Also along the way they discovered secret oases and ancient cities as Captain Riley forged a surprising bond with a Muslim trader. They were forced to become allies in order to survive, even as Riley planed on betraying the trader in order to save his men.

Dean tells a disturbing, but true tale of endureance that finally came to an end when an Arab tribal leader brought the exhausted and emaciated men to the provincial trading post of Swearah where the British paid the ransom for their freedom.

This read like a pulse racing thriller. I know I couldn't put it down and I can't recommend it highly enough.

Sophie Cacique Gaul


Desert Heroism   April 4, 2004
R. Hardy (Columbus, Mississippi USA)
44 out of 45 found this review helpful

As a boy, Abraham Lincoln read the memoir of Captain James Riley, and never forgot its story of slavery in the Sahara (or Zahara, as Riley would have known it). Thoreau knew the book. It was an international bestseller, and it might have been one of the few books besides the Bible in some American homes. Riley was a legend in his own time, but no longer is in ours. He is back, brought to us by Dean King, who read Riley's memoir of his adventure in the Sahara, and then read a narrative of the same adventure from a fellow crewman of Riley's, and then himself traveled in the still inhospitable and dangerous regions described in the two books. King has produced _Skeletons on the Zahara: A True Story of Survival_ (Little, Brown), a wonderful account of fortitude under the most extreme conditions at sea and on the desert. This is one of the great adventure stories, full of the tortures by man and nature, and of course of the success of an indomitable spirit.

Captain Riley and his "good Yankee crew" of eleven left Connecticut for an ordinary merchant voyage in 1815, and eventually foundered on the west coast of the Sahara, six hundred miles south of Morocco. They were beset by hostile, thieving nomads, but briefly escaped by taking to sea in the ship's longboats. They were eager to be away from the Sahara, which everyone knew was a realm of death but which was at the time uncharted, mysterious, and full (so the stories went) of cannibals. They ran out of provisions at sea and were forced to make for Sahara land south of Bojador, and their prospects were just as bad. Other tribesmen captured them, took their goods, and made them slaves. There are many pages devoted here to pain, extreme sunburn, thirst, hunger and other travails. The means of relieving these tortures are often unpleasant to contemplate as well; the way the captors and crew made do eating unmentionable parts of camels as well as snails and locusts are detailed here. Riley's eventual captor was a desert merchant Sidi Hamet, who was in financial trouble. Riley assured Hamet that he had important friends at the British consulate, hundreds of miles away. He insisted that these friends would buy him and the crew back for a high price. Of course, there were no such friends, and Riley was bluffing; Hamet insisted that if the ransom price was not paid, he would slit Riley's throat, and perhaps he was bluffing as well.

The hapless Riley and the hapless Hamet make the core of this tale, and King cannot be faulted that his source narratives don't have enough details to describe Hamet fully. He emerges, however, as a friend and savior, even if he was initially only after the ransom. Riley could not have known it, but there was indeed a procedure for ransoming slaves, and a British consular official made it happen, becoming Riley's lifelong friend. A measure of the two months in captivity is that Riley normally weighed 240 pounds, and when he was ransomed he weighed less than ninety. Not all of his crew made it back, and some of them may have spent the rest of their lives as slaves. King's exciting and surprising narrative ends with the speculation that Riley may even have had an effect on his own country's slave trade. He became an active abolitionist, easily able to discuss the immorality of slavery; and perhaps since Lincoln admired Riley's book, it may have done its little part to bring emancipation about.


Real survivors   March 15, 2004
Lynn Harnett (Marathon, FL USA)
18 out of 18 found this review helpful

In 1815 a New England merchant brig foundered in rocky seas off North Africa. Its crew survived though perhaps they later wished they hadn't.

In the first days, hostile nomads drove them to escape back to the sea in a small boat with a broken oar only to suffer such dehydration and starvation that even enslavement by the dreaded nomads seemed preferable - until it happened.

After a slow, thoughtful start laying out the background of the men and the voyage, Dean's story of the crew's ordeal reads like a runaway suspense thriller with torture. And it's well written and chock full of information you didn't know you needed - the camel, for instance, is an astonishing physical specimen, a creature with a face built for sandstorms; an animal that doesn't sweat or pant, but stores its heat for the cold nights when it becomes a kind of living stove.

Dean's book is based largely on two firsthand accounts - one by ship's captain James Riley, and another by crewman Archibald Robbins. Dean also retraced much of Riley's trek, and his selected bibliography is lengthy.

Near death, the crew puts back into shore and, unable to find water, throws themselves on the mercy of the first nomads they encounter. The men are immediately stripped naked, then parceled out as slaves - after a bloody and protracted fight among the desert dwellers. Their first guzzle of water and sour camel's milk rips through their intestines, a cycle that is to be repeated throughout their ordeal.

Separated, sunburned, depleted, still naked and unable to keep up, the men are put on camels. "It is no coincidence that a camel's gait is called a `rack'." Blood was soon dripping from chafed thighs and calves.

The ordeal goes from horror to worse. The nomads themselves often have nothing to eat or drink; bloody encounters and thievery are common. The sailors are worth rather less than a lame camel. Less than a good blanket, in fact.

