SURVIVE THE SAVAGE SEA. [Author SIGNED copy.]

UK,8vo HB+dw/dj,SIGNED,1st edn.NFINE/NFINE.No owner inscrptn but author's neat,blue ink signature - without dedication - to title page and no price-clip to dw/dj.Colour photographic dw/dj with bright,white lettering to front panel and b/w lettering to spine/backstrip; with negligible shelf- wear or creasing to edges and corners - a small closed tear with small crease to rear, lower corner of dw/dj. Both head+foot of spine/backstrip minimally bumped with reciprocal creasing.Sharp-cornered,blue paper-covered boards with minimal sunning/fading on top edges of same and bright,crisp,blocked gilt letters to spine/backstrip and colour map illustrated endpapers.Top edges slightly aged/ toned with some minimal thumb grubbing,fore-edges similar but to a lesser degree; contents bright,tight,clean, solid and sound - near pristine apart from a tiny,tiny (accidental/unintentional?) dog-ear crease to pp143/4 - appears unread apart from my own collation.UK,8vo HB+ dw/dj,SIGNED,1st edn, 223pp+1pp publisher advert at rear includes prologue,a glossary,33 b/w illus by Pam Littlewood in text; 13 b/w photographs. At 10 am on 15 June 1972,the 19-ton,43-foot schooner Lucette,sailed by a Scottish ex-farmer and his family,was attacked by killer whales in the Pacific,and sank in 60 seconds.What happened after that is the subject of one of the most astounding survival stories ever to be told.In an inflatable rubber raft,with a 9-foot fibreglass dinghy to tow it,Dougal Robertson and his crew of five - his wife,18-year-old son and 12-year-old twin boys,and a student friend - decided to make for the coast of Costa Rica,1,000 miles and an estimated 50 days away.They had emergency rations of food and water for only three days,a handful of random items salvaged from Lucette,and no maps, compass or instruments of any kind. Steering by sun and stars,they set course for the Doldrums.A ship passed near them but failed to see their flares,leaving them to face death from thirst,starvation and exhaustion; but they did not die.Their raft sank under them and still they did not die.Cramped together in their tiny dinghy with only six inches of freeboard,they clawed a place for themselves in the savage ecology of the ocean,on constant alert against 20-foot waves,marauding sharks and numerous other hazards,through rain,storm,calm and equatorial heat.With knowledge as their principal weapon,love as their bond, courage and self-sacrifice became a way of life,as mile after mile these six humans in the vast reaches of the Pacific refused to admit defeat.After 37 days their ordeal was ended,a Japanese fishing boat picking them up when they had only 290 miles to go.Dougal Robertson tells this incredible story with moving eloquence,sharing with the reader each day's crisis or triumph,each person's hopes and fears, the tensions,the heartbreaks,and the Robertsons' indomitable determination not to die.He fully describes the techniques that enabled them to survive.At the end of the book,he sets forth the lessons to be learned from this devastating experience - lessons which no reader who is likely to sail on or fly over the sea can afford to ignore,for like the Robertsons that reader too could,in one catastrophic minute,be in the same position of having to 'Survive the Savage Sea.' Please contact seller @ rpaxtonden@blueyonder.co.uk ,because of the value of this item,for correct shipping/P+p quotes - particularly ALL overseas buyers - BEFORE ordering through the order page! N.B. ALL buyers please note,stocks' actual shipping/P+p costs are adjusted and any difference is refunded,after order's receipt and before the order's despatch,especially if the item(s) are offered either P+p included/FREE. **N.B. US/Canada customers please be aware: Standard AIRMAIL postage from UK to these destinations can now cost more than the price of the book! If speed is not of the essence, then Economy rate is recommended - at approx. anything from a 1/3rd to 1/2 of the standard US AIR quote/rate - sometimes arriving sooner than the 42 days - but not always. **