Colorfully set in the political and social context of early nineteenth-century Great Britain, this account of the shipwreck is peopled with a fascinating cast of characters that includes John Wilks, the Paris correspondent of a London newspaper whose reporting inflamed public emotions; Lord Palmerston, the British foreign secretary; Captain Henry Chads, RN, the Admiralty's investigator; Consul William Hamilton, who was the chief subject of the investigation; Sarah Austin, a British expatriate whose extraordinary heroism the night of the wreck merited an award; and her secret love, a fortune-hunting Prussian prince. Drawing from government records in England, Scotland, and France, and from contemporary newspaper reporting, Andrew Jampoler spins an authentic sea story that rivals the best fiction. Readers will find this work firmly cements Jampoler's reputation as a master storyteller.