More than two thousand ships have been lost along California's 840 miles of coastline--Spanish galleons, passenger liners, freighters, schooners. Some tragedies are marking points in U.S. maritime history. The City of Rio de Janeiro," bound from Hong Kong to San Francisco in 1901, sliced the fog only to strike a rock and sink in twenty minutes, sending 128 passengers to watery graves. Seven U.S. Navy destroyers, bound on a fateful 1923 night from San Francisco to San Diego, crashed into the rocks at Honda Point on the treacherous Santa Barbara County coast, killing 23 sailors in one of the military's worst peacetime losses. Join author Michael D. White as he navigates the shoals of shipping mishaps with both salvage stories and elegies to the departed." Michael D. White is the author of three non-fiction books and more than nine hundred articles on international transportation and trade. He has studied international business in Japan and has traveled extensively in Asia. His editorial posts have ranged from reporter to managing editor for publications including Pacific Shipper, Brandon's Shipper & Forwarder, Traffic World, Los Angeles Business Journal, International Business Magazine, Pacific Traffic and Los Angeles Daily Commercial News & Shipping Guide.