The WRECKERS: A story of killing seas, false lights and plundered ships.

UK,8vo HB+dw/dj,1st edn.[Complete number line 1.] FINE/FINE.No owner inscrptn and no price-clip to dw/dj.Bright,crisp,clean,matt, monochrome photographic illustrated front panel+spine of dw/dj with dark brown+red lettering; with negligible shelf-wear or creasing to edges and corners - no nicks or tears present.Top edges very lightly toned,but along with the fore-edges,generally bright and clean; contents bright,tight,clean,solid and sound - pristine - no dog-ear reading creases to any pages' corners, appears unread - apart from my own collation.Bright,crisp,clean,sharp-cornered,publisher's original plain dark blue cloth boards with bright,crisp,block gilt letters to spine/ backstrip and immaculate plain white endpapers.UK,8vo HB+dw/dj,1st edn,vii-xxivpp+1-326pp [paginated] includes list of illustrations, acknowledgements,author's introduction,8 chapters and an epilogue, 16pp contemporary b/w+colour photographs in 1 block,between pp134/5,assorted b/w maps interspersed throughout the text and the book,a bibliography and an index; plus [unpaginated] half-title+title pages,and a contents list/table.
From the bestselling author of 'The Lighthouse Stevensons',a gripping history of the drama and danger of wrecking since the 18th-century - and the often grisly ingenuity of British wreckers,scavengers of the sea.A fine wreck has always represented sport,pleasure,treasure,and in many cases,the difference between living well and just getting by. The Cornish were supposedly so ferocious that notices of shipwrecks were given out during morning service by the minister,whilst the congregation concocted elaborate theological justifications for drowning the survivors.Treeless islanders relied on the harvest of storms to furnish themselves with rafters,boat hulls,fence-posts and floors.In other places,false lights were set up with grisly ingenuity along the coast to lure boats to destruction.With romance,insight and dry wit,Bella Bathurst traces the history of wrecking,looting and salvaging in the British Isles since the 18th-century and leading up to the present day.'For a fully-laden general cargo to run to ground in an accessible position is more or less like having Selfridges crash-land in your back garden,'she writes,'a Selfridges with the prices removed.' Far from being a black-and-white crime,wrecking is often seen as opaque by its practitioners - the divisions between theft and recovery are small.No successful legal prosecution has ever been brought; the RNLI was founded by wreckers - even today lifeboat crews maintain the right to claim salvage.In settings ranging from the eerily perambulatory Goodwin Sands to the wreck-strewn waters off the coast of Durham, these murky tales of resourcefulness and quick-witted opportunism open a beguiling vista of life at the rough edges of our land and legality.From all around Britain,Bathurst has uncovered the secret history of ships and shipwreck victims,from shoreline orgies so dionysian that few participants survived until morning to crofts fitted with silver candelabra,and from coastlines rigged like stage sets to the strange tale of Britain's Royal Fish. Spanning three hundred years of history,'The Wreckers' examines the myths,realities,and superstitions of shipwrecks,and uncovers the darker side of life on our island shores.
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