Skeletons on the Zahara: A True Story of Survival

Skeletons On The Zahara is an excellent survival story by Dean King. He retells Captain James Riley's account of the 1817 US Brig Commerce shipwreck off the African Sahara desert, their capture by Arabs,enslavement and survival. This is a great action packed true story. I read the 353 page book in 2 days. The reader will not be board and gains much empathy with Captain Riley and his crew. There are some maps and a few B/W pictures of various men. I couldn't put the book down. The reader learns much about the Arabs in this region of African and how they treated Christians as infidel non humans. All they wanted them as slaves, to give them as much work as possible and having to cloth, and feed them as little as possible. Many were thought so little of, they were bought for as little as a blanket by other Arabs. If the slaves were lucky and perceived to have ransom value they were ransomed to diplomat consuls. They are captured by savage Arabs that enslave them. They treat Riley and his crew poorly with torture and almost starvation. They strip them of their clothing and many times the crew are almost naked. Their skin peals off in great sheets. Almost nothing to eat. Many times they must drink their own urine, others urine or camel urine to relieve their thirst. Camel milk helps keep them alive. A few of the Arabs showed some compassion even though they wanted the money of the slaves ransom. Riley and crew became walking skeletons with severe medical problems ( example 200 plus pound man down to 90 pounds).One almost goes blind. Some did not live many years after arriving back in the US. All were severely affected mentally and physically the rest of their lives. Only 1 lived to old age 82. I won't ruin the great ending David King tells about the ending of the survivors and helper lives. We see the long trek across the coast of the Sahara and eventually Riley and his crew are ransomed to the British consul .The British consul William Willshire helps save the Captain and four of his crew. Later two more are saved. Three are never heard from again. In his boyhood President Lincoln read Riley's book of the shipwreck of the Commerce and their survival and escape in the Sahara desert. It was one of his favorites. Look at all the 5 star reviews by reviewers. This is an excellent classic survival story. 5 stars and proudly added to our family library.

This is a difficult book to read, due to the unimaginable suffering undergone by the survivors of the wrecked American brig Commerce along the Northern Africa coast, but it is also a compelling and tightly written story that will hold the reader's interest and give tremendous insight into life in the barren desert lands of North Africa and the nomadic tribesmen inhabiting that area during the early 19th century. Briefly, the American ship is wrecked along the coast of the Saharan desert, a place well known for ill treatment of shipwrecked sailors by the nomadic tribes in that region, including robbery, torture, murder, but most often being taken as slaves. The brig's crew, after an aborted early escape attempt by lifeboat, are captured and taken as slaves. They were treated in a miserable manner, forced to travel and serve the nomad tribes without adequate food, clothing, shelter, and little ability to communicate with their captors. Several were sold and traded to other tribes and, with the exception of a few somewhat compassionate tribesmen lived a life best compared to those held in WWII concentration work camps. Their only hope was to find and convince one of their slave owners that they would be worth more if taken to more civilized areas of Northern Africa (i.e. Morocco and proximate cities) where the English and French officials would pay money to ransom them. While having no absolute knowledge that they would be successful in obtaining those ransoms, they nevertheless were able to convince (bluff, as it were) one of their more benevolent owners to take them there. The book gives comprehensive insight into the life of the nomads; their almost complete reliance on Camels (with their magnificent ability to subsist on essentially worthless shrubs, little water, and yet travel great distances) to enable their nomadic existence, Nourishment was essentially camel milk, supplemented by the occasional killing of a camel or goat. The Commerce crew would have suffered significantly even if they had been treated equally with the tribesmen, but they had a worse lot, often walking over hot desert lands with inadequate protection from the sun and heat, and getting what little milk or animal offal left after their captors had their fill. Ship's captain Riley, a robust man of over 200 pounds, weighed 90 pounds when he and what was left of his crew were finally ransomed. Much like other shipwreck novels, it is a story of survival, undergoing hardship, and how even under the most adverse conditions men can, and do, keep their will to live and ultimately survive. I enjoyed the book, and learned a lot in reading it.

Apparently the true story of Captain James Riley and his ill-fated crews' tale of shipwreck and subsequent capture and slavery was a popular story of the 19th century, mentioned even in the boyhood readings of Abraham Lincoln. Thanks to Dean King, this incredible story of survival, determination, and the range of the human spirit are rekindled in "Skeletons on the Zahara." In the summer of 1815, Riley and crew of the Commerce, a US merchant square-rigger home ported in Middleton, Connecticut, while heading from Gibraltar for the Canary Islands, shipwrecked off the treacherous coast of northwest Africa. Were it not for corroboration from a number of sources, including the published memoir of crewmember Archibald Robbins, this harrowing narrative of bondage and torture at the hands of the barbarous nomadic tribes of the Western Sahara Desert would simply not be believable. But through painstaking research, including his own journey through the desert retracing Riley's steps of nearly two centuries before, author King does an extraordinary job of detailing the tribulations and sufferings of the "Commerces", as well illuminating the customs and culture of the Islamic tribes of a desolate corner of the planet that to this day is mostly forgotten and hardly changed since Riley's fateful voyage. King wisely refrains from over-dramatizing the plight of Riley and his men; from the depths of depravity to the peaks of bravery and loyalty, of suffering and redemption, this story is best told unembellished. "Skeletons on the Zahara" is highly recommended for anyone with an interest in adventure, American history, nautical lore, Islamic culture, and the triumph of the soul over the body, and is yet additional proof to the old adage: fact is indeed stranger than fiction.

