21 Days in an Open Boat: A True Story of Survival at Sea

This is the first-person account of Herbert W. Stone, the second-mate of the Earnmoor, a tramp steamer which sank during a hurricane in the Atlantic on September 5, 1889. Stone and a handful of his surviving shipmates drifted in an open lifeboat for three weeks in the Gulf Stream before being rescued off of Cape Hatteras on September 26, 1889.Owned by the Earn Line Shipping Company of Philadelphia, the Earnmoor was built by Palmers Shipbuilding and Iron Company in Tyne, England. She was approximately 2,000 tons with a length of 280 feet and a beam of 36 feet. During her short life between her launch in 1897 and her sinking in 1889, the Earnmoor ran cargos mostly between Baltimore and Santiago, Cuba, where grain was typically taken south and iron ore was taken north.Stone gave this account to his church congregation approximately two decades after his harrowing voyage.Read more