Dont Give Up the Ship: Finding My
Father While Lost at Sea by Neil
Steinberg
A Good Read For Good Readers
For as long as he could remember, Neil Steinberg had heard his father
Bob talk obsessively about his season at sea in the mid-1950s as radio
operator aboard the Empire State, the gleaming training ship of the New
York State Maritime College. The rocky crossing from New York harbor to
Bermuda, and then on to Spain, Greece, and France; the run-ins with
drunken shipmates; the shock of death at sea–Neil knew it all by heart.
Now, forty-five years later, Bob and Neil, father and son, are set to embark
on that same voyage together aboard the Empire State II.
And Neil is scared as hell. Scared of shipwreck, disaster at sea, terror,
humiliation, and his father. But scared, above all, of the prospect of a
month at sea with a man he has never understood.

In Don’t Give Up the Ship, Neil Steinberg has written a courageous,
gripping, and honest memoir of an unforgettable voyage–and an
unbelievably fraught relationship. This is not a hugs-and-high-fives tale
scripted by Hollywood. In fact, these two men have never spent three days
together without an explosion. But underneath the bitterness and
disappointment, there has always been something deeper, a bond neither
could ever talk about or name. To Neil, facing down the demons of middle
age, this trip is his best chance, maybe his only chance, to find the father
he never knew and be the son he was never able to be.
A dual memoir about their lives together and apart, Don’t Give Up the Ship
helps Neil to finally understand what his dad went through nearly half a
century ago as a handsome nineteen year old kid living in the Bronx of the
1940s, in flight from his own oppressive father, in search of adventure,
determined to see the world, fall in love, and make something of himself.
Steinberg is too truthful a writer for the easy epiphany or the pat
reconciliation. But at the end, after the landing in Naples and the quick
overland trip through Italy, father and son do arrive at an understanding
that changes both their lives. Don’t Give Up the Ship is not only a ripping
good story of men and the sea, it is also a brave, frank, and unflinchingly
real exploration of the nature of family love and the possibility of adventure.
Personal Review: Dont Give Up the Ship: Finding My Father
While Lost at Sea by Neil Steinberg
Neil Steinberg's "Don't Give Up the Ship" is a good read, but not an easy
one. If you are looking for a book which revels in syrupy emotionalism and
demands little from the reader, then this is not the book. But, if you want
an open and honest accounting of of an emotional journey, then this is
your book. As usual for Steinberg, the book uses clear language to make
its points. This isn't one of those books where you aren't sure what the
author was trying to say. What I valued in the book was how Steinberg
reflected on his relationship with his Dad and came away knowing more
not just about himself, but also about life in general. The story about
Steinberg and his father retracing his Dad's journey to Europe on a ship is
far more than a travelogue. It's a journey into better understanding the
human condition. Well worth reading!
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