Tuesday, November 25, 2008

Zahara



Yesterday morning I finished reading Skeletons on the Zahara: A True Story of Survival by Dean King. I read it quite quickly as I enjoyed it so much. It told the survival story of about dozen men who shipwrecked in 1815 off the coast of Morroco. The men were robbed and made to be slaves. Eventually their captain convinced a trader to buy a few of them and take them to the English consul who then ransommed them. Along the way they suffered from the sun, starvation and dihidration. King constructed the story from two published accounts, one by the captain which became quite famous in the 19th century and another more obscure account by another shipmate who's survival story was slightly different. He also added bits he obtained from other sources and his travels to the area. Although I knew that at least these two men survived considering the conditions they were existing in I couldn't imagine how. My curiosity kept me reading this book all day on Sunday.

Last night I searched a tiny amount of coin. Fifty dimes and two hundred nickels produced just one Canadian nickel.

Found: 1 penny (outside Sovereign Bank), 2 nickels (at Sovereign Bank), 1 dime (outside the Mall), 1 quarter (at Sovereign Bank)

1 comments:

James (UK) said...

Have you ever heard of Ray Mears?

He's a guy over here who does loads of "survivalist" programmes. Well worth catching, if you see his name mentioned.