'Skeletons' provides adventure based on well-done research

The book brings a culturally sensitive light to 19th-century West Africa.
By ANDREA AHLES
KNIGHT RIDDER NEWSPAPERS
"Skeletons on the Zahara," by Dean King (Little, Brown, $24.95)
If "Survivor" contestants were shipwrecked on the coast of West Africa in the 1810s, like the crew of the Commerce, they would not have lasted beyond the first week.
Dean King's "Skeletons on the Zahara" tells the disturbing tale of the Commerce crew and captain as they attempt to survive in the barren Sahara desert. This nonfiction book -- which in part combines written accounts from Capt. James Riley and seaman Archibald Robbins -- details amazing stories of thirst, sandstorms and slavery.
Setting the scene
After successfully navigating the Atlantic Ocean from the home port of Middletown, Conn., Riley charted a course that would take his merchant ship from Gibraltar to the Cape Verdes Islands to trade for salt. But a dense fog caused the boat to move off course, straight into the shallow reefs off Cape Bojador, located in modern-day Western Sahara.
Upon reaching the shore, the sailors encountered a group of Sahrawis, local nomads, who immediately began looting the Commerce and robbing the sailors of their food supplies. Instead of surrendering to the Sahrawis, the seamen took a longboat that survived the wreck and headed back out to sea.
King wisely uses additional sources, including written accounts from survivors of other African coast shipwrecks, to support the often unbelievable stories related afterward by the Commerce crew. The author also adds scientific details, such as graphic descriptions of dehydration and dysentery, giving readers a realistic portrayal of the natural dangers facing the sailors.
The sailors drifted about 200 miles south of where they shipwrecked before deciding to take their chances in the Sahara. Within days they were enslaved by nomadic Arabs who subsisted almost solely on camels' milk.
The author keeps up a brisk narrative pace by effectively alternating between Riley and Robbins' individual tales of life in the desert. When the sailors are sold off to different slave owners, King does not attempt to follow each individual, instead keeping the focus on the written accounts that are the basis of the book.
Cultural awareness
Although the sailors' struggles to survive form the core of the book, King also brilliantly describes the lives and culture of Western Sahara nomads. The author could easily have characterized the sailors' captors as inhuman Muslims profiting from Christian slavery. Instead, he provides captivating details of traveling hundreds of miles on camels and of the difficulty of finding water in the desert. King's description of Riley's owner, Sidi Hamet, adds another dimension to the book. The author informs readers of Hamet's financial problems with his father-in-law, which motivate Hamet to take Riley to the British consulate in exchange for ransom.
Basing his story upon thorough research, King has written a mesmerizing book. More than any of the reality shows on television today, "Skeletons of the Zahara" lives up to its billing as "a true story of survival."