William Ratigan's Great Lakes Shipwrecks and Survivals is a good book if you want a record of each large shipwreck on the Great Lakes. Wrecks that occurred on each of the five Great Lakes organize the book. The last thirty pages are dedicated to the wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald.
The book is more of an encolpia of shipwrecks than it is a book. It has some suspenseful points, but in general; it's dry and to the point.
There are very minimal pictures (at most 5) in the book. The writing is very informative and jammed packed. This would make a good book for someone who has a lot of time on his or her hands and can read very well. This would also make a good book for a person who had a, "sheltered" life; meaning, no personality, or since of humor.
There are some suspenseful points, but aren't what you think. They are quick and shot to the point. The book jumps from different ships all throughout the book as a cross-reference. Without any real life pictures of the ships the book refers to it becomes difficult to remember what ship they referred to without looking back.
I think there are better books with pictures and that are more user friendly and better organized than this book. My overall view of the book is thick old and dry with no visual aids. But in the books defense, this book does a great job explaining the shipwrecks, if you can stand reading a flood of words that are thicker than the Bible. It would just be that they put some visual aids to give your eyes a break.

"Great Lakes Shipwrecks & Survivals" is probably classified as a book with limited 'regional' interest, which is a shame because it deserves a much wider audience. I think it merits a place on the bestseller list next to "In the Heart of the Sea : The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex" by Nathaniel Philbrick, or "The Perfect Storm: A True Story of Men Against the Sea" by Sebastian Junger.

William Ratigan, a journalist whose father was a steamboat engineer, has written a romantic, blood-curdling maritime history of the Great Lakes, starting with Champlain's canoe as it ventured out onto Lake Huron, and ending with the thousand-foot bulk freighters that now churn our waters.

In his introduction, Ratigan warns the reader that even the biggest freighter is not guaranteed a safe return to port:

"These great ships sail Great Lakes that can swallow them in one black moment without a trace. Storms exploding across hundreds of miles of open water pile up mountainous seas that strike swifter, and more often, than the deadliest waves on any ocean. Before the ship has a chance to recover from the last blow, the next is upon her. The Lakes captain has no sea room in which to maneuver; unlike his salt-water counterpart he must stay on course throughout the storm; he must weather the teeth of the gale."

Each Lake's storms, shipwrecks, fires, and rescues gets its own section within "Great Lakes Shipwrecks & Survivals." The last section of the book's third edition (which I own) is devoted to the wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald, the introduction of bulk freighters into the Lakes, and the extension of the shipping season.

I'm glad this book was reissued in 2000, as I will soon need a replacement copy. I reread it almost every November, when gray skies close down over the freighters that still steam up and down the Detroit River near our house.

Are there captains out there, like the captains of the ill-fated Howard M. Hanna, Jr., the Daniel J. Morrell, the Carl D. Bradley, and the Edmund Fitzgerald, who are trying to squeeze in 'one last run' of the season?

As Ratigan says of these captains, "...they often stay out on the Lake beyond the time of regular insurance, beyond the time of navigational prudence. Once in a while, striving to make one last trip before winter locks up the Lakes, they make one last trip indeed---the last trip forever."

This is a very well written collection of stories about shipping disasters on the Great Lakes. The author has a very easy-going writing style that is a joy.