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  • The Wreckers

  • A Story of Killing Seas, False Lights and Plundered Ships
  • By: Bella Bathurst
  • Narrated by: Rebecca Crankshaw
  • Length: 10 hrs and 25 mins
  • 4.0 out of 5 stars (16 ratings)

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The Wreckers

By: Bella Bathurst
Narrated by: Rebecca Crankshaw
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Summary

From the best-selling author of The Lightouse Stevensons, a gripping history of the drama and danger of wrecking since the 18th-century - and the often grisly ingenuity of British wreckers, scavengers of the sea.

A fine wreck has always represented sport, pleasure, treasure and, in many cases, the difference between living well and just getting by. The Cornish were supposed to be so ferocious that notices of shipwrecks were given out during morning service by the minister whilst the congregation spent their time concocting elaborate theological justifications for drowning the survivors. Treeless islanders relied on the harvest of storms to furnish themselves with rafters, boat hulls, fence posts and floors. In other places false lights were set up with grisly ingenuity along the coast to lure boats to destruction.

With romance, insight and dry wit, Bella Bathurst traces the history of wrecking, looting and salvaging in the British Isles since the 18th century and leading up to the present day. 'For a fully laden general cargo to run to ground in an accessible position is more or less like having Selfridges crash-land in your back garden,' she writes. 'A Selfridges with the prices removed.'

Far from being a black-and-white crime, wrecking is often seen as opaque by its practitioners - the divisions between theft and recovery are small. No successful legal prosecution has ever been brought; the RNLI was founded by wreckers - even today lifeboat crews maintain the right to claim salvage; and since the sinking of the Cita in 1997, the inhabitants of the Scilly Isles have a startling propensity to sport Ben Sherman shirts.

In settings ranging from the eerily perambulatory Goodwin Sands to the wreck-strewn waters off the coast of Durham, these murky tales of resourcefulness and quick-witted opportunism open a beguiling vista of life at the rough edges of our land and legality.

©2005 Bella Bathurst (P)2017 Audible, Ltd
  • Unabridged Audiobook
  • Categories: History
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What listeners say about The Wreckers

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Narration

I enjoyed the book but my experience was spoilt by the narrator's appalling and insulting attempt at a Liverpool accent. Why she had to do that and mock a city of 1 million people just showed bigotry.

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Amazing book

The tale is enthralling and very informative. I read this as a book and loved it however as an audio book I find the accents used to be very off putting and grating to the point that I can’t listen beyond chapter 2, a great shame as this book is fantastic.

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  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

Disappointed - a social history

I’m three hours in and do not anticipate listening further. My interest is primarily in the history of shipwrecks, diving and associated stories and the blurb on this attracted me. So far I’ve listened to an overwrought social history on remote fishing villages, but a frustrating lack of ‘storytelling’. Far too much time is devoted to the context and it ends up like a social history, barren of any gripping narrative or seeming purpose. I’ve learnt more about legislation, rotting crofts and what activities can take place on sand bars at low tide than I have about shipwrecks, storms and dastardly deeds.
Whilst the narration is good I would agree with the previous review - the constant faux accents very quickly begin to annoy and distract. I get it, you can do accents, but it’s not adding anything in this instance.
Overall it’s just a bit tedious and lacking substance. Clearly a lot of time has been devoted in to research but it’s just dull in my opinion.

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  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars

Terrible narrator's accents

Book sketchy and unfocused and meandering. The narrator uses an infinity of pantomime accents, whether clowning Scottish, corny west country, and if quoting from a Liverpool newspaper in comic scouse. So many narrators do this kind of pointless showing off now...

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