The physical suffering is enough to make you marvel at their will to live, but Dean also conveys the helplessness of slavery. Purposely dehumanized, their lives are entirely subject to commerce or whim. Riley, a man of his time who, Dean speculates, may have planned on acquiring a slave cargo, became a fervent abolitionist on his return.

Riley comes alive on the page as a man of indomitable will, who takes his responsibilities to his men to heart. Eventually he strikes a bargain with an Arab trader, a promise based on a lie and a gamble that develops into something more personal, if precarious. The denouement is a protracted drama of danger, diplomacy and daring that will keep you on the edge of your seat.

Riley's book was a best selling sensation, which remained in print long after his death, so a certain amount of skepticism is necessary. But the later events of his life bear out his energy, strength and charisma. Dean's ("Patrick O'Brian: A Life Revealed") stirring account, fleshed out with information about the desert, the people, their history and the cultural importance of Islam, as well as the extremes the human body can endure, is as culturally informative as it is exciting.


An instant favorite   March 7, 2004
Cort W. Hayhurst (Blanchard, Oklahoma United States)
15 out of 15 found this review helpful

I was first attracted to this book after reading a review in the Smithsonian magazine. The original story was apparently one of the most influential books of Abraham Lincoln's youth. I was also intrigued by the location in which the story took place, Morocco, where I had spent two years as a Peace Corps Volunteer on the border with Algeria. The story was rich with the descriptions of a sailor's life and the hardships of shifting to a struggle for survival in the desert of the Sahara. I had some experience with nomads and Touaregs in the Sahara and was amazed at how King's descriptions of nomadic lifestyles and customs of 200 years ago are still alive today.

It's probably apparent by now that I am not a book reviewer, this is my first review. In fact I don't read much any more as I am usually disappointed and quit before finishing most books. This book, however, was one which I could not put down. It is a work that I must place at the top of my all time favorites.


1815 shipwreck and slavery, told under the Sahara sun today   May 23, 2005
J.L. Alig (Ohio)
13 out of 13 found this review helpful

An 1815 shipwreck and slavery by Arabs told under the Sahara sun today

Dean King studied Captain James Riley's story of his 1815 shipwreck off the coast of Africa, and the subsequent slavery of Riley and crew when captured by the Arabs. After months in the formidable Sahara Desert, Riley and crew were freed from being hostages, by Englishman William Willshire. Riley returned to the States and in 1816 published his book, "Narrative of the Loss of the American Brig Commerce." Riley accepted an 1819 appointment from the U.S. Surveyor General Edward Tiffin to survey land in northwest Ohio, following the U.S. Treaties with the Indian Nations. In 1822, Riley platted Willshire, Ohio, to honor his benefactor, Wm. Willshire. Riley went on to become Northwest Ohio's Representative to Ohio Congress, 1834/24. In the 1830's, Riley returned to sea. U.S. President Abraham Lincoln wrote that he had read Riley's book, which influenced his attitudes concerning slavery.

Dean King read Riley's "Narrative," and became so intrigued with Riley's story, that he planned and implemented a trip in the Sahara, following Riley's route on camels. King questioned his Arab guides and related stories written by Riley, to confirm the authenticity of Riley's "Narrative." King kept a daily journal which is now posted on his website, DeanHKing.com. King's daily journal is worthy of being a companion book to his book about Riley, because it takes the reader with him under the hot desert sun.

How do I know to advise the reader to read Dean King's book about Captain James Riley? I served as Director of the Mercer County Historical Museum, The Riley Home, Celina, Ohio, for over three decades. I wrote a biography of Captain James Riley, about his ancestors, and descendants, as well as about Riley's entire life in Connecticut and Ohio. Riley's son, James Watson Riley, platted Celina, Ohio in 1834. At this Mercer County Historical Museum, the Riley Home, archival collections of Captain James Riley, include Riley's ship logs: his international correspondence with William Willshire, British Vice Consul; his correspondence with members of the U.S. Government, and his correspondence with his children. The archives also include histories of Riley's descendants in the United States, Canada, and Ireland.

I had the opportunity to become acquainted with Dean King in 2000 when he was beginning his journey to learn about Riley. We have continued our communication these past years. April 23/24, 2005, the Members of the Mercer County Historical Society were proud to host Dean King as speaker at the public program, partially funded by the Ohio Humanities Council. Descendants of Captain James Riley, from Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Michigan, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, New York, and Florida attended this program, and they shared their family stories about Captain Riley with Dean King.

Dean King's book, "Skeletons in the Zahara," should be read by anyone with the slightest hint of maritime adventure running through his veins. King's knowledge of sailing ships and the sea is superb.

King's books should be read by historians who will value not only the history of the War of 1812 maritime era, but also King's detailed footnotes and extensive bibliography.

King's books should be read by literature clubs who read for the pure pleasure of reading and discussing good books. King's literary talents are of the quality of the classical authors.

At his young age, Dean King is an uncommon man who has achieved that broad experience and ability, to be able to walk among peers in his academic world, as well as to be able to walk among camel herders, sailors, and the common man, and to tell their stories well.