NCW Libraries

On November 20, 1820, in the Southeast Pacific, an enormous 85-foot sperm whale rammed and sank Nantucket whale ship The Essex and set its crew adrift more than a thousand miles from land. Only eight members of the young crew survived starvation, thirst and exposure, rescued at last by British whale ships three months later. Elderly Tom Nickerson recalls how, in 1819, he went to sea as cabin boy on The Essex, leaving Nantucket. Its recently promoted...

When the freighter on which they are traveling is torpedoed by a German submarine during World War II, an adolescent white boy, blinded by a blow on the head, and an old black man are stranded on a tiny Caribbean island where the boy acquires a new kind of vision, courage, and love from his old companion.

When a Swiss couple and their four sons are shipwrecked on an isolated island, they adapt to their "New Switzerland" using many imaginative methods of farming and animal taming.

"It was called "The Titanic of the South." The luxury steamship sank in 1838 with Savannah's elite on board; through time, their fates were forgotten--until the wreck was found, and now their story is finally being told in this breathtaking novel from the New York Times bestselling author of Becoming Mrs. Lewis. When Savannah history professor Everly Winthrop is asked to guest-curate a new museum collection focusing on artifacts recovered from the...

Chuck Noland, a FedEx systems engineer, finds his ruled-by-the-clock existence ended when a harrowing plane crash leaves him isolated on a remote island. As Chuck struggles to survive, he finds that his own personal journey has only just begun.

Artie Drager and his daughter Casey, along with his brother and their new friends have made landfall on a remote and seldom-visited cay in the Bahamas. But not everything has gone as planned. Their catamaran, the Casey Nicole is grounded on a reef, Larry's partner Scully is missing, left behind in Florida waters, where the coast is under lock-down by the U.S. Navy. And new dangers lurk among the once peaceful out islands where desperate survivors...

Navy pilot Robin Crusoe ditches his plane after engine trouble and becomes stranded on a tropical island with a poker-playing chimp, an abandoned sub, and a beautiful native girl named Wednesday who was exiled there for disobeying her overprotective father.

"A sweeping Elizabethan historical fantasy from an internationally renowned author that evokes the seafaring adventures of Robert Louis Stevenson with the magic of The Bear and the Nightingale"-- 1588. Reynard Shotwood survived the destruction of the Spanish Armada's failed invasion, but floated into the water off Suffolk, the sole survivor of an enlisted English fishing boat. Rescued by a crippled Spanish galleon, he is tasked by the captain to...

"Artie Drager and his daughter Casey, along with his brother and their new friends have made landfall on a remote and seldom-visited cay in the Bahamas. But not everything has gone as planned. Their catamaran, the Casey Nicole is grounded on a reef, Larry's partner Scully is missing, left behind in Florida waters, where the coast is under lock-down by the U.S. Navy. And new dangers lurk among the once peaceful out islands where desperate survivors...

"Razi, a local fisherboy, is watching turtle eggs hatch when he sees a boat bobbing into view. With a chill, he notices a small, still hand hanging over the side. Inside is Zheng, who's escaped a shipwreck and is full of tales of sea monsters and missing treasure. But the villains who are after Zheng are soon after Razi and his sister, Shifa, too! And so begins an exhilarating escapade in the shadow of the biggest sea monster of them all"--Provided...