About the Book

Do you think the ocean is a dangerous place? Yes, it can be.

Titanic…Amoco Cadiz…Herald of Free Enterprise…Exxon Valdez…every shipwreck tells a story.

Veteran sea captain Beetashok Chatterjee reveals the stories behind 13 of the greatest civilian maritime disasters, outside the realms of war, that shook the world. Not just for the number of lives lost, but in some cases the damage caused to the environment and livelihoods, or the media attention those incidents garnered.

Allow him to take you back in time and on the high seas, where you can watch and learn from these disasters—what, how and why they took place—while remaining at a safe distance.

Could they have been averted? Read to find out.

Each episode is a factual account but reads like a fictional thriller. Mayday! is meant not just for seafarers but for ordinary readers interested in the mysterious ways of the ocean.

–      Paranjoy Guha Thakurta, Journalist, Author, Publisher, Documentary Filmmaker, Teacher

Chatterjee teases out for us the human errors and acts of God that killed so many and caused such ecological havoc. This riveting account of storied disasters is written with the compassion and insight of a master mariner who has spent a lifetime at sea.

   –       Mukul Kesavan, Historian, Novelist, Columnist, Political and Social Essayist, Poet