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This captivating saga chronicles the ordeal of the lost cruiser USS Houston and the fate of its 1,168 men -- a grim tale that was then a mystery and largely untold in historical accounts of WWII naval warfare in the Pacific.
Hornfischer provides an intimate history of FDR's favorite pre-war ship, its crew and the desperate sea battle in 1942 off the coast of Java that sunk the Houston, the U.S. fleet's flagship in Asia.
With vivid and visceral descriptions of the chaos and valor onboard the doomed Houston -- under attack until its last gasp from Japanese bombs, 8-inch guns on enemy ships and torpedoes from unseen subs -- the author penetrates the thoughts and fears of adrenaline-pumped sailors in the heat of combat.
The bulk of Ship of Ghosts follows what happened to the third of Houston's crew that survived the sea battle only to face shark-infested waters, hostile nearby islanders, and -- for those lucky or unlucky enough to get that far --years of hardship and struggle to stay alive as prisoners of war. This is the part of the story that David Lean told in his classic film The Bridge on the River Kwai -- about horror-filled POW camps in the impassable jungles of Burma and Thailand, where merciless Japanese guards forced Houston survivors suffering from starvation and deadly tropical diseases to build bridges and railroads by hand.
Hornfischer masterfully shapes the narrative through official documents and firsthand accounts of Houston survivors, breathing life into an unforgettable epic of human endurance under the most dire and inhumane circumstances.
A discomforting testament that war is indeed hell, this is one of those page-turners where, just when you're thinking, "This can't get any worse," of course it does. Ship of Ghosts is a compelling book for anyone intrigued by harrowing tales of courage and the irrepressible will to survive.
Ship of Ghosts: The Story of the USS Houston, FDR's Legendary Lost Cruiser, and the Epic Saga of Her Survivors
By James D. Hornfischer
Bantam, 431 pp., $26
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