Berserk: My Voyage to the Antarctic in a Twenty-Seven-Foot Sailboat |  | Author: David Mercy
Publisher: The Lyons Press
List Price: $22.95
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Seller: seashellbooks_inc
Rating:  7 reviews
Sales Rank: 487704
Media: Hardcover
Edition: 1st
Pages: 256
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.2
Dimensions (in): 9.4 x 6.2 x 1
ISBN: 1592282776
Dewey Decimal Number: 919.8904092
EAN: 9781592282777
ASIN: 1592282776
Publication Date: September 1, 2004
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
In 1998, David Mercy had spent the better part of a year traveling through South America when he reached Tierra del Fuego, Argentina, the southernmost tip of the continent. As a world traveler, the only continent he had not yet visited-Antarctica-beckoned from across the treacherous waters of the Roaring Forties, an infamous graveyard for ships. Mercy searched a local port for passage, but ships booked for scientific expeditions would not take him, and the tourist cruises didn't appeal to his sensibilities or his pocketbook. He almost gave up when word came from the docks. The old salts were talking about a nineteen-year-old Norwegian who was rigging his twenty-seven-foot fiberglass sailboat for an adventure quite beyond the pale. There in the harbor lay the little boat, its name crudely inscribed on the hull with short lengths of black electrical tape: Berserk.
A young Argentine who had walked out of central casting-and who had also walked out on his wife of one week-rounded out the boat's complement. As the three greenhorn sailors set sail, they could only vaguely apprehend the tumultuous storms, mishaps, and emergencies that loomed before them like the craggy outline of the world's most uninhabitable continent. Author David Mercy describes what it is like to withstand heaving seas and crushing waves for days on end, seasickness, and the first sight of the treacherous "growlers" or baby icebergs. For a while the young Argentine mutinied and refused to come out of the cabin. Subsisting mainly on candy bars and peeping owlishly from belowdecks, his seasick descent into madness hampers their ability to control the boat in dangerous conditions.
But there are also adventures with elephant seals sunning themselves on the banks of Antarctica, vast ice caves, and whaling camps populated by antisocial miscreants. Returning was quite another matter, an experience reminiscent of Shackleton's odyssey. Throughout the voyage, Mercy took videotape of what would become an immensely successful Norwegian documentary, and took notes for this humorous and well-drawn yarn. For adventure lovers, as Melville once wrote, "this is what ye shipped for, men!"
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Showing reviews 1-5 of 7
 annapolis goes crazy over this insane story June 20, 2006
Rebecca H. Binstock
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
Dateline Annapolis 2005:
City dock is abuzz over this tale by David Mercy. The worlds' capitol for sailing has had several bookstores feature this book in storefront displays. It is a simple tale and the narrator moves seemlessly from a simple folksy style a la Hemingway to breathless descriptives evoking Wilbur Smith comparisons. It seems like a tall tale yet if you can find the documentary from Norway TV One you understand the book is understated. It is highly recommended and is a fast read.
 Incredible Journey November 14, 2005
Evan L. Mugmon
This is an excellent book for those that enjoy realistic adventure stories. It's very hard to put this book down once you start reading it. You will be both impressed and dumbfounded by the author's bravery and disregard for the dangers he faced. All in all a very compelling tale of man vs. the elements of nature. Highly recommended
 Awesome! August 30, 2005
Lisa Smith (Los Angeles)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Its a mad, mad, mad, mad adventure. What a vicarious thrill. I'm still cold!
Can't put it down... August 24, 2005
T.H. (Oakland, CA)
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
What a great story, all the more so because it is true! I could hardly put this book down and I enjoyed every minute reading it.
I highly recommend this book.
 An Instubstantive Adventure June 29, 2005
Gryphon
6 out of 12 found this review helpful
Yes it's quite an adventure, and at times the descriptions put you there in the Drake and on Antarctica. "Berserk" however, is lacking for a few reasons. Not only is David Mercy an inexperienced sailor, he doesn't seem to have the assistance of an experienced editor, meaning that all of his terminology and description of boats and sailing is painfully inaccurate and misleading (i.e. "we were on the tack," and "I hate jibbing"). If you know anything at all about sailing, this will become infuriating.
The writing itself is often awkward, reading like a day-by-day journal that was quickly fleshed out with a lot of filler. There are literary tricks that don't work, and the book is littered with pop-culture and literary references that become distractingly frequent and at times wholly inaccurate.
The author's personal journey is entirely unfulfilling. A supposed director with an aversion to cameras (or is that a hopeful author?) quits everything and travels the "hippy trail" in South America, seemingly with the means to go anywhere he wants (or at least the ability to call his dad if he's in trouble... at age 35). At one point eager to sail all the way to Africa, and the next yearning to explore the Amazon, he comes off as a shallow over-funded yuppie with a short attention span.
Even when waxing philosophical or reflecting upon his past, what he shares is insubstantial. He keeps saying how much the trip changed his life, never really saying in what way. We are set up to expect a major shift in his worldview, but when he returns home, it is just as shallow and empty as before the voyage. At least twice he refers to "becoming a sailor," but this impression also seems to have no lasting effect. In the end he attempts to wrap things up with a philosophical denoument, which comes from left field and entirely misses its mark, showing not only a lack of understanding, but a deficiency in writing.
I'm still jealous of the journey, but this book may be best described as an example of how not to get to Antarctica. One would do well to avoid the author's mistakes.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 7
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