This book was well researched and well written, and gave good background for those who were seeking a new life and why people chose to sail on these packet ships. The lifestyle on the ship was well described and gave a glimpse as to what sailing on these ships would be like and how dangerous the journey was. When the story gets to the ship going down and those on the boats reaction (crew and passengers) and attempt to get to life lifeboat, you almost felt as though you were there. The story of those on the lifeboat, what they went through, and their deaths made you empathize with them. Overall, I would recommend this book to anyone who who is interested in survival stories or stories of ship journeys. The only issue I see with this book, is that the author chose to only put true facts and statements in quotation marks. This makes it difficult at times to discern when people are talking. But overall, a great book.