How to Abandon Ship

Based on interviews with the crew and captain of a torpedoed tanker who survived nineteen days in a lifeboat in heavy seas and scorching tropical sun—this information is incredibly useful even today.

How to Abandon Ship was written during World War II to save the lives of seamen by instilling a commonsense, organized, no-panic clarity to getting off torpedoed ships safely and, perhaps more importantly, surviving later. It is a gem that can once again be used to save lives.
Former schooner captain and author Twain Braden updates this solid and useful advice with a foreword addressing today’s technology. Braden used How to Abandon Ship to teach crewmembers fifty years after it was written while sailing the rugged and dangerous Maine coast.

The writing in How to Abandon Ship is so clear it has been used in college English composition classes. You will find vivid and pertinent information on everything from medical emergencies, thirst, and hunger to weather and morale.It pulls no punches, and its advice is strident but useful. In the words of the authors: “This manual is concerned solely with human lives. Its purpose is to aid you to get off a sinking ship and to eventual safety in the best condition possible.”

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Phil Richards was a writer in New York for many years, and he died in San Jose, California.

John J. Banigan was the Third Officer on the SS Robin Moor, the first American vessel sunk by a Nazi torpedo during World War II. Born in New York, he is buried in Galveston, Texas.

Twain Braden, an attorney and a licensed 100-ton master, is a delivery captain who has worked aboard scores of vessels. He is a former managing editor of Ocean Navigator and an instructor at the Ocean Navigator School of Seamanship. Twain is the author of three books: In Peril (with co-author Skip Strong), Ghosts of the Pioneers, and The Complete Guide to Sailing & Seamanship. He resides on Peaks Island, Maine.