The Plimsoll Sensation: The Great Campaign to Save Lives at Sea - Hardcover

Jones, Nicolette

4.05

20 ratings by Goodreads

9780316726122: The Plimsoll Sensation: The Great Campaign to Save Lives at Sea

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0316726125 ISBN 13: 9780316726122

Publisher: Little, Brown & Company, 2006

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This enthusiastically reviewed, scrupulously researched and prize-winning book, which was a BBC Radio 4 Book of the Week, chronicles a resonant episode of Victorian history. It is the tale of the agitation led by Samuel Plimsoll MP, 'The Sailor's Friend', and by his wife Eliza, who worked together to defend sailors against nefarious practices including overloading and the use of unseaworthy 'coffin-ships'. The backlash of libel cases and vilification almost ruined Plimsoll, but his drive and passion made him feverishly popular with the public; he was the subject of plays, novels, street ballads and music hall songs. With the demonstrative support of the nation, he faced down his enemies, came close to ousting Disraeli's government and achieved lasting safety measures for merchant sailors, including the load line that bears his name. Nicolette Jones throws light on a cross-section of Victorian society and tells the story of an epic legal, social, and political battle for justice, which is still an inspiring example of how the altruism and courage of determined individuals can make the world a better place.

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Review:

"A fascinating piece of social history" -- George Rosie, Sunday Herald

"Dickens ... would have delighted in this story's cocktail of cut-throat capitalism, bleeding-heart politics, evangelical piety and simple common sense" -- Jonathan Keates, Critic's Choice, First Post online magazine

"Jones's account is entirely worthy of its deserving subject." -- Sarah Burton, The Independent

"Nicolette Jones clearly loves her subject ... Her set-pieces mix sensitivity and narrative gusto." -- Jonathan Keates, Critic's Choice, The First Post online magazine, 22 June 2006

"Plimsoll's own level of near-fatal submergence is expertly tracked by Jones" -- Simon Garfield, The Observer

"[Jones] is sure-footed, never allowing her empathy with her subject to blind her to his failings" -- Neil Hanson, The Sunday Times , 25 June 2006

"a fine piece of work - fluently written, full of interesting things" -- Sam Leith, The Spectator

"outstanding ... the best 'sea' book I've read since Sebastian Junger's The Perfect Storm" - -- Anne Weale, Bookworm on the Net

"splendid and meticulously researched" -- Geoffrey Moorhouse, Guardian Book of the Week

"a story of ambition, treachery, libel, political intrigue and old-blooded murder ... told in an engaging, witty, racy style" -- Hugh Macdonald, The Glasgow Herald

From the Publisher:

Winner of the Mountbatten Maritime Award, The Plimsoll Sensation is now also the International Division Winner of the 2007 United States Maritime Literature Awards

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