Burning Cold: The Cruise Ship Prinsendam and the Greatest Sea Rescue of All Time

In October 1980, the Holland America cruise ship Prinsendam rolled over on her starboard side and sank in 1,473 fathoms of icy water in the Gulf of Alaska. Amazingly, none of the 320 passengers or 190 crew went down with her, recounts Jeffers (The 1,000 Greatest Heroes ) in this workmanlike account of disaster and rescue on the high seas. After a fire broke out in the vessel's engine room and spread unchecked, everyone aboard was forced to abandon ship in a rising gale. Through the heroic efforts of the U.S. Coast Guard, whom Jeffers affectionately calls "Coasties," the evacuation resulted in no lives lost. While the story is laden with built-in drama, the prose is deadened with banal clichés: "Still unwilling to meet her maker just yet, Jeanie Gilmore was increasingly concerned about so much thick, black, acrid smoke." Jeffers has done a tremendous amount of research and the tale is packed with detail, but in his mundane recounting, the story fails to take off. 32 b&w photos not seen by PW . (Mar.)