This is a monumental work. I am amazed at the amount of research that went into the making of this book. If you like detailed historical accounts of survival, this book is for you. The author does a good job of placing the reader in the environment, maintaining suspense when necessary, and providing insight at key moments. I also appreciate the explanations at the end and the very readable Notes section. This is the first book I've read by Dean King, and I appreciate the effort he has put into the book. I look forward to reading some of his other works.

Being shipwrecked is almost always bad, but being stranded on the coastal fringe of the Sahara Desert where the "lucky" survivors will be immediately enslaved by the local tribes and the others will be slain out of hand or will evade capture only to die of privation and exposure is quite a deal worse. This is the fate that befell the crew of the American ship "Commerce" soon after the War of 1812, when navigational errors caused the vessel to become grounded off the African course, far from any European settlements but right in the backyard of any number of exceedingly hostile Arab and Berber tribes. Working from primary sources penned by two of those who lived to tell the tale, King relates the story of the beleaguered crew and their struggle against both the brutal environment and the equally brutal treatment meted out by their captors. Obviously, conditions in the Sahara are extremely harsh, but no matter what tribulations Nature brought, Man seemed determined to needlessly add to them. The tribesmen who captured and then in various turns sold and bought the members of the crew mostly seem to have been deliberately and needlessly cruel, the more so since these desert inhabitants were Muslims to whom Christians were infidels deserving of no pity. It is, of course, worth noting that none of the tribesmen were exactly overly blessed with an abundance of resources, so in a good number of cases, the desert families were suffering from hunger and thirst right along with their slaves. The author provides a good deal of background material on the local culture, history, and geography, and also, to the degree that the materials are available, in giving the reader details on the crew and their time and place. King's prose flows smoothly and is not without a few novelistic flairs of colorful description. He does a good job of interweaving the various narrative strands, although due to the nature of the tribal folk and the very setting itself, a good portion of the story is repetitive, boiling down to "they traveled 30 miles that day, dying of thirst, and then the erstwhile Arab partners drew arms on each other and fought". Illustrations and maps are plentiful, as are citations to sources. King's research has been thorough and also taps into the survival tales of other crews stranded in that region in the early 1800s. This is a gripping tale that is very well told and should leave the reader wishing that at least a few of the crew's tormentors had met sundry nasty fates.

A very racy and edge of the seat account of the sufferings of the white slaves in Zahara by Dean King. King has left no stone unturned in his attempt to bring out the physical details of the sad adventures of the protagonist of the real story - Capt Riley. Many a time he ( King ) does a fact check on the narrative of the Captain which sometimes puts you off. King has gone to considerable length and expense to scientifically verify the accuracy of Riley's account. The graphic account of the geography and the lifestyles of the people in Zahara - all of which helped by the modern sophisticated technology - rivals the original and is praiseworthy. Now we come to the crux of the matter on which ground alone , this book loses its 2 stars. In my opinion it only deserves 3 stars. In his sordid desert trek , Capt. Riley develops a strong and unshakeable faith in the Almighty and his entreaties to God are filled with pathos and feelings of utter surrender to the Almighty's will. The resignation by Riley to the divine designs form an integral part of the original account. Where are these details in King's book ? I realize that Iam touching on a deeper and contentious question, the discussion of which is out of the scope of this brief review. In a flash I realize that it is the curse of our times. Bereft of a belief in the Almighty and utterly dedicated to the material realities of the world , we cannot conceive of the grace, beauty and the strength of Riley's convictions that mainly helped him to overcome the Himalayan odds facing him. This lack of faith has made us a weak willed , indolent and lazy generation. It is highly questionable whether any modern man can weather these storms with the kind of fortitude and patience that Riley displayed. The discussion of this " spirit force " of the Captain is conspicuoulsy absent in King's book. And , that becomes the downfall of this otherwise classic masterpiece. We may even go as far as to say that the author Dean King has not been faithful to the original. If at all he is an atheist , he should have left this story of Riley alone for in my opinion Riley's strong belief in God shapes the character and heart of this real life story. In one of the passages the agent of the savior , Bel Cossim remarks that Riley has been saved by God for some important purpose. Prophetic statement ! Within a span of five decades slavery was abolished in America. The book written by Capt. Riley about his privations and sufferings as a slave - which incidentally became the world's first known best seller - made a deep impact on the American President Lincoln's mind and caused him to set the slaves free. Thus Capt Riley's sufferings were vindicated.

Tremendously well-written and researched. Difficult to put down. Read it in two days. What these men went through ... And the pitilessness of their fellow man. Utterly horrifying. But we know all about that. One of the men came out of the ordeal barely skin and bones at forty pounds! Every page is fascinating for one reason or another - customs, psychology, landscape etc. It's beyond amazing that not only one but that most of them survived. Highly recommended.

The book is so much more than surviving a shipwreck as it reviews so much more about peoples and their beliefs. A must read and addition to your library.