After seven years of research, shipwreck hunter Jennifer N. Sellitti has delivered the first and definitive account of the sinking of Le Lyonnais and the hunt for Jonathan Durham.

The American sailing vessel Adriatic collided with the French steamship Le Lyonnais on November 2, 1856, off the coast of Nantucket, in what can best be described as a high-seas hit-and-run. Adriatic’s captain, Jonathan Durham, rendered no aid and left the steamship to fend for herself. In total, 114 people died in the collision and in the days that followed.

Durham did not count on a hero, French sailor Jean-Marie-Louis Choupault, who helped 18 Lyonnais passengers and crew adrift on a small lifeboat in the brutal North Atlantic. Durham fled to France to escape scrutiny. There, the authorities seized his ship as damages, but his adventures were not over. News of his daring escapades made Durham a celebrity in America. The Civil War ended further inquiry into what became known in diplomatic circles as “the Adriatic affair,” and the victims of the disaster never received justice.