Amid the turmoil of the dying days of the Second World War, a series of ships were sunk in the Baltic.

These terrible disasters add up to be the greatest loss of life ever recorded at sea, but the stories of these ships have been lost from view. While everyone recognises the name Titanic, the names Cap Arcona, Goya, General von Steuben and Thielbek draw little more than blank stares.

Claes-Göran Wetterholm brings the horror of these tragic events to life in this gripping study, first published in Swedish, as he collates the unknown stories of four major shipping disasters, the most terrible in history. Combining archive research with interviews with survivors and the relatives of those who died, Wetterholm vividly conveys his experiences of meeting many witnesses to a forgotten and horrifying piece of history.

CLAES-GÖRAN WETTERHOLM is the author of several books in Swedish on Titanic, Lusitania and even Lord Nelson, as well as Dödens Hav – ‘Sea of Death’ and countless articles. He is co-curator of the ‘Titanic Stories’ exhibition currently showing at the National Maritime Museum Cornwall, and has appeared on numerous television programmes as an authority on shipwrecks and the Baltic. He lives in Stockholm.