"Here's a small press book that sets out to revitalize the history of Canada's Great Lakes steamships, and is wonderfully successful…Exhaustively researched, the book sets new standards for works on Great Lakes shipwrecks." — Ken McGoogan

At 4 a.m. on Saturday, 22 November 1879, the 135-foot freight and passenger steamer Waubuno left Collingwood, Ontario, on her last run of the season to Parry Sound on eastern Georgian Bay. Engulfed by a snowstorm, she never arrived. Not a single body was recovered. There was never a government enquiry, despite widespread calls for one.

The steamer's loss is a dramatic mystery, and more: a tale of politics and influence, of regulatory failures, of Great Lakes storms, shipwrecks, and navigation hazards, and of a widow's determination to hold a vessel's owners accountable for the loss of her husband. The full story of this nautical disaster — and of the disasters that immediately followed, involving the same ship owners —is told by one of Canada's most accomplished authors, after sixteen years of research in archives and on the waters in which the Waubuno was lost.

For anyone interested in not only the mystery of the Waubuno but also the history of Great Lakes shipping and other losses like the Simcoe and Asia, Frightful Disaster! is a must read. As well, the effort of Emma Fisher to hold the Waubuno's owner's accountable for the loss of her husband, Parry Sound North Star publisher and editor Baptist Noel Fisher, resulted in two sensational trials — now forgotten — involving some of the finest lawyers of the time. Frightful Disaster! reveals perjury, witness theft, evidence tampering, unrecognized allegiances between witnesses and defendants, and even political debts of the presiding judge.

Frightful Disaster! is extensively illustrated with more than 100 archival images, photos, and original maps by the author. The book is designed by the author, who has enjoyed a longstanding career in graphic design and illustration and has previously packaged his own books for leading publishers, including Penguin Canada and W.W. Norton.