The Ship and the Storm Hurricane Mitch and the Loss of the Fantome Tapa dura - 2000

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Hurricane Mitch was a category five storm, the fourth-fiercest Atlantic storm in history and the worst hurricane in 200 years. The devastation it visited upon Central America dominated the evening news and set back the Honduran economy by 20 years. Roads, fields and entire villages were buried or simply disappeared. What would it have been like to face this storm at sea? This is exactly what happened to the Fantome - a 282-foot steel-hulled, four-masted schooner that carried paying passengers for Windjammer Barefoot Cruises of Miami. After cancelling a cruise and discharging her 97 passengers, she put to sea to dodge the hurricane - a highly questionable decision in itself. Over the next 40 hours, the path of the storm changed, thus negating the ship's every tactic. Her British captain and 30 crew - mostly West Indians - were never found. This work explores every facet of this tragic story. There are questions about the Fantome's seaworthiness, her captain's experience, and the wisdom of the tactics adopted by the president of Windjammer, who was in radio contact with the ship until the hurricane took a final turn to the north.

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