The history of maritime disasters is the story of a man’s struggle with the elements of the sea for his life. The book tells about extraordinary cases of saving people; the reader will get acquainted with such dangerous areas for navigation on the map of the globe as the Goodwin Sands, the shores of the English Channel, the Isles of Scilly, Sable, Cape Hatteras, etc. Separate chapters tell the history of the development and improvement of life-saving equipment, the origin of the international radiotelegraph distress signal SOS , about the main dangers for shipwrecked people. The book is intended for a wide range of readers