The Text that Nature Renders

About the Book

I looked through many events of my oceangoing past and sorted out these seven survival scenarios, in which the main characters ventured into the boundless scene of nature that to see and feel what one great man, Ernest Shacklton, confessed a long time ago: “We had seen God in His splendors, heard the text that Nature renders…1959” And eventually, it happened to most of them, my friends and colleagues, who became the heroes-actors of the stories, which I still perceive and clearly see in my vivid memory like it happened yesterday: the fledgling lonely marine on a raft, drifting on the high seas and fighting for his life; the tender lady, armed just with a primitive spear, battling with a dreadful beast to save the other people; the scouts miraculously coming alive out of hell of the Antarctica tempest in Royal Bay of South Georgia; the nonchalant mariners, enjoying the Arctic scenery and escaping a huge polar bear; the crew of a fishing trawler struggling for survival when trapped by hurricanes Debbie and Camille on the Grand Banks. The last two stories of “Howling Wilderness” and “The Castaways of frozen Land” are about the most remarkable survival in Siberia and on Arctic islands.

About the Author

Leonard Chepel was born in Ukraine; marine biologist-ichthyologist; PhD. Took part in research voyages throughout Arctic and Atlantic Ocean from Greenland-Labrador to Antarctica. Served an Executive Secretary of Northwest Atlantic Fisheries Organization (NAFO) in Halifax, NS, Canada, 1991-2002. Published professional articles & books in English and Russian