Skeletons on the Zahara, by Dean King: here's another book where an early 19th-century ship out of New England is lost at sea, and that's only the beginning of the story (see also In the Heart of the Sea, by Nathaniel Philbrick). In this case, it's a merchant vessel that wrecks off the coast of Africa, in what is now Western Sahara. Just as with In the Heart of the Sea, you'd think the story of the wreck and how it came about would be interesting enough, and it is. But as I said, it's only the beginning.
You see, after the shipwreck, the crew of the boat Commerce were kidnapped into slavery by local tribes. The slavery didn't happen right away - the sailors made an initial attempt for shore as their boat was sinking but were rebuffed (quite violently) by the very hostile natives. After drifting off the coast for many days, as their food supply dwindled and their boat slowly fell apart, they finally decided to make for land again and take their chances with the natives. That's when they were sold into slavery and taken into the interior of Africa, vanishing in the vast Sahara desert.
Obviously, some of the men made it out of the ordeal alive, or we wouldn't be reading a book about their experiences. I won't tell you how many made it, or exactly how, but it is an amazing story that is actually quite incredible at times. I find that happens a lot with survival adventure stories - there always comes a point in the book/movie where I think, "OK, now surely, there is no way they lived through THIS." But they DID survive, and the story of how they did so is nothing short of fascinating.
A fun exercise is to read this book soon after reading In the Heart of the Sea, along with a friend or spouse, and then discuss which set of sailors had it worse. Their stories are very comparable, after all: early 19th-century American men who made their living at sea, thrown into unbelievably hostile conditions after suffering the loss of their ship at sea, both experiencing extremes in weather, inhospitable terrain, hunger, and thirst. Jeremy and I read both books and we can't seem to reach a consensus. I think we are both leaning toward In the Heart of the Sea being the more harrowing ordeal, but Skeletons on the Zahara certainly has plenty going for it, as well.
So: adrift at sea for months with nothing to eat but your fellow shipmates, or sold into slavery for a much longer period in one of the most inhospitable regions of the planet. What do you think?