each day makes me optimistic that I might last another forty, but the darkness of each night makes me realize that, if any one thing goes wrong, I will not survive.” The length and combination of independent clauses truly show the mind of Callahan wandering as he floats along.
Day after day, he floats along, his soul flooded with loneliness and mind capsized by constant terror. To cope with this isolation, Callahan uses personification to describe his surroundings. “...condensation, coins tossed to this beggar by the aristocratic sun.” By using personification it gives the tale that really has only one character, a myriad of antagonists and protagonists. The fish, sharks, sun, raft and even his own feelings like hunger, are given characters that create a complexity when he is secluded at sea.
9 out of 10 Sailboats
