The Survivors Of The Chancellor

Abstract

The novel tells in the form of a diary by one of the passengers, named J. R. Kazallon, the story of the demise of the three-masted Chancellor in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. The author describes how during a ship's voyage from Charleston, South Carolina to Liverpool, a fire broke out on the ship when a load of cotton ignited. It describes the ship's vain attempts to save the ship and its subsequent suffering on a raft, which it had to make from the wreckage of the ship. Sharks circle around the raft, the castaways suffer from hunger and thirst, they have hallucinations and many of them commit suicide. In critical situations, the true nature of many characters (incompetence, cowardice, selfishness, greed, envy, sadism and cannibalism), which until then were hidden under the skin of civilization, is revealed. Only last-minute rescue will prevent one of the passengers from being murdered and eaten on the raft.