You come of age very quickly through shipwreck and disaster.

There's a very short story behind this particular Top 5 list.  Jan (our reference librarian extraordinaire) saw a recent holiday reading blog post by Jason from the  New Zealand Electronic Text Centre that she thought would make a fantastic link on our website.  We decided to go one step further and turn it into a Top 5 list instead.  Thank you Jason and Jan.

List inspired by Jason from NZ Electronic Text Centre: Holiday Reading post as pointed out to Digital Services by Jan (our reference librarian extraordinaire)
Quote by Philip Dunne

See also: our NextReads History & Current Events newsletter, November 2008 - focus on shipwrecks

Wrecked on a reef, or, Twenty months among the Auckland Isles
by F.E. Raynal

910.916479 z RAY

A gripping and inspiring read, this is a facsimile of Franois Raynal's classic 1870s account of shipwreck in the Southern Ocean. Raynal and the crew of the "Grafton survive eighteen months as castaways, often in arctic conditions. A real-life "Robinson Crusoe, this is a fascinating story of ingenuity and determination. Includes 70 illustration and 40 pages of new appendices on the Southern Ocean and Raynal's influence on Jules Verne.

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Castaways of Disappointment Island
by Reverend H. Escott-Inman

F z ESC

The wreck of the Dundonald off the Auckland Islands in 1907, "From the description supplied to him by Mr Charles Eyre of Dulwich, London, one of the survivors".

On 7 March 1907 the barque Dundonald  ran ashore on one of the Auckland Islands 200 miles off the southern coast of New Zealand. From the story told to him by one of the survivors, Escott-Inman has reconstructed the sailors' grim eight-month struggle against hunger, bitter weather and despair. Disappointment Island was "All silence, all mountain, and scrub and loneliness" yet the men, driven by a primitive instinct for survival, succeeded in finding fresh water, building rough shelters and hunting mollyhawks and seals for food.

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The Wahine disaster
by Max Lambert & Jim Hartley

910.453 Z LAM

On the 10th April 1968, within sight of shore, the inter-island ferry Wahine lay on her side in the Wellington harbour. She was sinking fast after a terrible storm. Many lives were lost through the tragic sinking of this ship. This gives a full account of the disaster & the results of the Court of Inquiry held after the accident.

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Crusoes of Sunday Island
by Elsie K. Morton

F z MOR

"This is a desert-island story. It has elements of both Robinson Crusoe and the Swiss Family Robinson, but the special fascination of this story is that it is absolutely true." -- Back cover

It is the story of Tom Bell, an adventurous New Zealander who was a born pioneer. He wanted more than anything else to find an uninhabited Pacific Island, take his wife and children there, become a planter, and open up a trading station. In 1878 he and his family settled on Sunday Island, some six hundred miles north of Auckland.

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We will not cease
by Archibald Baxter

940.3162 z BAX

"This day by day record of the sufferings, torments, anguishes and privations of a Conscentious Objector in World War I is as relevant today as when it was first published in 1939.  It is written 'In memory of those days that we can't yet afford to forget', and for those who like Archibald Baxter believe that war does not provide an answer to anything this book is a moving reminder of the kind of courage needed to remain true to the dictates of belief and conscience." -- Back cover

Please note, this particular copy is a reference copy which means it can only be used in the library.  We do hold lending copies of a reprinted version that contains a foreword by Michael King.

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