Cap Arcona: A Ship Like No Other

A WRITER'S WIT
Sometimes I can be walking down the street, or riding a bus, and suddenly I see somebody who reminds me of somebody I know back home, and I close my eyes and find myself thinking of the sea, or the taste of grafted mango, or the smell of saltfish frying, and then I come back to myself and open my eyes and realize where I am.
​Caryl Phillips
Born March 13, 1958

C. Phillips

​Watson, Robert P. The Nazi Titanic:  The Incredible Untold Story of a Doomed Ship in World War II. Boston: Da Capo, 2016.

​Even as a child, I was a sucker for disaster reads, particularly those taking place at sea: Titanic, Andrea Doria, and others. Watson seizes upon the fame of the Titanic to make a case for his story about the German ship, Cap Arcona  (German for Cape Arcona). Without the Titanic reference in the title, the book might not have much shelf appeal. I’m not sure that there are too many real parallels between the two ships except that they both sank. 
 
Nevertheless, Watson’s book is a fascinating one about the extraordinary history of a German luxury liner that services travelers from the Baltic to South America from 1927 until 1939. At that time the Nazis expropriate the ship and transform it for war purposes. Its most important history comes at the end of its life, in 1945, and I’m not going to spoil the read by giving away the ending. Suffice it to say that the Cap Arconastory is one that has been overlooked, and we have Robert Watson to thank for keeping it and its historical significance alive.

---

NEXT FRIDAY: My Book World | Dostoevsky's The Brothers Karamazov