02063cam a2200313 4500 335181440 ER5 20070221120000.0 050728s2006||||||||||||||||||||||||eng|u 2005052540 9781401301507 1401301509 9781401301507 (hardcover) 52495 (OCoLC)61204484 DLC DLC YDX BAKER OCO BUR ER5 Nagorski, Tom, 1962- Miracles on the water : the heroic survivors of a World War II U-boat attack / Tom Nagorski. 1st ed. New York : Hyperion, 2006. xv, 345 p., [16] p. of plates : ill., maps ; 25 cm. Includes bibliographical references (p. [325]-328) and index. On Sept. 17, 1940, at a little after ten at night, a German submarine torpedoed the passenger liner S.S. City of Benares in the North Atlantic. There were 406 people on board, including 90 children headed for peaceful Canada, their parents having elected to send them away from Great Britain to escape the ravages of World War II. The Benares sank in half an hour, in a gale that sent several of her lifeboats pitching into the frigid sea, more than three hundred miles from the nearest rescue vessel. Not one of the survivors had any reasonable hope of rescue. The initial "miracle" involves one British destroyer's race to the scene; the second is the story of Lifeboat 12, missed by the destroyer, 46 people jammed for eight days in a craft built for 30. Based on first hand accounts from the child survivors and other passengers.--From publisher description. City of Benares (Ship.) World War, 1939-1945 Naval operations, German. World War, 1939-1945 Naval operations Submarine. Shipwrecks North Atlantic Ocean. Survival after airplane accidents, shipwrecks, etc Anecdotes. Passenger ships Great Britain History 20th century.